Hard drive problems

Factual Questions
1

I know double posts are frowned upon, but it doesn’t look like the PC sticky thread getting much of any new traffic these days, so I’m gonna start an original thread since I’m trying to fix this ASAP:

Having a strange HDD problem. I’ve had three internals that I’ve been alternating with an intern-external converter case. Suddenly, two of the three (each being much newer than the third) are giving me problems (the other works fine). When I plug the case into the PC (via USB), the PC makes the noise that occurs whenever a USB device is plugged in, but it doesn’t read the HD’s. This happens with, as I said, two fairly new hard drives, on two different brands of enclosures (just got one in today from Newegg just to see if it was an enclosure problem), as well as on two separate computers (desktop and a laptop).

The strangest thing about it is that, if I have Windows Explorer open on “My Computer”, where all storage devices appear, the external drive (as mentioned) doesn’t get read by the PC, but as soon as I plug the USB cable out, the drive appears for about a second, then dissapears.
Reply With Quote

2

Only thing can think of off the top of my head is to close Win Explorer, then reopen it and see if drive shows up.

Actually, I’d suggest closing it before plugging the drive in, then opening it. If that doesn’t work, no idea.

3

Do the drives mount up properly when you boot the PC if you plug them into internal connections in the PC? For this, you dont need to physically install the drives - just take the side off the PC’s case and plug the drives into the data and power cables, then turn on the PC. If you can access them this way, then you at least know the drives are good, leaving the problem with either the drive enclosure(s) and Windows’ handling of USB drives.

Whatever you do, you need to dismount / eject the drives by either shutting down the PC or using the “Safely Remove Hardware” tray icon before disconnecting them so caches get flushed and files get closed.