There are no drivers needed for the NexStar 3.5" enclosure. The NexStar 3.5" enclosure is plug and play compatible. That is, Windows XP/2000 will detect the unit without any additional drivers for both USB and Firewire. Only install the drivers if you are using Windows 98SE or Windows ME.

If you are using Windows XP or 2000 and are unable to get the hard drive to appear under My Computer, make sure the drive has been formatted and has a working partition. If you are unsure how to do this, please refer to Knowledgebase Article #10035, "How to format a new hard drive in WindowsXP/2000."

CAUTION: Doing the following will erase any existing data on the drive. If the drive is damaged and you wish to recover the data, continuing may overwrite the existing information!
For Windows 2000/XP, go to Control Panel and select Administrative Tools. From there, choose Computer Management. On the LEFT pane, select Disk Management. Windows should now give you the option to initialize the disk. Go through the Wizard. Once complete, locate your hard drive in the bottom right pane (it should say Unallocated). Right click on the area that says Unallocated and choose New Partition. Follow the directions of the Windows wizard. Once complete, you should now be able to see the drive in Windows Explorer.

For the NexStar 3.5" IDE series (NST-350U2, NST-350UF, NST-355U2, and NST-355UF), we recommend that the hard drive be set to MASTER or MASTER (SINGLE DRIVE).

For the NexStar 2.5" IDE series, there is no jumper setting required.

CB-ISATAU2 - JMicro JM20337
NST-250U2 - Myson CS8818
NST-360U2 - Myson CS8818
NST-350U2 - Pre-2006 - ALi M5621, 2006-Current - Cypress AT2LP
NST-350UF - Prolific PL-3507A
NST-355U2 - ALi M5621
NST-355UF - Prolific PL-3507C
NST-360U2 - Cypress AT2LP
NST-360UF - Initio IDIC-1530
NST-360SU - SunPlus SPIF215A
NST-370GX - Prolific PL-2507
NST-525U2 - ALi M5621
NST-525UF - Prolific PL-3507C

::Updated October 12th, 2004::

Yes. All versions of the NexStar External 3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure can function as a boot device, assuming your computer supports booting off a USB device. For the combo USB & Firewire units, you must connect the NexStar via the USB cable to boot off USB.

To use the NexStar as a boot device, make sure you have a bootable partition on the drive and an OS installed. If you do not, boot off your Windows CD and install an OS onto the drive. Windows' installer will be able to provide a drive letter for the USB drive.

Please note, due to certain hardware and software limitations of Windows versions based on the NT system (Windows NT/2000/XP), it is not possible to boot Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP off a USB drive. This is partially caused by Windows reinitializing the USB bus during the boot up, essentially disconnecting the USB device and causing Windows to crash. Windows 98/ME are the only versions that will support booting off USB.

To troubleshoot the NST-250U2 or NST-260U2, please try the following: -Make sure the drive is unjumpered. There should be 4 pins to the right of the main IDE connector on your laptop drive that are all free. -Connect both USB connectors to different USB ports. Use rear, motherboard mounted USB ports if possible. This is to make sure the enclosure is receiving enough power to spin the drive. The proper procedure would be to connect both USB connectors to your computer before connecting the USB cable to the enclosure. -If the enclosure is connected properly, it should appear in device manager as a USB Mass Storage Device. It will be listed under Universal Serial Bus Controllers.

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Error messages:

"HI-SPEED USB device plugged into non-HI-SPEED USB port"
-or-
"HI-SPEED USB device plugged into non-HI-SPEED USB hub"

If you only have USB 1.1 ports in your system or a USB 1.1 hub and are trying to use a USB 2.0 device, Windows will give you that message. This does NOT mean the device is defective. Rather, it is a "warning" that the device will not operate at USB 2.0 speeds. Just because a device supports USB 2.0 does not mean it will upgrade your existing USB 1.1 port to USB 2.0. You will need to add a USB 2.0 PCI card to your system, a USB 2.0 Cardbus (if you are using a laptop), and/or a USB 2.0 hub if you wish to use USB 2.0 speeds.

No, the NexStar External 3.5" Enclosure cannot be used as a boot device with a computer using Mac OS.

While the SATA EZ-Swap (MRK-200ST-BK) and EZ-Swap 2 (MRK-300ST-BK) provide an easy mechanism to hot swap hard drives, they do not provide hot swap capabilities to computers. Hot swap ability is largely dependent on the SATA controller and the operating system. Some controllers and operating systems are more hot swap friendly than others. If the operating system crashes or the drive\'s icon remains after the drive has been removed, or the drive is not visible when inserted, it is likely an issue with your SATA controller or your operating system. If these problems occur, try these possible solutions: Within the drive\'s properties, disable write caching or optimize for quick removal. If the drive appears within the safely remove hardware area, safely remove the drive before disconnecting. Try uninstalling the drive within device manager before disconnecting. We have found that the Silicon Image SATA chipset and Windows XP to be the most hot swap compatible. Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 seem to have more trouble with hot swapping.

Sometimes, especially with aluminum cases, case fans can vibrate, causing a buzzing noise. This can be due to flaws on the aluminum case or the case fan itself (the fan is unable to sit flush on the case). To stop the vibration, and subsequently the buzzing noise, use the Vantec Vibration Dampener Kit. The Vibration Dampener is a silica gel that surrounds the edges of the fan, thereby absorbing the vibration. The Vibration Dampener Kit is available for 60mm, 80mm, 92mm, and 120mm fans, as well as for power supplies.