Question HDD letter not being read

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Being as your using a gutted caddy we have no idea if that caddy is good, bad or just does not like the drive in the first place.

Back when we had only IDE drive you could never be guaranteed the caddy you bought would play nice with say a Maxtor drive worked just fine but you put in an old Seagate and no dice. I have boxes and boxes of them in the old forgotten computer parts pile.

Out of all of the external setups I have the most reliable is the link below. I have relied on it for over 20 years and just works.

Even if the drive is toast but the platter still spins the PC would react to the drive if the caddy is sending information.

The computer would freeze until you unplugged bad drive.

The drive would show up and say it need to be formatted.

If the drive showed up and is greyed out and you clicked on it you would get the forever green bar trying to read the drive.

But that's only if the caddy is sending the information to the PC.

If the drive is just dead you would get nothing. No spinning you can feel and hear from the drive and PC might not even react.

Also I have seen some external hard drives that were sold as a unit not work unless the drive that came with the caddy was in the caddy. Same as the hard drive will not work out of the caddy.

On a side note the Master/ slave/ cable select jumper is still on the IDE drive?



https://www.ebay.com/itm/275376035964?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:1z_P6BKS3QGiWg7BM2HTHoA6&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=275376035964&targetid=2320093655185&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9031499&poi=&campaignid=21222258394&mkgroupid=164713660992&rlsatarget=pla-2320093655185&abcId=9408285&merchantid=113475622&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAh6y9BhBREiwApBLHC1lC4PJo0_QgdKID7lw5QvMrC3YKOVbC-4RBZyPdK-Mr1t3bAYgd-RoC-wMQAvD_BwE
The caddy is brand new; the jumper is as I have always had it.
 
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@Artisanico, you stated that the drive was "buzzing". If it isn't spinning up, then it could be a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters). Alternatively, the spindle motor could be seized. If the buzzing starts after the motor spins up, there could be a problem at the loading ramp.

Can you be more specific about this noise?
 
@Artisanico, you stated that the drive was "buzzing". If it isn't spinning up, then it could be a stiction fault (heads stuck to platters). Alternatively, the spindle motor could be seized. If the buzzing starts after the motor spins up, there could be a problem at the loading ramp.

Can you be more specific about this noise?
The motor is absolutely fine. All the noises it makes are those that I recognise from two decades of using hard disk drives.
 
I think you can just see the two jumpers covering the four right-hand pins. I think they are both aligned vertically, but not sure.
I do not understand.

The jumper generally establishes the drive's place in the hierarchy as noted by @stonecarver.

I do not recall ever seeing any hard drives with more than one jumper (covering two pins) in place.

Also regarding: "The cables are connected to my laptop in exactly the way they are designed to be"....

True: the cables may fit on each end but that does not necessarily means that the pinouts are correct.

The more I look at Imgur image 2/5 the more I wonder about the Molex connection.

Wires: Yellow, Black, Black, Red - then I see Yellow, Black, Red, Black.

Colors aside: what are the pinouts?

The voltages and grounds must match.
 
https://datasheet.datasheetarchive....hgst.com/8cb640427e6355e041403f75400921e6.pdf

If the drive is the only drive on a cable or the master drive on a two-drive cable, leave the jumpers as set at A-B and G-H for 16 head logical architecture. The jumpers are factory set to Master-16 heads.

If the drive is the slave drive on a two-drive cable, set the jumpers at A-B and C-D for 16-head logical architecture.

https://i.postimg.cc/g0DJcB9p/Hitachi-Deskstar-P7-K500-jumpers.gif (jumpers)

From the legend on the drive label, it would appear that "32GB clip" has been selected. That tallies with Disk Management.

Can you show us a SMART report?

https://www.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/index/smart/

Edit:

https://www.manualslib.com/download/280071/Hitachi-Cinemastar-P7k500.html (page 47)
 
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I do not understand.

The jumper generally establishes the drive's place in the hierarchy as noted by @stonecarver.

I do not recall ever seeing any hard drives with more than one jumper (covering two pins) in place.

Also regarding: "The cables are connected to my laptop in exactly the way they are designed to be"....

True: the cables may fit on each end but that does not necessarily means that the pinouts are correct.

The more I look at Imgur image 2/5 the more I wonder about the Molex connection.

Wires: Yellow, Black, Black, Red - then I see Yellow, Black, Red, Black.

Colors aside: what are the pinouts?

The voltages and grounds must match.
I have just checked. There are two jumpers each vertically covering two pins such that together they cover the four right-hand pins. This has always worked for me in the past. It's an external drive. Can you advise me on how it should be?
I don't think there can be anything wrong with the Molex as it's getting power through to the drive.
I don't know what you mean by your question "what are the pinouts". Can you explain? With thanks.
 
This is all a bit of a foreign language to me. Can you put it in language that a moron like me can understand? Also I don't know anything about SMART reports or how to get them. With thanks.
 
Your drive is configured as a slave. You need to configure it as a master. The probable reason that those settings worked for you in the past is that your drive was slaved to a different master drive on the same cable.

See page 45 of the Cinemastar manual and select DEVICE 0 (Master).

As for the SMART info, that reddit tutorial explains it better than I can.

I suspect that your drive was clipped to 32GB in the past via different jumper settings. Disk Management could be getting its capacity info from the partition table. CrystalDiskInfo will tell us what is going on.

