HD not seen

  • Thread starter Thread starter Terry
  • Start date Start date
T

Terry

Greetings group.

Sorry if this is acroos-post but I do not appear to be getting anywhere

My aim:

I have a spare laptop 2.5" h/d with Win XP OS on it and wish to "clean it"
and use it for Desktop/laptop....
saving data using external enclosure & USB connection.
At present the HD is not recognised in the enclosure.

I also have an XP desktop PC.

My question:

Using my laptop(winXP) , how will I prepare this spare H/D....format/Fdisk??

TIA

Terry
 
Terry said:
Greetings group.

Sorry if this is acroos-post but I do not appear to be getting anywhere

My aim:

I have a spare laptop 2.5" h/d with Win XP OS on it and wish to "clean it"
and use it for Desktop/laptop....
saving data using external enclosure & USB connection.
At present the HD is not recognised in the enclosure.

I also have an XP desktop PC.

My question:

Using my laptop(winXP) , how will I prepare this spare H/D....format/Fdisk??

TIA

Terry
Click to expand...

So you've:

1) Installed 2.5" drive in 2.5" USB enclosure.
2) Connected USB enclosure to laptop.
3) Is USB enclosure powered from an AC adapter ?
Some 2.5" drives use a little more than the
limit for USB current. In the case of some
enclosure product, they are bus powered (over
the USB bus), but a special cable, with two
heads (plugging into two laptop USB ports) is
used to aid in the power crunch.
4) Try this tool and see if the enclosure is listed on a
USB port. That proves the USB interface part works.
Still don't know about the hard drive side though.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/stream/vidcap/UVCViewdwn.mspx

5) Device Manager can be used to see what new hardware
has self-installed. Check to see if anything shows
up there, for the newly connected USB enclosure.
6) On my copy of Win2K (the machine I'm typing on), I
go to Control_Panels:Administrative_Tools:Computer_Management
and then select Storage:Disk_Management, to get to the
Disk_Management screen. Right click on any devices present
in the display, to see what options are available.
WinXP should have something close to that (the
Disk Management has to be in the Control Panels
somewhere).

Post back where you're getting stuck. I can't answer all the
questions about getting the enclosure to work (not an IT guy),
so someone else may have a few ideas.

*******
Other tools:

General hardware listing:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html (Everest = aida32)

Sandra Lite (tiny word "download", bottom left column -
installs slightly more cruft than Everest - has client/server
architecture)

http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=&location=downandbuy&langx=en&a=

Benchmarking tools

HDTach - transfer speed testing
http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

HDTune - benchmarking plus a lot more (check the "Info" tab)
http://www.hdtune.com
http://www.hdtune.com/HDTune_Info.gif
*******

HTH,
Paul
 
Thanks Paul

a) Power via USB...(as is the one I am currently using OK for data...but
near full).
b) My current spare laptop drive (in enclosure), is seen via
"MyComputer/Manage" route.

c) I just need to know how to prepare a 2.5" HD for enabling data
transfering from/to desktop or other PC's. Currently I have Win Xp on this
2nd one, but I believe It may not be necessary to go that far!!....when I
put this 2nd HD in my laptop as C: drive it works fine (XP), but I only need
it for saving data.

If no answer here I may try just formatting HD(not fdisk)...but it may need
some partitioning?
If I have one working OK(I did not prepare it tho'), I should be able to get
this 2nd one saving data.!!!!!

Terry
 
Terry said:
Thanks Paul

a) Power via USB...(as is the one I am currently using OK for data...but
near full).
b) My current spare laptop drive (in enclosure), is seen via
"MyComputer/Manage" route.

c) I just need to know how to prepare a 2.5" HD for enabling data
transfering from/to desktop or other PC's. Currently I have Win Xp on this
2nd one, but I believe It may not be necessary to go that far!!....when I
put this 2nd HD in my laptop as C: drive it works fine (XP), but I only need
it for saving data.

