HDD on caddy does not work

amalsk · 28 Jun 2019

Hello guys. I really need your help. Using a Windows 7 Home basic.
I bought a HDD Caddy around 3 days back and installed it into my laptop with a brand new 500 GB HDD and it worked after I installed it’s drivers and did a format of NTFS and did also transfer a few files to it from my Internal Laptop HDD to this new one and it worked flawlessly.
Just yesterday, I noticed that when I open Computer, it says Local Disk F(for my new HDD on the caddy) and does not open up. The space indicator showing ‘X out of X GB is free’ is also missing. When I double-click the Local Disk F, it really is slow and shows a progress bar which also moves very slow. The thing is it doesn’t open up and my computer literally freezes for a few seconds to a minute. When I open up the disk management from Computer>Manage, it doesn’t even load the disk management and show any of my installed HDDs. It just freezes. The thing is that it used to work perfectly fine until the last day and now all of a sudden this happens. Now, when I keep the HDD in caddy and restart the PC, it gets detected in BIOS and in the boot menu, and it will say Windows is loading, but after that the screen is blank. It won’t load the password screen. If I remove the caddy, it shows the password screen on restart.
What could be the issue? Any help would be definitely appreciated.
Thank You!

Megahertz07 · 28 Jun 2019

I would say that your laptop is trying to boot from the HDD on the caddy.
Make sure that the HDD with Windows is the first on the boot priority list on BIOS.

I have a old laptop that I replaced the ODD with a SSD (128G) on a caddy. Works great.

cornemuse · 28 Jun 2019

I have had similar issues with different 'caddies'. Had to do with power. Diff hdd's draw varying currents, diff usb cases also draw diff currents. Some of mine work on any machine, some need additional (5v) power. And, yes some worked the 1st time & then needed that extra power. Some have a 5v power socket just for this, some use a 'split' usb cable with data into comp usb plug & power only usb plug into comp. 'Flair, WD, Sandisk, (these being intended for use as internal use) ssd's actually draw 1.5 amps! but only when accessing data. WD 2½" hdd's draw .55 amps, Hitachi = .8a, Fujitsu = .6a. (Just looked!). Plus the power draw from case.
Maybe this is your issue?

-c-

amalsk · 28 Jun 2019

Megahertz07 said:

I would say that your laptop is trying to boot from the HDD on the caddy.
Make sure that the HDD with Windows is the first on the boot priority list on BIOS.

I have a old laptop that I replaced the ODD with a SSD (128G) on a caddy. Works great.

If what you were saying is right, would it even show starting windows and the logo of Windows loading? I've tried that so many times, i.e. setting the boot from my primary HDD but it will not load, unless I remove the caddy from the laptop.

amalsk · 28 Jun 2019

cornemuse said:

I have had similar issues with different 'caddies'. Had to do with power. Diff hdd's draw varying currents, diff usb cases also draw diff currents. Some of mine work on any machine, some need additional (5v) power. And, yes some worked the 1st time & then needed that extra power. Some have a 5v power socket just for this, some use a 'split' usb cable with data into comp usb plug & power only usb plug into comp. 'Flair, WD, Sandisk, (these being intended for use as internal use) ssd's actually draw 1.5 amps! but only when accessing data. WD 2½" hdd's draw .55 amps, Hitachi = .8a, Fujitsu = .6a. (Just looked!). Plus the power draw from case.
Maybe this is your issue?

-c-

So basically I need to supply that extra energy which is needed for the caddy to run? How do I provide that? What do I do? So there's no possible way my laptop is going to support the HDD on the caddy?

cornemuse · 30 Jun 2019

The 'data + 2 power' cables work as "each individual usb socket on computer can draw only so much power. The second 'power only' plug draws power only from a separate usb socket. This gives power necessary without overdrawing power from any one usb port."

What Are the Differences Between the Two USB Plugs on an External Hard Drive? | Synonym

Why Two Plugs

Hard drives sometimes need more power than they can draw from your computer using a single USB cable. In this case, the hard drive typically comes with a USB cable that has a standard connection on one end and a Y-shaped split cable on the other, each ending in a USB connection. Power flows through the main section of the Y-cable along with data. The second connection is solely for power, not for use transferring data.

External hard drives offer you the flexibility to back up your files to free up space on your computer or to save a mirror image in case your computer crashes. Some must be plugged into a wall electrical outlet for power, but others can draw power from the computer using USB cables. If your hard drive's cable has two USB plugs on one end, it means the drive doesn't need a wall outlet to work.

*******************

Some usb hdd cases have a (?) 3mm female socket to accept a (?) 3mm 5v plug on a "wall wart" power supply

Make sense??

edit I re-read your 1st post. All stuff here is for 2½" hdd's. If you have a usb 3½" hdd, you would definitely need external power (12v) to the usb case

Megahertz07 · 30 Jun 2019

Amalsk,
Something is wrong with the new HDD or the caddy.

- Try to take out the new HDD+caddy, remove the HDD and replace with the original HDD and boot from it. If everything works, the problem can be on the new HDD.
- Put the new HDD on the original HDD compartment. Boot from the original HDD on the caddy.

Report