What's wrong with this picture?

Metalhead Fred

I have recently found an unused 1TB Seagate External HDD which has been taken out of its enclosure:





and I have connected it to my laptop via a SATA to USB cable I got off ebay (http://www.ebay.ie/itm/BLACK-2-5-SATA-to-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/401260371171?hash=item5d6cfb5ce3:g:xJgAAOSwwNVTtBlY)




...and the drive isn't showing up on my operating system. It's not even spinning. The red led on the SATA to USB connection lights up when connected to my laptop, but there doesn't seem to be any power going to the external HDD. The HDD has never been used, so I have no reason to suspect it is faulty.

Is there something super obvious here that I'm missing?

I'm running windows 7. Would appreciate any help.

mordeith

Metalhead Fred wrote: »

I have recently found an unused 1TB Seagate External HDD which has been taken out of its enclosure:





and I have connected it to my laptop via a SATA to USB cable I got off ebay (http://www.ebay.ie/itm/BLACK-2-5-SATA-to-USB-HARD-DRIVE-CADDY-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/401260371171?hash=item5d6cfb5ce3:g:xJgAAOSwwNVTtBlY)








...and the drive isn't showing up on my operating system. It's not even spinning. The red led on the SATA to USB connection lights up when connected to my laptop, but there doesn't seem to be any power going to the external HDD. The HDD has never been used, so I have no reason to suspect it is faulty.

Is there something super obvious here that I'm missing?

I'm running windows 7. Would appreciate any help.

I can't access the pics on my phone but was the drive originally powered externally? It's possible it's not getting enough power from USB alone.

jhud

I also agree with mordeith.
Pictures not displaying on computer either.

Also suggest if no external power is provided you may need to just as mordeith above stated.

Spear

The images are all 404, no-one can see them.

bonzodog2

The enclosure you linked to should have a 'Y' USB cable, with 2 plugs on one end.They both need to be plugged in.If you have more than 2 USB sockets on the PC, try different combinations.

ED E

Metalhead Fred wrote: »

I have recently found an unused 1TB Seagate External HDD which has been taken out of its enclosure:





Same image....










Those are all ephemeral.

Fixed your mess.

Pro Tip: Use Imgur.

Metalhead Fred

Oh man I spent over 35 mins last night uploading those pics and re-sizing them, they worked fine on the post preview =/

Yes, the drive was originally powered externally and yes, it's a y-cable thing that I'm using. I plugged both usb-ends into ports on my laptop but still nothing...

Are Am Eye

There's another usb port on the enclosure - that was where the power for the drive was previously coming from I take it. You have no usb going into your drive at the moment.

Metalhead Fred

Are Am Eye wrote: »

There's another usb port on the enclosure - that was where the power for the drive was previously coming from I take it. You have no usb going into your drive at the moment.

Yep, that's exactly my problem right there. How would one go about getting power to this drive?

Are Am Eye

Metalhead Fred wrote: »

Yep, that's exactly my problem right there. How would one go about getting power to this drive?

Something like this which provides a sata power and data connector.


Sorry....I see that's the one you were actually using. Either it or the drive itself are faulty. Can you test them. If you have another sata drive test it on the cable you have. And if you can connect your drive to a spare sata line on yours or another laptop - to confirm if it is faulty.

Metalhead Fred

The sata to usb LED lights up when connected to my laptop, so that should indicate that it's working....




This is the way it's supposed to be plugged in, yeah?
Should the drive just appear in the COMPUTER window along with the internal drives, or do I need to enable something first?

I have tried another hdd taken from another laptop, and that's not working either...

Both the drive and usb-sata connector are brand new, so they should work fine....

Thanks to ED E for the Imgur suggestion.

Are Am Eye

Metalhead Fred wrote: »

Should the drive just appear in the COMPUTER window along with the internal drives, or do I need to enable something first?

You said the drive wasn't spinning. The issue is with the drive getting power and until it does there is no chance of the os mounting it.

I have tried another hdd taken from another laptop, and that's not working either...

Very good. That shows the cable is the issue.

