WD Blue 2TB HDD Not Recognized via USB Connection

nomanativ

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May 2, 2015
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Hey All,

I am trying to clone a very important hard drive for my company. We bought 2 identical hard drives to the one we are cloning (WD Blue 2TB)

I am using a USB connector to connect it to the PC in question and for some reason it is not recognizing it in Disk Management, it does not show up as a disk under computer and I am unable to find it for formatting or anything.

The USB light indicator shows that its working, but the hard drive is not spinning, its just dead. I get the same results with both brand new hard drives.

I have done this before using Macrium Reflect, AOEMI Backupper and Acronis, but never ran into this problem with a fresh hard drive and im completely stumped.

Any Ideas?
 
Solution


that's likely the problem, the USB port(s) on the PC are not able to supply enough power to the drive to power it correctly. it would be best to get a powered USB enclosure or dock like the one in the link that was posted above



I thought that too, but i tried with 3 other sata cables and had the same results, one of them was new out of the box.

 


Is this a 3.5" drive?
If so, that cable Will Not Work.

That drive needs an actual wall plug in, not just USB power.
3.5" drives have a 12v input along with the 5v. 2.5" HDD and SSD only need 5v. USB cannot provide the 12v.

You need an actual dock, like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Docking-Station-Support/dp/B0099TX7O4
 


that's likely the problem, the USB port(s) on the PC are not able to supply enough power to the drive to power it correctly. it would be best to get a powered USB enclosure or dock like the one in the link that was posted above

 
Solution


Well i feel unbelievably stupid, thank you so much for your help. I have one of those but i didnt actually think about it haha thanks again!

 


yea, its likely that sata to USB cable you were using was only for the smaller 2.5" HDD and not meant for the bigger desktop drives.