Trouble with internal hard drive enclosure

[Jawshi]

I recently installed an SSD into my laptop which left me with a free 500GB hard drive so i decided to buy a hard drive enclosure from the internet. The problem is when i try to connect the new hard drive to the computer it 'sees' the thing but i am unable to look at any files or even format the thing. Ive gone into computer management and tried to format the entire disk but when i try to do so it says ' windows cannot detect specified drive' . Thanks for your help

Update: ok ive managed to clean the hard drive but when i try to 'initialize it' it gives me the same 'file specified not detected'

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Jawshi,

Is the enclosure recognized by Device Manager? Does it have exclamation mark next to it? In case it is recognized over there, you can uninstall it -> plug it out -> reboot -> plug it back in.
In case the issue persists, you can attach the drive with a different cable to another computer. Keep in mind that there is a possibility that there is something wrong with the enclosure.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

 

[Jawshi]

The enclosure is recognized by the device manager, it just seems the contents of the hard drive are unable to be seen by the OS. The file system appears as RAW and i am unable to format or do anything. I will try uninstalling the driver and restarting like you said however if that works would the best solution be to just plug it through an actual SATA cable in another computer and just format it to fat 32 making it usable?

 

[D_Know_WD]

What options do you get when you right click on the drive when in Disk Management?

Well, attaching the drive internally in order to format it is an option. If it appears the same way though, I would lean towards a faulty enclosure.

D_Know_WD