Can't read HDD (T60P) removed for external storage

[Kuala Lumpur Bob]

Dear Folks,

I have removed my hard drive from my T60P to use as external storage. I have hooked it up with an Areson 2.5" SATA>USB connector. The drive is a Seagate 7200 rpm, 100mb drive (shows "Momentus 7200.1" on label)

When I plug the USB cable into another computer (an HP laptop running Windows 7) it shows the software being installed successfully, but I can't find the drive on Windows Explorer.

I had a bios password as my first password with this drive in the T60P. Does that keep the drive from showing up when being used as an external drive? If yes, any ideas how to fix that (beside putting it back in the computer and removing the password)?

If there's some other common problem that anyone has seen before, I'd love to hear about it.

Thank you all very much,

Bob

[RealBlackStuff]

AFAIK only other Thinkpads would ask your for the HD password, the rest doesn't want to know about that HD.
Put it back in the T60p and remove the HD password.
Then back in the USB enclosure. It should now be seen everywhere.

One thing though: maybe you need a USB splitter cable in case the HD does not get enough power from one USB port.

[Johan]

One thing though: maybe you need a USB splitter cable in case the HD does not get enough power from one USB port.

Very likely that this is the problem, as one USB 2.0 port will only source 5V/0.5A while the SATA version of the Seagate Momentus 7200.1 will require 1.28 A during spin-up, according to Seagate Momentus 7200.1 datasheet.

Johan

[Troels]

I'm using my 7200.1 100 GB Seagate drive that originally came with the T60p in an USB enclosure and can confirm what Johan and RBS say. It draws too much power during spin-up. Luckily USB ports are current-limited, so the worst thing that actually happens is that the heads keep hitting the spindle. Use an enclosure with support for two power inputs. Remember firstly to connect the USB cable for data I/O. 1.28A would require power from three USB ports, but I haven't encountered any problems with just two for some reason, but YMMV. It would also depend on the exact enclosure and controller they use.

I'd personally put the drive back to remove the password. I don't know for certain, but the password protection may have an influence on the MBR.

EDIT: If the 1.28A is just the limit of the motor they use, then it doesn't make too much sense - i'm not completely in the field of control theory myself, but they could apply a PI or PID controller ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller) to control the spin-up time so that longer spin-up time would equal lower current draw. That would require the use of a tachometer.

[Kuala Lumpur Bob]

Folks, thank you for all these ideas. I'm going to try the password removal first when I get the laptop back from repair (the motherboard went). The specs on the drive show 5V but only 0.58A, but I'll find a splitter if the password removal doesn't work.

I will report back, though it will be week's end before I get my laptop back.

Best regards,

Bob