Alternatively, show us the Partitions tab in DMDE:

https://dmde.com/
 
Jumpers: I think @fzabkar has that worked out.

= = = =

Pinouts - start here:

https://compileiot.online/pinout-fundamentals-understanding-definitions-and-basics/

Then search for other similar explanations and tutorials as necessary. Look for explanatory diagrams.

There are standard pin configurations (usually agreed upon and set by some industry or governmental oversight organization) so devices from different companies can connect and work together.

Wire colors are often included and standardized as well. But can and do vary.

Then there are proprietary connections that a company can use to prevent or limit other devices from connecting to company devices. Generally a way to ensure that buyers must use/buy a company product and/or cable as a means to increase sales.

In some cases, people can use adapters to workaround such connection problems.

If device or connector specs include the words "compatible with" be very wary. The connections might physically connect together but the pinouts are mismatched.

What can happen, in any set of connections, is if the pin voltages and grounds are mismatched then at best a device or component simply does not work.

At worst: smoke and fire.
 
necessarily means that the pinouts are correct

Jumpers: I think @fzabkar has that worked out.

= = = =

Pinouts - start here:

https://compileiot.online/pinout-fundamentals-understanding-definitions-and-basics/

Then search for other similar explanations and tutorials as necessary. Look for explanatory diagrams.

There are standard pin configurations (usually agreed upon and set by some industry or governmental oversight organization) so devices from different companies can connect and work together.

Wire colors are often included and standardized as well. But can and do vary.

Then there are proprietary connections that a company can use to prevent or limit other devices from connecting to company devices. Generally a way to ensure that buyers must use/buy a company product and/or cable as a means to increase sales.

In some cases, people can use adapters to workaround such connection problems.

If device or connector specs include the words "compatible with" be very wary. The connections might physically connect together but the pinouts are mismatched.

What can happen, in any set of connections, is if the pin voltages and grounds are mismatched then at best a device or component simply does not work.

At worst: smoke and fire.
I am really sorry but I struggle terribly with jargon. When I read things like this "From the legend on the drive label, it would appear that "32GB clip" has been selected" I don't know whether or not this means I am doing something wrongly, and if so, what. I don't know what a 32Gb clip is. As for jumpers, are you saying I should have the AB, GH configuration? With thanks.
 
@Artisanico

No need to be "sorry".

Not a problem. This is a worldwide forum and your concerns about jargon are not at all unusual.

"Legend" meaning some reference diagram that explains something. With respect to the HDD what connecting/jumpering pins A and B does. Or what any other connected/jumpered pin pairs may do.

Or what some color wire may imply. Legends, if not properly thought out and presented, can cause confusion.

The other part is that the word "legend" itself can mean different things. Heroic people (real and fictional) are deemed legends. Actions are deemed "legendary" - but perhaps truly not.

Plus language translations can add confusion.

I suggest that, if possible, you simply do some online searches about words, terms, phrases, abreviations, jargon, etc..

In English and/or your language if non-English.

Search for anything you do not understand.

Likely that the process will take a bit of effort and thought to figure out the meanings.

Simply be comfortable with the process. Do the best you can. And do as you have - ask questions.

Few here will criticize that.

I do such searches all the time. Actually part of the fun of doing this. So much to learn.

I, again, will leave it to @fzabkar to explain "32GB clip".

Just to avoid my adding confusion. :)
 
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https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Limits.htm

32/33.8 GB Limit​

Some computer's BIOS can not recognize HDDs over about 32GB; as a matter of fact, they may even lock-up or hang when you try connecting a larger drive to them! This was our experience with a 'PCChips' M577 Motherboard and a 40GB drive! Most likely this is the same limit problem that Andries Brouwer discusses under Section 2.11 as the 33.8GB limit (65535 x 63 x 16 = 66,059,280 sectors, or 33,822,351,360 bytes). Since our box wouldn't even boot-up normally, we had two choices:

1) To jumper the drive as being only 32GB ... <-- this is the 32GB clip
 
@Artisanico

No need to be "sorry".

Not a problem. This is a worldwide forum and your concerns about jargon are not at all unusual.

"Legend" meaning some reference diagram that explains something. With respect to the HDD what connecting/jumpering pins A and B does. Or what any other connected/jumpered pin pairs may do.

Or what some color wire may imply. Legends, if not properly thought out and presented, can cause confusion.

The other part is that the word "legend" itself can mean different things. Heroic people (real and fictional) are deemed legends. Actions are deemed "legendary" - but perhaps truly not.

Plus language translations can add confusion.

I suggest that, if possible, you simply do some online searches about words, terms, phrases, abreviations, jargon, etc..

In English and/or your language if non-English.

Search for anything you do not understand.

Likely that the process will take a bit of effort and thought to figure out the meanings.

Simply be comfortable with the process. Do the best you can. And do as you have - ask questions.

Few here will criticize that.

I do such searches all the time. Actually part of the fun of doing this. So much to learn.

I, again, will leave it to @fzabkar to explain "32GB clip".

Just to avoid my adding confusion. :)
Since I started having my disk problems I have had nothing but trouble. I have to resort to using an old laptop that gives me an extremely poor internet connection. I have limited time and cannot do many searches. The poor connection infuriates me at every turn. I just LONG for someone to advise me in a simple step-by-step way, as to how to get my HDD to show up.