Trying to re-use old laptop hard disk but... 1

[mp9]

Trying to re-use the hard-disk from my old laptop as a USB storage device.

Removed the disk from the laptop, popped it into a nice new enclosure and plugged it in to my desktop PC at work (where I have administrator priv's). No joy. What happens is this:

- The PC recognises a USB mass storage device.
- No drive letter is assigned.
- The device does not appear is Disk Management (so no, I cannot manually assign a drive letter)
- However, USB Mass Storage Device appears under USB Serial Bus Controllers in Device Manager
- And Generic USB Disk USB Device appears under Disk Drives in Device Manager
- BUT when I look at the properties of Generic USB Disk USB Device the Volumes tab tells me Disk: Unknown, Type: Unknown, Status: Unreadable, etc

I have tried putting a jumper on, to force the disk to be a slave, but to no avail.

Also, the cable that came with the enclosure is doubled-ended, and I have tried it with both ends plugged into the PC, so power shouldn't be an issue, presumably? The disk spins up, it just isn't recognised by the PC.

Any thoughts?

http://www22.brinkster.com/accessory/

 

[Nelviticus]

Both ends plugged into the PC? Wouldn't that create a short circuit?

I have an external 2.5" hard drive enclosure and it comes with a very weird cable, it's kind of y-shaped and all three ends have the wide A-type connectors on them (which apparently is prohibited under the USB standard as it allows you to connect two powered USB ports to each other which can blow things up). What you're supposed to do is connect the one with the longest cable to the enclosure then connect the two that are close to each other to two powered USB ports on the PC. That way the drive gets power from two USB ports at once.

Have you connected it to powered ports? Powered ones normally have a little '+' sign next to the USB logo.

Nelviticus

 

[kjv1611]

[ol][li]Are you sure your employer does not have anything in place to disallow the usage of USB storage devices on networked PCs? I know they have that in place where I work, as of at least the past 6 months.[/li]
[li]Try on a different PC just to see if it's PC related or hard drive related.[/li]
[li]Has your PC been rebooted in recent history? Have you tried rebooting since initially trying to connect the hard drive. Particularly with hard drives (though this is getting increasingly rare), it's often the case that you have to actually reboot Windows in order for a hard drive to act correctly - even an external one.[/li]
[li]It could just be the hard drive case. Especially if it's some ultra-cheap model.[/li][/ol]

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[mp9]

@Nelviticus - yes, the cable I have is the same kind of asymmetric Y you describe, and I've tried using it as you describe. But I still get the same results. The device is certainly getting power - the disk spins up and the light comes on. Maybe it's not getting enough power, but I don't think so.

@kjv1611 - I've used other USB storage devices on my work PC without problems in the past. I also work in the IT dept, so I know there's nothing in place to stop me doing this. I've also tried reboots, with and without the device plugged in. No joy. I haven't had the chance to try on another PC yet - that will be my next task. And the enclosure did cost less than a fiver, so maybe it is that. I just took comfort from the fact that the disk spins up alright, and the PC recognises the USB mass storage device. Hmm. Will post how I get on with another PC.

In the meantime, anyone else have any other ideas? Cheers.

http://www22.brinkster.com/accessory/

 

[vacunita]

The drive may have a problem.

If you can get an internal adapter, it may be a sure way of knowing if the hard drive is failing or not.

In use this type of adapter, and have had no problems.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[bobw]

mp9,
I have done this using Serial ATA and IDE HD to USB adapter and it works well. The 2.5" drives don't need additional power, but when using a 3.5" drive using the included ps adapter all works normally - I usually make the drive master if there is a jumper to make it so. When I use this adapter you must be sure that the 4 pins on the disk are not plugged in to anything.
What enclosure are you using? Is the drive right-sided according to the adapter?
Bob W

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow

 

[kjv1611]

Here's another thought with USB adapters. At least I've had this happen both with 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives - IDE... can't remember if has been with SATA or not.

