I know this a 3d printing forum, but I could not find an arfcom forum for my issue.  I came to this forum before and you solved my problem when no one else could.

The mother board on my computer died.  I do not have the skills to replace it and so ordered a new refurbished computer.  I bought a docking station to access the old HD but could not get it to work.  I have now tried a HD adapter and still no luck.  I tried this on two machines and there isn't even a letter showing a drive is there.  Shouldn't I have to do something to the old HD to tell it is not the main HD, but is now an external HD?

The better arfcom forum for that question would be this one:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/Urban-Commandos/124/


(And, typically you should be able to take the 'primary' hard drive from one computer and, using an adapter, connect it as a non-primary drive to a different computer, without having to do anything special other than hooking it up.)

When you power up the HDD, can you feel it spin up?

Your adapter could be the problem you may need a externally powered adapter.  What model hard drive I had this problem?

something like this but for your specific drive.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LCFQ9C3/

Long story short, take it to a decently knowledgeable IT guy.

In many cases you can't just unplug a hard drive from a computer and pop it in an external reader an pull the data off them any more. GPT, and encryption can make it a bit of a pain even for the seasoned IT guy.

And that is assuming the motherboard didn't take the drive with it, which is not all that uncommon.

Thanks, one and all.  This hard drive worked fine in another older desk top computer.  I can hear it spinning in both adapters.  The two adapters I have are both externally powered.  It is not worth it to me to pay someone to fix it.  It is apparently defective now anyway.  I get the same result with an older new in wrapper HD I was going to put in my laptop.  Oh well I learned something.

Thanks again!