hdd external enclosure problem

[BOLt]

Hey all. My friend bought a KINGWIN TL-35CS Aluminum alloy 3.5" USB2.0 and SATA combo Black External Enclosure to house the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB SATA HDD that he bought from me as extra storage for his laptop. We've installed the hard drive into the enclosure and attached all necessary cords (externally, USB, Power; internally, SATA connection and power). We've tried to use it on his laptop and on my computer. Neither of the computers display the hard drive in the my computer window or on the desktop for the Mac. However, both computers notice that some USB device is connected. the device manager in windows reports no problems but only identifies the disk as a generic USB device.

the drive was not formatted before inserting into the enclosure (oops). but we're trying to format it now and it's not recognizing it. i've tried taking it out of the enclosure and connecting it to my pc with just the sata connection and power. my computer does not see the drive anymore! the drive is not dead because it does spin and get hot after being plugged in. it just does not show up as an accessable disk in either of the operating systems.

help!

 

[quackerww]

Ummm, seems like you tyred everything you could.
Have you tyred plugging it in when windows is on? And then going into manager and partitioning it?

 

[Nocturnal]

Have you checked to see if it exists in disk management?

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: BOLt
Hey all. My friend bought a KINGWIN TL-35CS Aluminum alloy 3.5" USB2.0 and SATA combo Black External Enclosure to house the Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB SATA HDD that he bought from me as extra storage for his laptop. We've installed the hard drive into the enclosure and attached all necessary cords (externally, USB, Power; internally, SATA connection and power). We've tried to use it on his laptop and on my computer. Neither of the computers display the hard drive in the my computer window or on the desktop for the Mac. However, both computers notice that some USB device is connected. the device manager in windows reports no problems but only identifies the disk as a generic USB device.

the drive was not formatted before inserting into the enclosure (oops). but we're trying to format it now and it's not recognizing it. i've tried taking it out of the enclosure and connecting it to my pc with just the sata connection and power. my computer does not see the drive anymore! the drive is not dead because it does spin and get hot after being plugged in. it just does not show up as an accessable disk in either of the operating systems.

help!

Things to try...
1. When you plug it into the SATA connector itself (internal to the puter), make sure it's been set to slave rather than master, and that the other HDD is set to a 2 drive configuration.
2. When using the USB connection, try removing it and plugging it into a different USB plug without rebooting. Sometimes XP takes a couple of tries for new USB devices...

 

[quackerww]

I thought sata did not matter if on slave or master..... Eh?

 

[Viditor]

Originally posted by: quackerww
I thought sata did not matter if on slave or master..... Eh?

Doh! You're right...
Try this then...in the bios, check to make sure that the original SATA is the one you're booting from (should be under HDD priority or some such). I've seen this change when a second SATA drive is added.
Also, some boards force SATA drives to be raided (even a single drive raid, which is too wierd for words).

 

[BOLt]

The Windows Device Manager reports that a USB device has been added and I am able to safely eject the hard drive, but the system still only recognizes it as a generic USB device.

Changing the USB port does not produce different results.

I will check to see if it somehow changed the boot priority, however I don't think this will solve the problem because I've tried plugging in the device while the computer was already on, so the operating system is already booted.

Raided SATA drives? I don't follow.

Thanks for comments/suggestions thus far. Your input is really appreciated, whether it works or not. I may just tell my friend to RMA the damn thing...

 

[Jeff H]

BOLt, I went through a similar process when I set up an external PATA drive for archiving. Try unplugging and plugging back in, which seems to allow XP to see the drive. Then you should be able to go into disk mgmt. and format it.

 

[BOLt]

I've tried. Nothing seems to work. I'll spend some more time on it today and report my success/failure.

 

[BOLt]

I've tried. Nothing seems to work. I'll spend some more time on it today and report my success/failure.

 

[BOLt]

So I tried. I got as far as the operating system reporting back that it was a USB disk drive. It also said that the hardware was now installed and ready to use (I didn't think that it would need to install anything since it is supposedly Plug & Play, but I'll go with anything at this point). However, it's still a no-show on the My Computer folder and Device Manager still only sees it as a generic USB device. Also, Windows Setup says that it "cannot access this disk" when listing the possible disk drives to install Windows on.

I believe the phrase that best describes my situation is SOL. Damn.

I'll have my friend RMA the enclosure. Thanks anyway guys.

 

[Java Cafe]

I am having an identical problem with a new Hitachi 2.5" HDD and and a USB / ATA external enclosure.

I am convinced that it is something about the hard drive that is the problem. Because both of the two enclosures I have, work with a 2.5" Western Digital HDD (that's a couple of months old) , but none works with the new Hitachi I got today.

I cannot remember if (and how) I formatted the drive before usage. So, I too am considering an RMA; but in my case, it will be the HDD.

Is there a need (and a way) to format the new HDD?

~ JC ~

 

[BOLt]

You always want to format a HDD before installing an OS or using it for storage when you get it new. If I had formatted my drive before installing it into the external enclosure I think I would not be having the problems that I am having now. I hope there is still a way to format the damn thing.

 

[BOLt]

 

[Java Cafe]

Well . . . how would I format it, if I don't connect it to the USB enclosure? Forgive me for being dense, but shouldn't I get a prompt or something, telling me that the drive is unformatted? I have a faint recollection that is what happened when I attached the Western Digital drive the last time.

I am confused now.

~ JC ~

 

[Java Cafe]

OK, I admit. It was my ignorance. All I needed to do was to format the HDD. Only, I wasn't able tp figure out how to do so.

So that someone in the future may be saved fromo the aggravation, all I needed to do was to use the Disk Management application that comes built in with Windows XP.

[Start > Run, type 'compmgmt.msc', click OK. In the console tree, click Disk Management. Right-click on the drive you want to format/partion.]

Cheers,

~ JC ~

 

[BOLt]

Glad this thread helped you out, Java Cafe.

My problem is/was still not solved, even after formatting. My friend just decided to not deal with the hassle and returned the enclosure. I got stuck with a spare hard drive, but whatever. Hopefully I'll be able to sell it or something.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions, guys. I guess you can't win them all.