External Hardrive not compatible with Vista

[l00pylou]

Hey folks

I have an external hardrive which is the back-up of a dead machine. I have managed to crack the windows security by resetting the security permissions as was denied - however, when the drive is plugged in (via USB) to a Vista machine (yeuch) it is showing as empty.

When plugged into an XP machine it loads as an internal drive - not an external device

How can I view the data on the Vista machine?

[hughv]

"When plugged into an XP machine it loads as an internal drive - not an external device"
That's not possible, so you're misunderstanding something. What makes you think this is so?
The easiest way might be to connect this drive to the XP machine, share it, then open it on the Vista machine.

[l00pylou]

When I plug in the USB external drive, it runs through a loading/installation process.

I have had this with a device before that has come from another machine and still has all the system folders on it.

The Vista machine is a standalone so there are no other machines to network it with and the idea is that the drive is the external storage for the vista machine

[hughv]

"Loading/installation? Are you sure that's not just the Autorun feature?
Right-click this drive in My Computer and select "Explore".
You mentioned an XP machine, so I assumed you had two computers available.
You can try exploring from disk management as well.