Solved External USB HD not recognized between 2 computers

[metroid79]

Have Western Digital 3 TB HD
Using Plugable USB Toaster to connect
Have 2 computers with Windows 7. One old PC and one new one. Want to use drive to copy files from old to new.
Formatted 3 TB on my old computer and then plugged into toaster on new computer
Drive not recognized (not initialized)
Tried formatting on new PC and plugging into old PC. Same issue
Format NTFS
Tried various settings:
MBR, GPT
Tried splitting into two partitions
No luck with any combination of settings and techniques

How can I format the external HD in the toaster and then use it on either computer interchangeably?

Thank you for any advice

 

[jumanji]

Put some data on the 3TB HDD internally connected on the #1 PC and then internally connect it to #2PC. Can you read the data?

If yes, there is no problem with the HDD and your Plugable dock is faulty.

 

[metroid79]

Put some data on the 3TB HDD internally connected on the #1 PC and then internally connect it to #2PC. Can you read the data?

If yes, there is no problem with the HDD and your Plugable dock is faulty.

Thanks for your reply. I decided to try something else first. When I had the issue, I was using two different USB docks (they are both Plugable brand but one is older). One for each PC, and I was swapping the drive from dock to dock.

Based on your comment, I wondered if the docks might be the issue. So instead of swapping the drive into the other dock, I just unplugged the dock which I used to format the drive, and plugged it into the other computer. It worked! I don't understand why, but hey, the issue is fixed and now I can transfer files, so I'm happy!

Thanks for your help

 

[jumanji]

hmmm.............. you didn't give the full picture that you were using two docks one old and the other new. And you also gave the impression that you were formatting the drive internally connected. Anyhow glad that your problem is solved.

As far as the docks are concerned birds of the same feather (manufacturer) need not flock together .There are chances that your older dock may not be able to handle drives larger than 2TB. Please check the specifications of both the docks. If need be contact Plugable tech. support and find out.

If you use a larger than 2TB drive on a dock that cannot handle it, on exhausting the 2TB limit the data will wrap around and start writing from the beginning, overwriting the old data and you will lose that data.

Know your docks and use the docks as per their specifications.

 

[metroid79]

Sorry for the bit of confusion with my initial description of the issue. Anyway, I'm back since the issue is not resolved like I thought.

As mentioned in my last post, the drive was able to be recognized on both computers when using the same dock. However, that was when there was no data on the drive (guess I should have tested it further). I just added files to the drive from the old PC, and now on the new PC the drive is not recognized!

Again, the connection setup is: External USB dock (only one newer dock now) and connecting the USB plug to the old PC, then putting files on, then safely removing / ejecting the USB device from the old PC, and then plugging the USB plug into the new computer.

When the drive was empty it was recognized on both computers, but when data is added as described, it is not recognized on the other computer.

Unfortunately I cannot attach the drive internal on either computer because all drive bays are full and I don't want to go through the trouble of disconnecting things and fooling around in there.

I'll keep working on this...hope I can find some other solution or another method to transfer files. (I have a USB thumb drive that works but it's FAT32 and I might have files that are too large for that.)

 

[metroid79]

I'm starting to think I have a bad USB port on my new PC which may be corrupting files or something. Also a couple times it was as if the computer saw the USB drive and then did not and then did, repeatedly on/off within a few seconds.

I am connecting to a different USB port now and will see what happens.
Additionally I'm moving to a 1TB drive instead of a 3TB because I think that may be causing issues somehow (just a feeling)

Will update as I find out more

 

[metroid79]

1TB drive is working
And I'm also using a different USB port on the new computer as I think one or two are bad.

 

[jumanji]

You copied files from the old PC to the drive in the new dock. After copying the data to the drive, did you not check that the data has been copied alright in the old PC itself without plugging out the dock?

As a good practice, you should always copy data to another drive ( not move) and once the copying is over, check that all data has been copied alright and then only delete the data from the source drive.

Now plug in your new dock with the 3TB HDD to your old PC and post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management. Let us stick to your old PC and the new dock + 3TB drive in it.

You have to troubleshoot methodically, rather than doing things randomly.