External Hard drive not showing up in 'My Computer', and 'Disk Management'

[Alarstor]

The Seagate Momentus 5400.6 hard drive I'm using is from my old laptop it has 4 disks.
After I put it in the (IT-CEO IT-700) enclosure, and connect it to my new laptop it does not show up in 'My Cumputer' and 'Disk Management', but displays in the 'device and printer' section of control pannel.
I also can't eject the hard drive, even when I'm not doing anything to it, the (IT-CEO IT-700) enclusre's blue signal light just keeps flashing for a while then goes off for a sec, then resume flashing again.
My laptop also keeps trying to install the hard drive.

I tried reinstall the hard drive's driver, but that did not solve the problem.


Please Help !!!

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Test it with SeaTools for Windows: http://www.seagate.com/as/en/support/downloads/item/seatools-win-master/

 

[kris_hm]

I had this same issue with an external drive i bought from seagate that was designed to be external. The drive would just flash its green light and the computer would say its installing but never would. I plugged it into another computer and that computer recognized it quickly. Try plugging it into another computer and see if the drive is accessible then. If it is, then theres some strange issue with the computer and not the drive.

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm pretty sure your problem is power. That HDD is an internal unit originally designed for use inside a laptop. Its specs say it requires its 5VDC power supply to provide 1.0 amps for start-up, and up to 1.3 amps for operations. You have mounted it in en enclosure that uses a USB port connection. The older USB2 port provides 5VDC power up to 0.5 amps; the newer USB3 ports can get almost to 1.0 amps. Your HDD unit can't operate with those limited power sources. You need a different type of enclosure that has its own power supply module and does not draw all its power from a USB port.

 

[Alarstor]

Test it with SeaTools for Windows: http://www.seagate.com/as/en/support/downloads/item/seatools-win-master/

I tried it, but for some reason the SeaTools can't detect the external hard drive, whenever I try to rescan for devices, during the scanning the signal light of the drive would go of and when it went back on, the scan had finished.


@Paperdoc, I think it may have been a problem with power, but most 2.5'' hard drive enclosures don't have a separated power supply. Most 3.5'' ones do, but they are too big for my hard drive. I will try find one that has a separated power supply.


Thanks guys.

 

[Paperdoc]

When you go to buy an enclosure, you have to pay special attention to the type of HDD unit it can accept inside. This involves both the electrical connectors and the means of mechanically fixing the unit inside the case. I have seen some enclosures that claim they can accept any SATA unit, either a standard desktop-sized 3½" unit OR a smaller laptop-sized 2½" unit. I agree that very few (maybe none?) of the "portable" enclosures come with or even can accept an external power supply.

 

[bicholudo]

It's actually pretty simple. I was having the same problem. You have to format it. Here's what I did:

1.- Open Sea Tools for Windows
2.- Right at the top go to "System Tools" menu, click it, go to "Microsoft System Tools", then "Disk Management". And what you're going to do there is find the Disk number that's not showing up on Windows and you're to click to the right long rectangle of that Disk number (it should get filled up with blue lines across it). Then right click and format. Click "Ok" to do a NTFS Quick format and that's it!

 

[Honesty Brown]

It's actually pretty simple. I was having the same problem. You have to format it. Here's what I did:

1.- Open Sea Tools for Windows
2.- Right at the top go to "System Tools" menu, click it, go to "Microsoft System Tools", then "Disk Management". And what you're going to do there is find the Disk number that's not showing up on Windows and you're to click to the right long rectangle of that Disk number (it should get filled up with blue lines across it). Then right click and format. Click "Ok" to do a NTFS Quick format and that's it!

Questions - does formating erase data on the extenal drive?
Honesty Brown

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, Honesty. Formatting any drive will erase ALL its data. Even a Quick format will appear to do this, although with some trouble you could undo that if you had to. And doing the full preparation of a drive for use via the Create a New Simple Volume step most certainly erases ALL data. So unless that is your intent, do NOT do any of those things.

