Vista - hard drive installation kit help

i bought a kit for an old hard drive. i got it to work once ealier today, and now it doesn't work. when i plug it into the usb, it will not successfully install. the kit is a rocketfish hd 35, the hard drive is seagate u8 model st313021a. the "remove hardware" icon appears in the tray, but no designated lettered drive appears on the computer. can anyone help?

the hard drive was part of an older tower that i couldn't get to boot. it's strange because just today i accessed the hard drive and located old pictures, music and other files that i hadn't seen in a few years. had i known this would have happened i would have started saving right away. i thought i had it working. can anyone help? has anyone had similar problems?

You have to format it and then assign a drive letter to it in the Vista manage utility

You can try just assigning a drive letter, but it may not read if corrupted, in that case you can try to repair the drive.

To access manage utility
start>in search bar type, com>click "computer management">click "continue"> click "disk management" right click external drive format, the change/assign drive letter.

To repair drive if it will not read after assigning drive letter:

Attach/turn on External drive, Elevate a (cmd) command Prompt, right click and run as Administrator:
see:http://www.vista4beginners.com/Check-Disk

Type:
e: (or whatever letter you assign)

copy/paste the following command and hit ENTER.
chkdsk /r

force a dismount so checkdisk can run [select yes](y)

ok, i'm going to try it. thanks for the advice. i let you know what happens. again, thanks!

well, the problem i'm having now is that vista will not install drivers for the kit. code 10. i don't know what the hell is going on. is there a another way to install the drivers?

The enclosure is supposedly vista compatable for usb plug and play. Many people report this same issue though.

This kit came with both a power cord (needs to be plugged in), and a driver CD.
"Includes USB cable, power adapter, foot stand, cleaning cloth, screwdriver, screw package, CD driver and manual "
Rocketfish™ - 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure - RF-HD35

Install the drivers for Vista off the disk, then run checkdisk/assign drive letter.