Hard Drive Enclosure Issue

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ....

UPDATE: 4-26-2010 --- See Post #11 Below

I have a Western Digital 320GB Hard Drive (SATA type, I believe) in an enclosure. Normally, I use the drive with my laptop.

Tonight, I made what I hope is not a fatal mistake - though I do not intend to repeat this particular one.

I connected the drive enclosure to a desktop computer I do not normally use in order to do some file transfers. There were immediate issues when trying to copy files from that computer to the hard drive enclosure. I was able to successfully disconnect my portable drive from the computer.

I then began the task of reconnecting the portable drive to my laptop. I turned on the drive (externally powered BTW), and plugged the USB cable to my laptop. The laptop recognized a device present (the familar external drive symbol in the Windows tray), correctly ID'd it as the Western Digital drive, but would not assign a drive letter - usually e: f: or g: !!

I tried using the Windows drive disconnect process, but ended up unplugging the USB cable from the laptop. During all of this, there were -NO- unusual noises coming from the drive.

Next, I attempted to connect the portable drive to a desktop PC that I do use, and had successfully connected this portable drive to before. The results were the same as with the laptop - recognized the device, correctly ID'd it, but would not assign a drive letter. I had to again unplug the USB cable without doing the regular Windows disconnect procedure.

I am hopeful that the problem is with the enclosure and not the drive. I can say that I have not mishandled the drive, and I most certainly have not dropped it.

Will appreciate any helpful advice on this matter. I will be taking it in for service in the near future.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank

[edDV]

Make/model numbers

Drive, enclosure, laptop computer.

SATA to USB enclosures are usually on the expensive side.

[tofuguy]

Is it a western digital external hd or a self made external hd?
Do the computers you connected it to use different operating systems?

And does the laptop/computer not recognize it anymore as a partitioned drive?

[Frank-0-Video]

Laptop is a Gateway MX-6214

Hard Drive Model is Western Digital WDC WD32 00AJB-00WGAD. It originally resided in a desktop PC that died.

Enclosure - 3.5" IDE HDD type, supports up to 750GB - is made by iMicro.

Incidently, that desktop that gave me trouble when I hooked the portable drive to it is an IBM mid-2000's model, and has full anti-virus.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank

[redwudz]

First, check your USB cables and connections on both ends. That can easily be the source of all your problems. Substitute a known good one. The power supply is also suspect, though a bit harder to substitute.

That done: You mention, "would not assign a drive letter - usually e: f: or g: !!". By that I assume the drive doesn't have a permanently assigned drive letter? If so, then the problem sounds like the drive or the interface. I've done what you've done quite a few times and no problems. I could see maybe a problem if the drive had a permanent drive letter assigned, but even with that, Windows shouldn't have a major problem. Windows usually resolves those type of drive letter conflicts.

It's sounding like the drive was corrupted somehow and that's not good. Maybe just a coincidence that it was the same time as you juggled the drive around.

Another possibility is that the USB interface is damaged. If you are able, I would probably pull the drive out of the enclosure and hook it directly to a SATA interface on one of your computers.

But as edDV mentioned, more information on your drive enclosure and laptop brand and model may help. You mention that the HDD is a SATA 1, which would make it a couple of years old, SATA 2 is the norm now. But that probably doesn't matter with your problem. I'm also going to assume the HDD is formatted as NTFS in the enclosure, but again, maybe no bearing on the problem. Some USB HDDs are formatted as FAT32, which has less built-in diagnostics than NTFS and is limited to a file size of less than 4GB.

If you are able to pull the drive out of the enclosure, I would check the brand of the HDD and DL a diagnostic program from the drive manufacturer. This may also work with the drive hooked up as a USB device, but better hooked in as a SATA drive directly to the PC. That may tell you the condition and health of the drive itself and rule out the USB interface, cables as a problem.

[tofuguy]

Can you check in computer management -> disk management to see if it is partitioned?
If the problem is that it doesn't have an assigned drive letter you can go to disk management -> right click on the drive to "assign or change the drive letters and paths" (whatever it says) to give it a drive letter. Click change and select a new drive letter.
I can't assure that this won't mess up or delete the data you have stored in the hard drive because I have not tried this method.
If you are unsure about doing this, wait for some more feedback on what you could do because this is the only thing I am aware of doing.

[edDV]

That drive appears to be ATA-100 (EIDE) so no SATA issues.

The enclosure is suspect. That or the drive itself. Make sure the drive jumper is in the "master" position.

Do a chkdsk first. If the drive is formatted for windows (FAT or NTFS) it should show a drive letter.

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ...

Yo, EDTV - I'm assuming as are you that it's the enclosure (fingers crossed), because except for the immediate problem, it is behaving as it always does. I have no desktop of my own right now, so I can't hook it up directly. For now, the drive will sit safely on a shelf until I can take it in for a check-up.

Thanks to all for the advice.

[classfour]

I've had more than one external enclosure card go bad - both with HDD and Cd/DVD writers. If you have a USB to SATA/IDE adapter, you could test the drive. If the drive is good, the enclosure is obviously the problem.

[edDV]

Greetings ...

Yo, EDTV - I'm assuming as are you that it's the enclosure (fingers crossed), because except for the immediate problem, it is behaving as it always does. I have no desktop of my own right now, so I can't hook it up directly. For now, the drive will sit safely on a shelf until I can take it in for a check-up.

Thanks to all for the advice.

Have you checked that the drive jumper is set to master?

The problem with external drive enclosures is people only buy the cheapest model and these have marginal chips that fail.

[Frank-0-Video]

Greetings ....

Based on advice received, I went to "Disk Management" under Windows' "My Computer" on my laptop. It showed that I have a healthy 298.09GB drive with the expected Drive Letter G: although it still won't work properly in Explorer.

Apparently, the enclosure itself may have gone bad, thus causing a communication problem. This will be determined the moment I can connect the drive directly to an actual desktop.

Thanks again to everyone for their help.
Frank-0-Video

[INFRATOM]

A must have tool to try out the HD inside your enclosure:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-EZ-Connect-USI-2535-controller-SATA-300/dp/B0019HLE7Q
it connects IDE or SATA 2.5/3.5 HD or CD/DVD drive it has power supply for both SATA and IDE . I bought mine at a local computer shop for $15, it is very well made and has all the cables.
Attach it and plug it into USB it works just like you USB enclosure. Never move a HD while spinning!!