If no answer here I may try just formatting HD(not fdisk)...but it may need
some partitioning?
If I have one working OK(I did not prepare it tho'), I should be able to get
this 2nd one saving data.!!!!!

Terry
Click to expand...

You should be able to wipe it out in Disk Management, if that
is what you're trying to do. If the disk is a data partition
and is not being used to boot the computer, it should be a
simple matter to delete the partition and create a new one.
A small amount of info here:

"What can I do with Disk Management in Windows XP?"
http://support.packardbell.com/chit/mypc/index.php?PibItemNr=topic_01480

Paul
 
Paul

Plenty here for me to check out, if I get chance today (xmas eve).
As I say ...this 2nd drive is not recognised when hooked up to any pc in its
caddy.

Compliments of the season ALL.

Terry
 
Terry said:
Paul

Plenty here for me to check out, if I get chance today (xmas eve).
As I say ...this 2nd drive is not recognised when hooked up to any pc in
its caddy.

Compliments of the season ALL.

Terry
Click to expand...

One small point I have found is that in some caddys the drive has to be set
as a slave and in others as a master. Don't ask me why this is, but I have
personal experience of both settings (and the bruises from banging my head
on the wall before I found out).
 
Cheers for that Paul

I here what you say Paul, but not wishing to go that route(altering jumpers
where ever they are in my laptop)!

Terry
 
I was referring to the drive in the enclosure. It is obviously set as a
master if it boots the PC when installed in it, but when installed in the
enclosure it probably needs to have the jumper moved to turn it into a
slave, otherwise the computer will not see it (which was I believe your
original problem).
--
Keith Willcocks
(If you can't laugh at life, it ain't worth living!)


TERRY said:
Cheers for that Paul

I here what you say Paul, but not wishing to go that route(altering
jumpers where ever they are in my laptop)!

Terry
Click to expand...
 
OK Keith, but unable to do that.
When I take the 2.5" drive from caddy, I see no jumpers.

Terry

Keith Willcocks said:
I was referring to the drive in the enclosure. It is obviously set as a
master if it boots the PC when installed in it, but when installed in the
enclosure it probably needs to have the jumper moved to turn it into a
slave, otherwise the computer will not see it (which was I believe your
original problem).
Click to expand...
 
I had assumed that we were talking about a standard IDE type drive.
Obviously it isn't. Was worth a look though.

Keith
 
I am sill unable to find out clearly what formatting is required for a 2.5"
laptop HD for the use of just data transfering.?

Terry
 
Terry said:
I am sill unable to find out clearly what formatting is required for a 2.5"
laptop HD for the use of just data transfering.?

Terry
Click to expand...

"Partitioning" declares the size of a volume on the disk. If the previous
partition is visible in Disk Management, and is using the entire disk,
then you don't really need to change anything. If the full size is not being
reported, then something may need to be changed. (Bearing in mind that
the units of disk capacity are confusing. if you had a 40GB drive,
and did the arithmetic, the capacity you might see would be
40,000,000,000 / 1024*1024*1024 = 37.25 GiB in the OS. Units are
discussed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibibyte )

"Formatting" removed the previous information in a partition. If you right
click on the partition in Disk Management, you should find an option to
Format it. If you select the "Quick" option, that one doesn't visit every
sector and wipe all the information out. Quick only prepares the sectors involved
with the directory structure of the disk. It does a perfectly good job of
formatting, and doesn't waste a lot of your time. It makes the old information
invisible to the naked eye. If you were trying to hide something though (destroy
an old porn collection), there is still a lot of info on the disk that could be
uncovered via forensic means. A full format should visit every sector and do
something to it. That would be a bit more hygienic. After a full format, not
only is the directory structure renewed, but all of the sectors holding old
data have been erased too. "Quick" is good enough for your described
purpose.

If you are still having trouble, perhaps you could describe what you see in
the Disk Management window. Is the drive showing up at all ?

