We just purchased a new computer. It's operating system is Windows vista. The computer has a SATA hard drive, but we wanted to use our IDE hard drive from our old computer too. I could not find an internal adapter that was compatible with Vista, so I purchased a USB to SATA/IDE. I followed the setup directions; although everything is set up correctly, as far as I can tell, our IDE HD is unreadable. I can find the USB device in the device manager, but no information on the HD is available. The device is supposed to be driverless for Vista, the installation CD is for the One touch Backup option. We have 100 Gigs of data on our IDE HD that I do not want to lose during this process. How do I get this to work?

I assume the hard drive power was plugged in?
And it did not show up in Windows explorer, drive E: or something?

What is..
Computer brand and model
Adapter brand and model
Which version of Vista

Yes, it was plugged in. No, it did not show up in windows explorer. I could just find the USB device in device manager.

We have a Dell XPS 410
Vista Ultimate
Adapter: Generic "USB to SATA/IDE" Model #ADA-2020D

Thanks for your help.

Try it on another PC.
If it works there, you at least know the device and drive are good and it's something with your machine.
Dell sometimes does special configurations with it's OEM OS. Some things you could try if it works on another machine.
-Check USB settings in BIOS, legacy or auto (hit F? or DEL at boot)
-Turn off Windows and any other firewall or security software before connecting.
-Try a USB port on the back of the machine.
-Make sure the User Account you are logged into has Administrator privilages
-Jumper setting on the drive may need specific setting, usually master or cable select (change while powered off)

(I'm also assuming the old drive had another version of Windows on it and that it was not encrypted)

I hope that is helpful,
Good luck