Solved 2.5" HDD in external enclosure not detected

[gladson1976]

I have a 2.5" 120GB hard disk in an external enclosure (unbranded Chinese make).
This external disk is detected perfectly on both my laptops, but it is not detected in my desktop. There is no indication that it is present when I plug it in.
I have checked the USB port, which is working fine (my flash drives and external DVD drive work fine)
I have also tried connecting the HDD to all the USB ports in the desktop.

One more thing is that, this same HDD used to work fine on the desktop when it was in another (previous) enclosure (broken now)

Anyone have any idea's as to why this might be happening.

 

[Northernsoul55]

Hi,

It could be the circuitry in the enclosure that has failed, which is pretty common.

The test for this is to try the drive in another working enclosure or a desktop computer.

Another one is to try a shorter USB cable.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Dave

 

[gladson1976]

Hi,

It could be the circuitry in the enclosure that has failed, which is pretty common.

The test for this is to try the drive in another working enclosure or a desktop computer.

Another one is to try a shorter USB cable.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Dave

Hi Dave,

As I've already stated, this external enclosure works perfectly on both of my laptops. Its the desktop that has the problem.

 

[Northernsoul55]

Ooops...my bad.

Have you tried:

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165554-usb-driver-general-fix-problems.html

It could possibly be because your computer is automatically turning off the power to a USB Root Hub:

1. Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > and click on the "Device Manager" button.
2. In the Device Manager window, find the item/items labelled "Universal Serial Bus controllers."
3. Open it, and double-click the first item called "USB Root Hub."
4. In the USB Root Hub Properties dialog, click on the "Power Management" tab.
5. "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is checked by default. Uncheck this box, and click "OK."

Cheers

Dave

 

[jumanji]

Try a double-headed (Y) USB cable.

 

[gladson1976]

Ooops...my bad.

Have you tried:

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165554-usb-driver-general-fix-problems.html

It could possibly be because your computer is automatically turning off the power to a USB Root Hub:

1. Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware tab > and click on the "Device Manager" button.
2. In the Device Manager window, find the item/items labelled "Universal Serial Bus controllers."
3. Open it, and double-click the first item called "USB Root Hub."
4. In the USB Root Hub Properties dialog, click on the "Power Management" tab.
5. "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is checked by default. Uncheck this box, and click "OK."

Cheers

Dave

Dave,

Will check that out once I reach home.

Try a double-headed (Y) USB cable.

View attachment 282819

I already am using a Y cable for the HDD

 

[Britton30]

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\AutoPlay and check Restore Defaults, reboot and test. Reboot with the drive attached as well.

Obvious question, have you tried other USB ports?

 

[gladson1976]

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\AutoPlay and check Restore Defaults, reboot and test. Reboot with the drive attached as well.

Obvious question, have you tried other USB ports?

Gary,

I have already checked it on all the USB ports in the desktop.

Will check out the other suggestion when i get home.

 

[madcratebuilder]

If you plug a usb flash drive into these same usb ports does win explorer see it? If other boxes (2 laptops) see the ex hhd then it must be a configuration setting in the desk top OS.

 

[gladson1976]

If you plug a usb flash drive into these same usb ports does win explorer see it? If other boxes (2 laptops) see the ex hhd then it must be a configuration setting in the desk top OS.

Steven,

As I said,

I have checked the USB port, which is working fine (my flash drives and external DVD drive work fine)

 

[jumanji]

Would you be willing to do a drive clean up?

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...-recognised-not-drive-letter.html#post2477076 (Remove all USB drives before doing the drive cleanup. After the drive cleanup, reboot your PC and then plug-in your drives one by one. The necessary drivers will get installed ab-initio. Check whether the necessary driver gets installed when you plugin the problem drive.)

Let us do whatever we can and anyhow it is a good practice that will do no harm.

 

[gladson1976]

Tried every response, but no luck. The HDD isn't detected on my desktop.

Guess something is screwed up in the installation. Will try a fresh install of W7 and check it.

 

[jumanji]

Would you be willing to do a drive clean up?

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...-recognised-not-drive-letter.html#post2477076 (Remove all USB drives before doing the drive cleanup. After the drive cleanup, reboot your PC and then plug-in your drives one by one. The necessary drivers will get installed ab-initio. Check whether the necessary driver gets installed when you plugin the problem drive.)

Let us do whatever we can and anyhow it is a good practice that will do no harm.

If you had performed the drive cleanup as aforesaid, after rebooting and plugging in your USB devices, for each device you can see a fresh driver installation.

When you plugged in this problem drive, did it install the necessary driver or did it remain dumb as if nothing happened?

 

[gladson1976]

Would you be willing to do a drive clean up?

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...-recognised-not-drive-letter.html#post2477076 (Remove all USB drives before doing the drive cleanup. After the drive cleanup, reboot your PC and then plug-in your drives one by one. The necessary drivers will get installed ab-initio. Check whether the necessary driver gets installed when you plugin the problem drive.)

Let us do whatever we can and anyhow it is a good practice that will do no harm.

If you had performed the drive cleanup as aforesaid, after rebooting and plugging in your USB devices, for each device you can see a fresh driver installation.

When you plugged in this problem drive, did it install the necessary driver or did it remain dumb as if nothing happened?

The drivers were installed for the other devices but nothing happened for this drive . Only the power light comes on as usual, but nothing else after that.
The funny thing is that, this drive works perfectly on my other two laptops.

 

[DocBrown]

I have bought several of the cheap chinese ext enclosures over the years. Some work fine on some computers & not on others. Since then I have had better luck with ext HD dock units (Brand Name & some from China). I think they all depend on the quality of the circuit boards in the units. Looks like it is just Trial & Error Testing

 

[jumanji]

Yep, it is difficult to explain technically. May be as Doc Brown says we have to accept it as a fact without trying to reason out - which we have failed to so far.

I do not think reinstalling Windows will help. If you want to do it, take an image of the present system, make sure you can restore with a bootable CD or pen drive.

If a fresh clean install does not resolve the problem, you can restore your system back with it.

 

[gladson1976]

Thanks for all the help Jumanji and Doc. I was planning on doing a fresh install after taking an image, but changed my mind. I can live without accessing the disk on my desktop since its accessible on my laptops