If you re-read OP's original problem, I was quite sure the trouble was insufficient power to run the HDD unit in the external case. If that really was the problem, you can't do anything with such a system - you certainly could not Format a HDD that the computer cannot communicate with! I am not sure what symptoms bicholudo was dealing with, but I doubt they were the same as the OP problem.

Honesty Brown, do you have a problem to solve, or were you just joining the discussion to participate and share knowledge?

 

[JohnathanM]

The answer is... Disable "Fast Boot" in your Bios... Guaranteed.

It only enables Keyboard and Mouse when turned on.

This will also affect trying to recover drives with usb connections and recovery software.

My issue was external drive not being recognized on boot up and in sleep mode. Could only be activated by unplugging and replugging USB cable. Now, no issue on sleep or startup.

Thank me later.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

If it is a power problem (insufficient power from USB port) you can solve that by buying a mains-powered external USB hub and plug your portable drives in to that. Like one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mains+powered+usb+hub

 

[JohnathanM]

If it is a power problem (insufficient power from USB port) you can solve that by buying a mains-powered external USB hub and plug your portable drives in to that. Like one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=mains+powered+usb+hub

Sorry mate, I must have had a different issue then as this answer doesn't apply to me.

Mine was in the Bios and sure enough, disabling the 'Fast Boot' (whatever power state that is) immediately had all external drives discovered upon reboot or waking from sleep or hibernate states.

Why would I then buy yet another device which I don't need?

 

[sora]

That's weird... I'm surprised that Fast Boot was causing the problem.

 

[ateq]

i also have the same problem, my drive gets connected with the pc and i can eject it too, but its not showing drive in my computer, even it has 200 gb data in it.

 

[horsegoggles]

I'm pretty sure your problem is power. That HDD is an internal unit originally designed for use inside a laptop. Its specs say it requires its 5VDC power supply to provide 1.0 amps for start-up, and up to 1.3 amps for operations. You have mounted it in en enclosure that uses a USB port connection. The older USB2 port provides 5VDC power up to 0.5 amps; the newer USB3 ports can get almost to 1.0 amps. Your HDD unit can't operate with those limited power sources. You need a different type of enclosure that has its own power supply module and does not draw all its power from a USB port.

Spot on... I thought I had destroyed my new hard drive some how. Thanks for the answer to the problem I was having also. I ran into the USB power thing before, but had forgotten. Used a separate power supply for the drive, rebooted and there it was.

 

[mwhetsto]

Hi, your resolution was very helpful; however, when I get to the Disk number within Disk Management and I click on the long rectangular portion to the right, I get grey lines across it. Then when I right click, I don't see a "format" option. The only options I get when I right click are - "New Simple Volume" "Properties" and "Help." I checked to make sure I was using the most up to date driver, and I am. Anything else you can think of to make this work? TIA!

It's actually pretty simple. I was having the same problem. You have to format it. Here's what I did:

1.- Open Sea Tools for Windows
2.- Right at the top go to "System Tools" menu, click it, go to "Microsoft System Tools", then "Disk Management". And what you're going to do there is find the Disk number that's not showing up on Windows and you're to click to the right long rectangle of that Disk number (it should get filled up with blue lines across it). Then right click and format. Click "Ok" to do a NTFS Quick format and that's it!

 

[Paperdoc]

mwhetsto, you're almost there.

The newest versions of Windows combine two preparation steps into one, so many people no longer recognize the subtle distinctions. If you are starting out to use a brand new empty HDD unit, the first step is to Create a Partition on it. This step writes a Partition Table and some boot code to a particular area of the start of the HDD, and a bit of info to a couple other areas. Within the Partition Table it also places the data for the location and size of this first Partition being created. The second step is then to Format the Partition just now created. Formatting writes several specific system files to particular places in that new Partition. These include the Root Directory and all the files used to track use of the sectors of this Partition for files. Thus, the Format operation installs a new empty File System on the Partition. THEN the new Partition on this HDD is available for Windows to use. Windows recognizes this Partition as one "Drive" and gives it its own letter name, like "F:". Unless you make the first Partition consume all of the space on the HDD, you can subsequently Create and Format more Partitions in any Unallocated Space.

