Question 2 USB HDDs not showing up

[Reven]

Hi,

I have 2 USB 3.0 HDDs that aren't getting recognized on "my computer".

The HDD lights tick on and I can hear moving so I know it has power. I get a pop up from 'safely remove hardware' but it shows up as unknown device, if anything at all.

When I go to disk management:

1) For one, it basically crashes. It never loads but if the USB HDD is unplugged it loads in a sec
2) The other does show up with a "healthy" partition

I know the USB port works fine with other devices so it must be the hard drives.

What would you recommend?

 

[aigomorla]

Try the hard drives in another PC / Laptop.

It could be a mapping error.
If it works in the other PC, then its most likely a mapping error.
If the other PC is having the same exact issue, then your drive may be dead.

You can try this to start debuging what might be wrong.

 

[Reven]

Disk management didn't crash on my desktop, but otherwise the same.

 

[aigomorla]

i think you may have dead Hard drives then.....

 

[VirtualLarry]

Tried a powered USB3.0 hub? One with a decent actual wall-brick PSU, at least 20W or so? If already tried (lack of power to fully initialize and spin-up can be a problem with portable external HDDs), then agreed, the drive(s) may be dead or dying.

 

[Reven]

I don't have any power hubs, I'll see if someone at work does. I did plug the drives into my motherboard IO panel USB port, so would hope that would be enough power?

If they're trashed, any way I could at least restore the data and switch it over?

Edit: I tried using the USB connector from one of my working drives on a different USB port on my desktop. That seemed to help.

For 1 drive: it does pop up on my computer, but I am unable to access it (i.e.it says "local disk H" but without any storage notes. the finder bar takes a minute to actually "load"). When I tried a 2nd time it wouldn't even pop up there. Disk management fails to load too.
For 2 drive: doesn't load on my computer, but when I check disk management I see an "unitialized" disk

https://imgur.com/a/YErQ6nV

 

[aigomorla]

if your not worried about an RMA you could try to take the drive apart to its core, and then see if you can physically mount it in a sata port on your PC.

But you will lose any and all future RMA ability from the drive ethically speaking. Also high chance you will damage the shell .

 

[Charlie98]

What kind of drive is it? Are they 'portable' or the ones that require a power cord/transformer?

Interesting you are having a problem loading disk management... I am having the same problem with my updated AMD build, along with some other issues. If you give it some time (...5 mintues...) it might finally populate, that's what mine is doing. I believe mine problem is traced to my scratch SSD, for some reason, but I had my hands full trying to get it to recognize my Seagate USB 3.0 portables, too... but that may have been because of the delays in finding or recognizing the drives (disk management.)

 

[Reven]

@Charlie, they're standard USB 3.0 HDDs. Portable with no power cord. I forget the brand, WD I think?

I'm having this issue on both my PCs, an old Surface Pro 4 and my desktop (also a Ryzen build). I'm traveling for work now but can wait and see if disk manager populates after 5 mins.