[SOLVED] 3.5 HDD not appearing on laptop

[touvaj10]

Im using a 3.5hdd 3TB with a adapter connecting it to my laptop but it doesn't seem to be appearing on my system as a storage device. I've tried using the create partition option within windows and that also does not work. I'm thinking the hard drive may not be working correctly, but the issue is this hard drive is new and has never been used. It also makes some clicking noise, here is the link to the sound i've recorded https://vocaroo.com/i/s0yudHRrAujJ.

 

[Solandri]

3.5" HDDs generally require external power. They use 5V to power their electronics, and 12V to power the spindle motor. If you're giving a 3.5" HDD 5V but not 12V, that's the kind of sound it'll make. It's the spindle motor trying to start, and failing because it doesn't have enough power.

The HDD adapter should have come with something to allow you to plug it into a wall socket. That will provide it with 12V power so the drive can spin up. USB only delivers 5V so is insufficient to power a 3.5" HDD (unless the manufacture was very ambitious and included a 5V to 12V DC transformer in their design, in which case you need to use a cable which plugs into 2 or more USB ports).

2.5" HDDs use 5V for both the electronics and spindle motor. So can be powered entirely via USB.

 

[touvaj10]

I did use the included power supply for the hard drive that delivers the necessary 12V. I will try to get one of my old hard drives from my old PC to see if the same issue persists. I have tested the hard drive in question with another 3.5hdd enclosure and a similar issue occured. There was a ticking sound like the one I provided, but also the motor was seeming to not be able to run fully. I returned said enclosure and am currently using the one that I discussed in the first post.

 

[Solandri]

Can you leave the enclosure open and place a finger on the drive as it turns on? You can feel it start to vibrate as it spins up.

If it's not spinning up, a trick which sometimes works is to quickly twist the drive around the axis the platters rotate as you power on the drive. A weak motor may not be able to get the platters spinning from a standstill. But the twist briefly imparts a little rotation to the platters, which is sometimes enough for the motor to get going.

It's also possible the spindle motor is dead, and the clicking sound is just the read/write heads moving around. Hard to tell from your sound clip. In this case, you'll need to use a recovery service to get the data off the drive.

If it is spinning up and all you're getting is the clicking sound, that points to an electronics or read/write head problem. Again, you'll have to send the drive to a recovery service.