[SOLVED] External HDD shows up under Device Manager but not Disk Management

[ExTxL]

I have a 2.5in HDD in an external enclosure (it used to be an internal HDD, but when I was replacing my last laptop, I stripped out as much removable stuff as I could, e.g. RAM cards). When I connect it to my new laptop via USB 3.0 (no way to do direct SATA, unfortunately), the computer doesn't recognize it... for the most part. Here's what I've seen:

• The enclosure's LED illuminates and the disk starts spinning
• "Ext. HDD" shows up under Control Panel > Devices. It says "Status: Driver error" (updating/uninstalling drivers from Dev Mgr makes no difference, though)
• "USB mass storage device" shows up under Device Manager
• Nothing shows up in Disk Management (nor file explorer, obviously)
• After a minute or so, the LED turns off, but the disk keeps spinning.
• From Control Panel, going to the device's Properties > Events > View All Events show three events:
  • Level: Warning | Event ID: 442
    Device USB\VID_1F75&PID_0621\0000020170808 was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.
    Last Device Instance Id: USB\VID_152D&PID_2339\152D203380B6
    Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
    Location Path:
    Migration Rank: 0xF000FFFF0000F120
    Present: false
    Status: 0xC0000719
    
    
  • Level: Information | Event ID: 400
    Device USB\VID_1F75&PID_0621\0000020170808 was configured.
    Driver Name: usbstor.inf
    Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
    Driver Date: 06/21/2006
    Driver Version: 10.0.19041.1023
    Driver Provider: Microsoft
    Driver Section: USBSTOR_BULK.NT
    Driver Rank: 0xFF2000
    Matching Device Id: USB\Class_08&SubClass_06&Prot_50
    Outranked Drivers:
    Device Updated: false
    Parent Device: USB\ROOT_HUB30\4&1ed355ae&0&0
    
    
  • Level: Error | Event ID: 411
    Device USB\VID_1F75&PID_0621\0000020170808 had a problem starting.
    Driver Name: usbstor.inf
    Class Guid: {36fc9e60-c465-11cf-8056-444553540000}
    Service: USBSTOR
    Lower Filters:
    Upper Filters:
    Problem: 0xA
    Problem Status: 0xC0000001
• Following these instructions to check HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/MountedDevices in RegEdit showed no new DosDevices. Also, all data was in binary and unreadable :/
• 3rd party tools like Paragon Hard Disk Manager and Wondershare Recoverit cannot detect the drive

I'm basically at my wit's end here. The HDD was never damaged. It wasn't encrypted. In Device Mgr, it shows as connected via USB 3.0 so getting enough power for a 2.5" drive shouldn't be an issue. All I want to do is wipe/reformat the drive and use it as extra removable storage, so I don't care about preserving the data on it... I just want to be able to see it in Disk Management!

Anyone have any ideas what to do from here?

 

[fzabkar]

Can you retrieve a SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo?

 

[ExTxL]

Can you retrieve a SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo?

That's a good idea, but unfortunately since the system itself isn't recognizing the HDD as a disk, CrystalDiskInfo also doesn't recognize it as a disk and therefore doesn't supply any information about it.

 

[iTRiP]

Have you tried unplugging the drive and then reconnecting it again, the entire thing... sometimes external hard drive enclosures have pretty bad connections, might solve your problem if the perhaps isn't getting power or something. (I would also try to install it into a pc again, just to see if it still works there)

 

[fzabkar]

I would think that, if the drive were password protected, you wouldn't see it in File Explorer. However, CrystalDiskInfo would still be able to see it. Therefore it would appear that the HDD may be faulty.

 

[ExTxL]

sometimes external hard drive enclosures have pretty bad connections, might solve your problem if the perhaps isn't getting power or something

That had been my original thought. I'm pretty unfamiliar with HDDs, but my understanding was that 3.5" HDDs needed external power supplies while 2.5" ones didn't. When I took out of the enclosure and tried to make sure all the connections were secure (which didn't end up making a difference), I did notice there were 4 horizontal pins which, from a bit of cursory research, look like they're used for power supply (They do not look like jumper pins). In this enclosure, there's nothing connected to those pins. Do I need to buy a new enclosure that has something specifically to connect to that?

EDIT: I've been looking at all the enclosures, SATA>USB cables, etc. for 2.5" HDDs, and none of them have anything like a power connection next to the SATA connector, and everything I read says that 2.5" HDDs do not need external power supplied, so I'd be really surprisd if that's the issue... Does anyone know how to read the 3 logged events I included in the first post? I really thought those would be useful for troubleshooting :/

(P.S. Swapping the drive back into a PC isn't a bad idea, but I don't have an extra PC lying around to test it out. The HDD worked fine when I'd taken it out of my old PC, though, so I wouldn't think it got damaged in the interim.)

(P.P.S. @fzabkar as I said, it's not encrypted, and even if it were, that wouldn't stop the drive from showing up in Disk Management, which was in the title of the post.)

 

[ExTxL]

Welp this was a whole lot of trouble for nothing. I didn't have another PC to swap it into, but I did have a pc repair store nearby, so I asked them to hook it up via sata, and it read fine.

Looks like it was just a bum enclosure after all.

I appreciate the help everyone!

 

[iTRiP]

Looks like it was just a bum enclosure after all.

I appreciate the help everyone!

No problem, I guess if where to just get a proper enclosure it would then work.