Question HDD letter not being read

[Artisanico]

When I connected up my old IDE HDD the PC could see that there was a storage device there but couldn't read the drive letter. I can see only one possible reason: the drive is getting on twenty years old. I can't afford to take it to a lab; is there any hope for this? TIA.

 

[USAFRet]

When I connected up my old IDE HDD the PC could see that there was a storage device there but couldn't read the drive letter. I can see only one possible reason: the drive is getting on twenty years old. I can't afford to take it to a lab; is there any hope for this? TIA.

How, exactly, are you connecting this to your current PC?

 

[stonecarver]

When I connected up my old IDE HDD the PC could see that there was a storage device there but couldn't read the drive letter.

Extremely common dragging and old IDE drive out and current windows looses the drive letter.

If the drive shows up in Disk Management and if it shows no drive letter just right click and assign it one. Drive will than be accessible.

All your doing is giving the drive a letter. DO NOT DO ANY FORMATING.