USB Drive Enclosure Problems

[OldFong_v2.0]

I just bought an Orico brand drive enclosure and put a 750 GB Seagate Hybid SSD HDD drive in the enclosure and for some reason my x201 W7 64 bit won’t recognize it. The drive appears to be powered as I can hear it. However, its not seen in Windows. Yet when I put the drive back into its caddy and use the Thinkpad Ultrabase where it has resided for years it works. The drive is Bitlockered so its should not matter.

To rule out the drive, I took a data drive (Hitachi 500GB HDD) from the second bay of my T61 W7 64 bit and put it in the same Orico enclosure. Using my x201, I get the same results. Can hear the drive but cant view it in Windows. I use diskmanagement and it says the drive is not initialzed. I know I initialize it then the data will be erased which I don’t want to happen. The drive is also bitlockered.

BTW premade USB drives from WDD and Seagate have always worked. I have never used enclosures before yet I do not think its the hardware of the enclsoure which is the culprit. Or is it?

Whats the problem? Please help!

[theterminator93]

I don't have any experience with drives using bitlocker but am suspicious of that contributing to your woes. Do you have any drives that aren't encrypted to try?

[OldFong_v2.0]

I no expert in this but after doing some more Googling and reading it seems the Thinkpad drive caddys are what is know as a SATA To IDE PATA (IDE and PATA are just different names for same) mplementation. And then I read a thread about someone pulling a Bitockered (system drive however rather than data as in my case) from a computer and then putting it in a USB enclosure. Result was drive was undetected like mine. Person reported when the same drive was reinstalled it could be read.

Seems it has something to do with how Bitlocker was activated. Also explains why a new out of the package USB drive from WD or Seagate after being Bitlockred can work on any computer. In contrast if Bitlocker implented the way I did it then wont work with a USB enclosure.

Can someone with more knowledge corroborate this?

[RealBlackStuff]

That IDE-to-SATA is a thing from the past (last seen in T61).
If that's what your Orico has/does, return it for a proper SATA caddy.
Ever since T400/T500/X200(dock) the Optical/caddy has been full SATA.

[OldFong_v2.0]

Did you bother to read the details and the question?

Readers Digest Version: Orico is modern day. Thinkpad Caddy is not. BL was done on DATA (not system) drive placed in TP Caddy. When drive pulled and placed in Orico USB enclosure, W764 does not see drive and says it must be initialized. Return drive to caddy and all is well. This was done on the same notebook.

Any ideas?

[onespeedbiker]

If you are still interested, I've run into the same problem. It appears some Thinkpads, my x230 included, need more power with some drives in exterior enclosures, even for a 2.5" drive, than a single USB port can provide. You need to find an enclosure that has a second power source, either a second USB attachment or a PC adapter. Unfortunately these are tough to find, I found one that is an eSata port enclosure, but it also has a USB port. These enclosures have power cord that attaches to a second USB port. Once I used this type of enclosure, no more drive needs to be initialized errors.