Paul
 
OK Paul
This 2.5" drive has now XP os installed.
If connected to Desktop PC via IBM Travelstar USB caddy nothing shows up
anywhere.!!!
If swapped with my laptop drive, it starts XP OK, but in "My
Computer/manage" I am not allowed to format due to it being the C: drive
(can't alter drive letter!).
Just to remind you I earlier bought a 2.5" drive off Ebay, put it in the
above caddy and I am able to transfer data via USB desktop or laptop!!(now
near full).

Terry
 
Terry said:
OK Paul
This 2.5" drive has now XP os installed.
If connected to Desktop PC via IBM Travelstar USB caddy nothing shows up
anywhere.!!!
If swapped with my laptop drive, it starts XP OK, but in "My
Computer/manage" I am not allowed to format due to it being the C: drive
(can't alter drive letter!).
Just to remind you I earlier bought a 2.5" drive off Ebay, put it in the
above caddy and I am able to transfer data via USB desktop or laptop!!(now
near full).

Terry
Click to expand...

There is a suggestion in this article, that there is a pin block
to the side of the 44 pin section. Notice that the 44 pin
section has a missing pin, which is for keying (to try to
ensure that pin 1 of cable goes to pin 1 of drive).

http://www.av8n.com/computer/htm/disk-pinout.htm

The pin block has four pins. One jumper position is
vertically oriented, and one is horizontal. Due to the
pin pitch of the connector (could be 2mm), you may find
that conventional (0.1") jumpers don't fit. They do make
jumper plugs for the smaller spacing, but I don't know
if you could find an item like that at Radio Shack.

Assorted jumpers (not known what types mixed in bag)
http://www.strangebrewpc.com/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=566

2mm jumpers at a high price
http://www0.shopping.com/xGS-Hard_Drive_Jumpers~NS-1~linkin_id-8001671

0.1" jumpers
http://www.stsi.biz/m055-01.html

More 2mm jumpers
http://www.stsi.biz/24873.html

Paul
 
Right Paul...I will attempt to get jumpers....In my ignorance I thought one
had to do any "jumping" inside the drive!! LOL.
Will it interfere with me then placing the "caddy card" on the drive pins
before placing into the tight fitting caddy shell.
Terry
 
TERRY said:
Right Paul...I will attempt to get jumpers....In my ignorance I thought one
had to do any "jumping" inside the drive!! LOL.
Will it interfere with me then placing the "caddy card" on the drive pins
before placing into the tight fitting caddy shell.
Terry
Click to expand...

I didn't even know those things had jumpers, until I did a search and
found an example.

Someone the other day, put a different brand of DVD in their laptop,
and the thing had no jumpers. For that, apparently you could load
*firmware* to set the thing to master or slave. So there are some
pretty brain dead schemes out there.

I expect, if the hardware makers are familiar with the backside
of 2.5" hard drives, they will have made allowance for the use of
jumpers. Jumper plugs come in different forms - some for example,
have a plastic "paddle" on the end, to make them easier to grab.
Others are low profile, and I have to use needle nose pliers to
manipulate those. As long as the jumpers you get are relatively
low profile, I wouldn't expect a problem.

Paul
 
thanks again Paul
Terry
Paul said:
I didn't even know those things had jumpers, until I did a search and
found an example.

Someone the other day, put a different brand of DVD in their laptop,
and the thing had no jumpers. For that, apparently you could load
*firmware* to set the thing to master or slave. So there are some
pretty brain dead schemes out there.

I expect, if the hardware makers are familiar with the backside
of 2.5" hard drives, they will have made allowance for the use of
jumpers. Jumper plugs come in different forms - some for example,
have a plastic "paddle" on the end, to make them easier to grab.
Others are low profile, and I have to use needle nose pliers to
manipulate those. As long as the jumpers you get are relatively
low profile, I wouldn't expect a problem.

Paul
Click to expand...
 
Terry said:
I have a spare laptop 2.5" h/d with Win XP OS on it and wish to "clean it"
and use it for Desktop/laptop....
Click to expand...

Zero fill the drive to bring it to factory fresy specs.
 
Back
Top