External HD in Computer

Topic

New Reply

I have an external powered hard drive which is seen and behaves normally in Computers with one Win 7 computer but not the other. The computer gives a recognition sound when I connect it, it appears in Devices and Printers, it appears on the eject symbol, but there is no sign of it in Computers and hence it is unusable (on this computer only). Anyone know the cure?

Reply | Quote

Replies

there is no sign of it in Computers

You do mean explorer right??
Try to reboot with the drive attached.

Reply | Quote

I have an external powered hard drive which is seen and behaves normally in Computers with one Win 7 computer but not the other. The computer gives a recognition sound when I connect it, it appears in Devices and Printers, it appears on the eject symbol, but there is no sign of it in Computers and hence it is unusable (on this computer only). Anyone know the cure?

Have you tried a different USB port and/or cable?

Reply | Quote

I have an external powered hard drive which is seen and behaves normally in Computers with one Win 7 computer but not the other. The computer gives a recognition sound when I connect it, it appears in Devices and Printers, it appears on the eject symbol, but there is no sign of it in Computers and hence it is unusable (on this computer only). Anyone know the cure?

peterg,
Hello… Question ..is it shown when you look in “disk management” and does it have a “Drive letter ” assigned? Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

peterg,
Hello… Question ..is it shown when you look in “disk management” and does it have a “Drive letter ” assigned? Regards Fred

Good one Fred. Yes, it is there, no, there is no drive letter.

With all the cable-switching and whatnot, it appears that I have blown a transformer: until I replaced it I was afraid the drive was a goner.

This computer is the one that insists on running a short chkdsk at startup, and I never did get that fixed, so it could be a factor. The posts were good but it isn’t cured, and I’m just happy to have the computer running.

Reply | Quote

Good one Fred. Yes, it is there, no, there is no drive letter.

Peterg,
Hello… If you assign it one the HD will be “seen” by your OS. (just right click on the drive and pick an unused letter from the drop down) Regards Fred

Reply | Quote

Peterg,
Hello… If you assign it one the HD will be “seen” by your OS. (just right click on the drive and pick an unused letter from the drop down) Regards Fred

Excellent! It actually suggested the letter (F) that it should have given it automatically in the first place, but I don’t know if automation will take over from this point or I will be stuck with a dedicated drive letter that nothing else can use. I’ll find out soon enough I guess.

Reply | Quote

In reflecting on the tangled title I gave to the original post, I will use the same question to ask if it is possible to remove an external hard drive from its case and use it as an internal drive. (My Book external drive, and I think it is SATA, as is the existing internal drive.)

Reply | Quote

That’s a whole lot of work and effort. Why not just go out a buy another internal SATA drive?

Reply | Quote

That’s a whole lot of work and effort. Why not just go out a buy another internal SATA drive?

For the computer with the problem, I plan to do exactly that today. This is partly a result of an error message not seen for some time about there being a drive error, which clinched the suspicions about just how bad the drive was, and partly inspired by your sensible advice

The other side to it is the fact that like many others I now have too many (slow) external USB drives and I was curious to know if they could be converted to (fast) internal drives that are so convenient for separation of system and data. If conversion from external to internal were easy, then a lot of people might go for it.

Reply | Quote

Whether you can convert it depends on several factors. How easy is it to open you external drive casing? What interface does the external drive use IDE, micro IDE, or SATA? Does your motherboard support this interface? Do you have mounting space in the computer for the drive (2.5 in or 3.5 in). If IDE, do you know what the jumper settings are? If you can answer all these questions, it can be done but I suspect it is more trouble for you than it is worth.

Reply | Quote

Whether you can convert it depends on several factors. How easy is it to open you external drive casing? What interface does the external drive use IDE, micro IDE, or SATA? Does your motherboard support this interface? Do you have mounting space in the computer for the drive (2.5 in or 3.5 in). If IDE, do you know what the jumper settings are? If you can answer all these questions, it can be done but I suspect it is more trouble for you than it is worth.

I was working from the other end, in that I have in past installed numerous new drives, and reclaimed numerous others, both 2.5 and 3.5, by removing them from a computer and putting them into a prefabricated housing. This has been a simple matter, although you do have to check jumper assignments with IDE drives. This has given me handy storage, in or out of the computer, but the economics of it have changed dramatically, and storage is now very inexpensive to what it once was, as I discovered when I bought a hard drive this morning.

I have three WD ‘My Book’ external drives which get to look like ‘more junk’ if not in use, as they seldom are. I believe it is easy to remove the guts from the case, I think they are SATA (and would match my desktop computer), and if it were a matter of a few screws I might be able to just pop the drives in in a matter of minutes and they would be in active and welcome (internal) use. My present impression is that there is quite a bit of additional wiring inside the external case, which I don’t want to play with. If my new drive configuration works I will have a gigantic amount of free internal storage, and the external drives can lose excess data and come to life again. Now it really would be more trouble than it is worth.

Reply | Quote

I have several USB and FireWire external drives. Some are IDE and some are SATA. The only additional wiring inside any of them is the interface hardware to allow the drive to work as USB or FireWire and power regulation components. The drives are all ‘normal’ drives that have been inserted into the cases. A board inside the case has the jacks for external connections to the cables and power cords. It also has ‘regular’ drive connectors that plug into the drive.

I don’t see a problem at all. Most recent drives have any needed jumper settings shown on the label.

I should add that I have one ‘non standard’ drive that is USB powered and has fingerprint recognition to enable it. The drives I was referring to above as ‘normal’ drives are all powered by wall-warts or bricks.

Reply | Quote

I don’t see a problem at all. Most recent drives have any needed jumper settings shown on the label.

That sounds terrific — but — have you ever actually tried it?

Reply | Quote

That sounds terrific — but — have you ever actually tried it?

I did it both ways: removed a 400GB drive from the enclosure, mounted it in my workstation instead of a 240GB drive that went in the external enclosure.
Both drives are SATA, one by Western Digital and one by Seagate. In my case all the connectors were standard and no valuable data was without backup.

Reply | Quote

peterg, good morning to you.

>>> That sounds terrific — but — have you ever actually tried it?

I have and there is no problem in trying what you want to do, after all, a HD is a HD is a HD.

On these lines, I have used a connector from a 3.5″ case, USB, and connected a CD-ROM and burner too, to my old portable. It is a Thinkpad, i Series 1300 and its CD device is defective, no replacement cured this fault. There is nothing magic in these devices, I get a lot of Apple HDs off eBay ( PCs reign here ) as the Mac users are relunctant to mess with their machines, when offered, nobody bids on them, but again, a HD is a HD at ~ ! The connector is the key here, have a good look and you will know joy.

Be good. Jean.

Reply | Quote