Seagate External Hard Drive

[Geminihuntress]

My HD works fine when my laptop is docked. But it does not work connected to my usb port on my laptop. The ports work with any other usb device. My external drive works on other computers just not mine. I have a Dell Latitude E7440 slim w/ win 7. I hear it running but it doesn't recognize anything being connected.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey Geminihuntress. What do you mean by "the laptop is docked"? You are using a docking station for the drive, but when you connect it via a USB cable it doesn't work?
I'd suggest that you open Disk Management and see if the drive is recognized there and what it says about it. I'd also recommend that you check if you are using the latest version of the drivers for your USB ports and if not - update them to see if this fixes the issue.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD

 

[Geminihuntress]

Hi Boogieman, yes its on a docking station. I've checked disk management and it's not showing. The only think I can think is that it's the motherboard. Maybe it's not powerful enough to support it. I'll look for drivers but I don't think that's the issue. Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

So I guess that the docking station is externally powered. If this is the case - yes, it might be because of a power issue with the laptop. Although it should generate enough power to run the HDD, this could still happen sometimes. You could try some of the solutions from this thread: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2654149?wa=wsignin1.0
Especially Method 5.

It might prove useful.