Both the drive and usb-sata connector are brand new, so they should work fine....

Alas brand new components can be faulty.

Communicate with your vendor. They are free to test it. They must replace or refund.

10-10-20

Two things:

1. If my memory serves me correctly and that drive is from 2008/2009, then that's a notoriously unstable drive. It has the potential to have endless bad sectors and it seems to particularly like corrupting the boot sectors. Please update the firmware on the disk and then check the SMART data to see if it's pre-fail or even just a border-line pre-fail.
2. As you'll notice from the photo, it needs 12v as well as 5v. USB adapters don't normally supply 12v, so you should try an externally powered enclosure instead.

Hope it helps!

Metalhead Fred

10-10-20 wrote: »

so you should try an externally powered enclosure instead.

See, that's exactly what I thought what I was buying on ebay!

I am still clueless as to what I need to power this. Is it something to do with the 4 pins on the left in this photo? Because the connector I have doesn't plug in there?

ZENER

The 7-pin connector in the middle is the SATA interface for the drive, the larger connector is for power. The 4 Pin connector is usually a temperature sensor connection that some systems can utilise.

You need +12VDC and +5VDC to power that drive. As said above, USB provides only 5VDC.

Something like this would do it :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/SATA-Cables/Bipra-SATA-Adapter-Power-Drive/B001A5SK56

If you intend to keep the drive then maybe a proper enclosure would be better ? Like this :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CiT-3-5-USB-3-0-SATA-Aluminium-HDD-Enclosure-Caddy-Black/401035162248

Ken

board_stiff

Looks like you have it plugged in incorrectly. The end of the cable with one USB plug should go into the HDD. The other end of the cable, with 2 plugs should both go into your pc. That's what has worked for me in the past.

ZENER

board_stiff wrote: »

Looks like you have it plugged in incorrectly. The end of the cable with one USB plug should go into the HDD. The other end of the cable, with 2 plugs should both go into your pc. That's what has worked for me in the past.

That works for certain 2.5" drives which require a bit more current than one USB port can supply. 3.5" Drives need a +12VDC rail which you won't get from a USB socket.

Ken

board_stiff

ZENER wrote: »

That works for certain 2.5" drives which require a bit more current than one USB port can supply. 3.5" Drives need a +12VDC rail which you won't get from a USB socket.

Ken

You are right indeed. It was a 2.5" drive that I had success with using the method I described.

Gyck

That looks like a 3.5" drive. As has been noted by other posters, it's probably not getting enough power from USB. I'd look at an externally powered enclosure or dock, something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/TeckNet-Docking-Including-External-Tool-Free/dp/B00IS7Y96I/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1499327967&sr=8-5&keywords=3.5

Metalhead Fred

ZENER wrote: »

If you intend to keep the drive then maybe a proper enclosure would be better ? Like this :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CiT-3-5-USB-3-0-SATA-Aluminium-HDD-Enclosure-Caddy-Black/401035162248
Ken

So just an update, I bought this enclosure and the good news is that there is power going to the drive and it's showing up under My Computer!

The bad news is that I can't seem to format it. This is what it looks like (the drive is F: ) in the COMPUTER window:




And if I right click the icon, the computer window goes non-responsive:



Upon initial plug in, the driver seemed to install ok and there is nothing out of the ordinary in Device Manager. I have plugged a different 500gb drive into this new enclosure, and it's working fine, so the problem is not the enclosure.

I'm currently using command prompt to format the drive. Could take a while, I'll let you know how I get on and if anybody has an easier solution, I'd like to hear it!

Cheers

bonzodog2

I'd do it from Disk Management. Right click Computer,choose Manage. Select DM in the left pane. In DM, remove all partitions and create a new one, then format

Metalhead Fred

"Disk Management"... That's what I was looking for! It's been a few years since I've been messing about with computers...

Em... the formatting in command prompt was going nowhere, stuck at 0% so I exited and now the drive isn't showing up in Computer anymore.... or Disk Management.


EDIT: I turned the drive off and on and it's showing up in Computer again, and it has just been successfully formatted!!!

Thanks a lot to everybody for your help