WD Blue 2TB HDD Not Recognized via USB Connection

[nomanativ]

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?

 

[rgd1101]

what kind of usb connection?

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

If you can't feel the disk spinning then it isn't being powered. If the USB light is on then the adapter's power cable sounds fine, so it could be a faulty SATA power cable.

 

[captaincharisma]

how are you connecting the hard drive via USB? do you have it in an enclosure, USB dock, or using a sata to usb adapter?

 

[nomanativ]

how are you connecting the hard drive via USB? do you have it in an enclosure, USB dock, or using a sata to usb adapter?

its a sata->usb
https://www.amazon.com/Lumsing-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-Support/dp/B01440BTS8

 

[nomanativ]

If you can't feel the disk spinning then it isn't being powered. If the USB light is on then the adapter's power cable sounds fine, so it could be a faulty SATA power cable.

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.

 

[nomanativ]

what kind of usb connection?

SATA to usb

 

[USAFRet]

how are you connecting the hard drive via USB? do you have it in an enclosure, USB dock, or using a sata to usb adapter?

its a sata->usb
https://www.amazon.com/Lumsing-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-Support/dp/B01440BTS8

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

 

[captaincharisma]

what kind of usb connection?

SATA to usb

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

 

[nomanativ]

how are you connecting the hard drive via USB? do you have it in an enclosure, USB dock, or using a sata to usb adapter?

its a sata->usb
https://www.amazon.com/Lumsing-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-Support/dp/B01440BTS8

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

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!

 

[captaincharisma]

how are you connecting the hard drive via USB? do you have it in an enclosure, USB dock, or using a sata to usb adapter?

its a sata->usb
https://www.amazon.com/Lumsing-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-Support/dp/B01440BTS8

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

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.