Unable to detect external hard drive under disk managment

[Jeritt King]

I have a 120gb 1.8" hard drive i want to use as a portable external hard drive I purchase an enclosure and now I can find it under device manager as usb mass storage and that all I can not figure it out any help would be great please help?

 

[RetiredChief]

If showing up under drives, but not disk manager then you need to initalize, partition and format the drive. Disk manage should show the drive as a "Blank" drive, just Right clik it. You can try to Right click the drive under MY Computer to format the drive.

Other problems detecting USB HDDs
(1) are you plugging it in to USB2 or USB3?
(2) If USB2 are you connecting an external power source to the drive or just pluging into a usb2 port?

Usb2 only provides a max of 0.5 Amps (2.5 Watts), Usb3 provides a much higher current output.

Normally when I use a HDD on usb2, I use one of the Following mehods:
(1) I use a Powered Hub. A powered Hub normally uses a AC adaptor that can provide upto 2.5 Amps (12Watts).
(2) Plug a power adaptor into the enclosure.

NOTE Laptop drives use the 5 Volts. desktop HDD require both +12V and +5 V.

 

[Jeritt King]

(1) are you plugging it in to USB2 or USB3?
(2) If USB2 are you connecting an external power source to the drive or just pluging into a usb2 port?

Usb2 only provides a max of 0.5 Amps (2.5 Watts), Usb3 provides a much higher current output.

Normally when I use a HDD on usb2, I use one of the Following mehods:
(1) I use a Powered Hub. A powered Hub normally uses a AC adaptor that can provide upto 2.5 Amps (12Watts).
(2) Plug a power adaptor into the enclosure.

NOTE Laptop drives use the 5 Volts. desktop HDD require both +12V and +5 V.

Usb 2 and it needs no external power its a hard drive out of a zune.

 

[RetiredChief]

Note, I added to my orignal post
If showing up under drives, but not disk manager then you need to initalize, partition and format the drive. Disk manage should show the drive as a "Blank" drive, just Right clik it. You can try to Right click the drive under MY Computer to format the drive.

As to external power, the drive requires power be it from the USB2 port or an external AC adaptor. If I have a problem with a HDD or SSD on a USB port, I always try using an external power sorce to rule out the USB port having a problem supply power.

 

[Jeritt King]

Note, I added to my orignal post
If showing up under drives, but not disk manager then you need to initalize, partition and format the drive. Disk manage should show the drive as a "Blank" drive, just Right clik it. You can try to Right click the drive under MY Computer to format the drive.

As to external power, the drive requires power be it from the USB2 port or an external AC adaptor. If I have a problem with a HDD or SSD on a USB port, I always try using an external power sorce to rule out the USB port having a problem supply power.

If it doesnt show as blank or show up at all will it show the word blank or just be blank?

I cant see anything

 

[RetiredChief]

If it shows up at all in disk manager it will show as a drive, but unpartitioned and not usable.
Did you say it shows up under my computer as a usb device and correctly Identified, if so try right clicking it and see if it will alow you to format it.

If the drive does not show up in either place, My computer and under disk manager, one of 3 problems:
(1) defective drive
(2) defective enclouser
(3) Problem with USB comunications to the drive.

For 1 and two you would need to try in a 2nd computer. If it works then it is a problem with your usb port, either data or the power supplied to the drive.

If it does not work in a 2nd computer, return or RMA the drive.
You could check the drive, but you would need to remove from enclocure and obtain a adaptor cable to go from the 1.8 in drive connector to a standard sata data/power connector and install directly into a computer using the internal sata port.

 

[Jeritt King]

If it shows up at all in disk manager it will show as a drive, but unpartitioned and not usable.
Did you say it shows up under my computer as a usb device and correctly Identified, if so try right clicking it and see if it will alow you to format it.

If the drive does not show up in either place, My computer and under disk manager, one of 3 problems:
(1) defective drive
(2) defective enclouser
(3) Problem with USB comunications to the drive.

For 1 and two you would need to try in a 2nd computer. If it works then it is a problem with your usb port, either data or the power supplied to the drive.

If it does not work in a 2nd computer, return or RMA the drive.
You could check the drive, but you would need to remove from enclocure and obtain a adaptor cable to go from the 1.8 in drive connector to a standard sata data/power connector and install directly into a computer using the internal sata port.

It only shows up under device manager

what does RMA stand for ?

I have tried it on three computer same thing everytime

maybe bad encloser

 

[RetiredChief]

Return Material Authorization. You contact the manuf and set up returning the Drive for replacement. If you bought locally and it's within 30 days you can normally return for either a replacement or for your money back.

Sice it does not work in other systems that is probably the best route to take.

 

[Jeritt King]

Return Material Authorization. You contact the manuf and set up returning the Drive for replacement. If you bought locally and it's within 30 days you can normally return for either a replacement or for your money back.

Sice it does not work in other systems that is probably the best route to take.

Thank you