In my case, sometimes, the order of what I connected when made a difference. I think usually I had to have the power to the hard drive via the adapter - if it has power, and the connection from the adapter to the hard drive, and THEN the adapter to the USB port in order for the drive to be recognized correctly.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[JimInKS]

This doesn't sound like your issue, but I have seen instances that mapped network drive letters will hide a usb drive if you have no available drive letters between your local and network drives. ie Local drives C, D and E mapped as a network drive.

 

[cmeagan656]

Further to JimInKS post, I've gotten around the mapped network drive letters hiding a USB device by shutting down the computer, inserting the USB device, and then starting the computer. USB devices will take precedence over drive mappings in these cases. If you have local drives C: and D: and a mapped drive E: then the USB device will become drive E: and mapped drive E: will become drive F:.

Hope this helps.

Please help us help you. Read Tek-Tips posting polices before posting.

 

[BadBigBen]

and to add to cmeagan656 post, some mainboards (Tyan for example), will not boot when an external (USB) drive is attached, as these take precedence over the physical installed drives...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[bobw]

Another tidbit - a pc protected with disk encryption (pointsec, at least) will not boot with a usb device plugged in.
Bob W

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow

 

[rawle24]

maybe the Old laptop had a HD password that was setup in the BIOS

 

[mp9]

Aha! Yes, Rawle24, it did have a BIOS password. Darn, I'd forgotten that.

So now what can I do? Putting the disk back into the old laptop is not an option, as the laptop in question is in absolute bits.

Is there a way I can flash the BIOS now the disk is in an external enclosure and connected only by USB?

http://www22.brinkster.com/accessory/

 

[rawle24]

WOW!!! i am not sure how to proceed from there; is there another laptop that you can access just to plug in the old HD into it and boot to the BIOS and try to remove the password

 

[vacunita]

Just for Clarification, an HD password is not the same thing as a BIOS password.

One won't let the machine boot up or enter BIOS if its not provided, while the other will disable the drive form being accessed, but has nothing to do with accessing the BIOS.

With that said, if there was an HD password set, there's no reason the drive would not show up, it would just be inaccessible. It would appear in Drive Management as a drive with size and other properties but would just not be accessible through explorer.

In any case, I would attempt to plug it in internally just rule out any potential problems with the HD or the USB enclosure.





----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[mp9]

To clarify, the disk definitely had a BIOS password set, not a HD password.

The laptop it came from is in pieces, and now incomplete. I guess I'm going to have to try to find another laptop to plug it into to be able to enter and then remove the BIOS password... unless anyone has any other ideas?

http://www22.brinkster.com/accessory/

 

[bobw]

mp9,
I have had some sucess by changing the HD controller to recover data when a disk problem causes the orginal to toast a chip - that may be where the HD password is stored(my guess). You might be able to change the controller with an identical one an give that a go. Long shot, but worth a try.
Bob W


"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail." - Abraham Maslow

 

[626F62]

ok i couldnt be arsed reading all this but there seems to be a problem still... did we all agree in the end that a BIOS password would have no effect on removing a HDD and putting it in a nother machine...

but File System might... What OS was the lappy on and what is the PC running? (this said you should still be able to format from computer manager)

what about using Linux, i have had success in seeing data on a HDD that Windows didnt recognise.. (ok i couldnt do anything with but the thought was there)

good luck

 

[vacunita]

The laptop it came from is in pieces, and now incomplete. I guess I'm going to have to try to find another laptop to plug it into to be able to enter and then remove the BIOS password... unless anyone has any other ideas?

Clearly you missed my other post, in which I suggest an adapter.

That way you can plug it into a normal desktop computer, easier than finding a laptop, and check that the drive is in a functional state.

Quoting myself:

If you can get an internal adapter, it may be a sure way of knowing if the hard drive is failing or not.

----------------------------------
Phil AKA Vacunita
----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[mp9]

@626F62 - both laptop and PC are running XP, SP3 and SP2 respectively.

@vacunita - no, I didn't miss your post, but isn't an adapter effectively what I already have? Perhaps I'm missing the point, sorry.