Today's versions of Windows combine these two steps into one to make it easier for you. Together they are now called "Create a New Simple Volume". The prompts you see indicate that this HDD has NO Partition Table or any recognizable data, and invite you to use the new combined process.

The Format process can be used by itself if there is a Partition on the HDD that has not been Formatted yet. It ALSO can be used on a Partition that HAS had all that stuff done. In this latter case, the new Format operation will wipe out whatever data is on that one Partition (not the whole HDD) and replace it with a new blank set of File System files. Using Format on a Partition or "Drive" that already contains data is one way to wipe it (but NOT the entire HDD) clean and start fresh. However, many people use the term "Format" (which means technically only the second step) to mean the complete two-step operation, although it now is in only one step.

See how easy it is to get confused by the details?

 

[dru___]

mwhetsto, you're almost there.

The newest versions of Windows combine two preparation steps into one, so many people no longer recognize the subtle distinctions. If you are starting out to use a brand new empty HDD unit, the first step is to Create a Partition on it. This step writes a Partition Table and some boot code to a particular area of the start of the HDD, and a bit of info to a couple other areas. Within the Partition Table it also places the data for the location and size of this first Partition being created. The second step is then to Format the Partition just now created. Formatting writes several specific system files to particular places in that new Partition. These include the Root Directory and all the files used to track use of the sectors of this Partition for files. Thus, the Format operation installs a new empty File System on the Partition. THEN the new Partition on this HDD is available for Windows to use. Windows recognizes this Partition as one "Drive" and gives it its own letter name, like "F:". Unless you make the first Partition consume all of the space on the HDD, you can subsequently Create and Format more Partitions in any Unallocated Space.

Today's versions of Windows combine these two steps into one to make it easier for you. Together they are now called "Create a New Simple Volume". The prompts you see indicate that this HDD has NO Partition Table or any recognizable data, and invite you to use the new combined process.

The Format process can be used by itself if there is a Partition on the HDD that has not been Formatted yet. It ALSO can be used on a Partition that HAS had all that stuff done. In this latter case, the new Format operation will wipe out whatever data is on that one Partition (not the whole HDD) and replace it with a new blank set of File System files. Using Format on a Partition or "Drive" that already contains data is one way to wipe it (but NOT the entire HDD) clean and start fresh. However, many people use the term "Format" (which means technically only the second step) to mean the complete two-step operation, although it now is in only one step.

See how easy it is to get confused by the details?

OK i played with this about 5-6 hours, i found the problemsnestedin the forums about this.. simply letter of drive conflict is certain, when you do format, you do quick format, this leaves it rndom letter assignment, when here is sometimes drive already mounted..so for example if i want to mount a usb v3 1tb drive on e: then i better be sure that e is not already assigned..if it is, goto device manager, you should not see anything,.. unplug the drive and plugin it will now showup BUT it will only have assigned name,not letter of drive..my solution waas simply assigning my drive to a z: letter that not likely to be populated,and within 3seconds of having a drive letter it will come online...yes it will already seem online, but the drive letter configuration is really the root of this problems with windows 7 definately. cheers.

 

[Thomas Hajj]

I had this problem and tried the external drivers with a second pc, no problem there.
I tried to reinstall usb 3.0 utility tool but couldn't do it cause the pc couldn't see the usb 3.0 portals.
I went to Gigabyte's site looked at the FAQ and read that it was a bios problem.
Installed the bios tool, reupdated the bios though I had done this in the past and there was no newer bios update and I know I shouldn't mess with the bios frequently.
And then everything was ok.

 

[Gldnhwk]

Just putting it out there!!! As there are a few different problems I may be able to help. If not it may come in handy to some one that runs across this problem.
I would connect any drive to windows 10 and it would be in the list but would not show up, after much loss of hair I found in disk management( Right click the window icon far left on the task bar and select Dick Management from the list.) by right clicking on the box Mentioned above) next to the drive you want ( you will notice it doesn't have a drive letter. ) and select change drive letter & paths: allocate drive letter (higher range of the alphabet usually better) now that drive can be selected "oh yeah close disk management." Happy Computing"

If this helps one person my time was not wasted.