Swapped out HDD doesn't work in USB enclosure...

[audaxero]

Hi guys,

with the help of the forum i managed to successfully clone my original 40gb HDD to a shiny new 160 GB samsung. I did it using DriveImage XML with the new drive attached via a spare USB housing i had. With the clone completed i then put the Samasung in the X30 and it worked straight off (hooray!)

What i wanted to do then was take the old 40GB drive and use it in the USB enclosure as a spare external, but if i put it the enclosure and then plug it in the USB, the system (XP) doesn't even acknowledge that anything's been plugged in.

The enclosure works, as that's how i did the original clone, and the drive still works as my x30 reads it fine if i put it back internally.

Is this something to do with the 255/240 head thing that i've read about on the forum?

There's nothing on it that i need to save (in fact i've already formatted it using Gparted to see if that would clear it) so i was just wondering how i could force mount it or suchlike so the system can read it via the USB?

Cheers

[sjthinkpader]

Your drive may need more current than the USB port can provide. Did you use a two port cable or an AC adapter?

[audaxero]

i used two usb cables, one for the usb port on the drive and one for the round power hole... i might have a multi adapter power transformer somewhere that might fit, so i could give that a go.

Also i've noticed the green power light on the enclosure comes on when it's plugged in and the drive seems to spin up, but then after that the hdd activity light seems to flash at 5 second intervals or so...i only mention it as it's originally an IBM 40gb portable drive enclosure (Part #: 09N4255), in case someone knows what that means.

thanks again

[sjthinkpader]

The older drives are much more power hungry than newer drives. Try an AC adapter.

[Baidu [Spider]]

Hi,
you should try something like this:
img]http://m2.sourcingmap.com/smap/images/i ... 2_ux_n.jpg[/img]
hdd_socket 2,5" -> adapter_2,5"_to_3,5"_form_image_with_external_power -> ide_3,5"_to_usb -> usb

[audaxero]

Ok, something curious i just noticed...

The new hard drive was formatted in the external enclosure and had the cloned disk image copied to it there...

The older hard drive was taken out and put in the enclosure, and the system then didn't acknowledge it was there...

But if i take the new drive out of the laptop and put it back in the enclosure it no longer works! This was the drive that was originally formatted in this enclosure and then put in the drive, so it read it originally...

I tested the enclosure with a 3rd drive to see that i hadn't killed it since then and now and the enclosure worked with that drive (which was incidentally from a 1995 thinkpad...mm 540mb!)

So the drives work, the enclosure works, but once the drive have been in the IBM they are no longer recognised by the system/usb enclosure...

...curiouser and curiouser... anyone come across that before? and if so, knows what to do?

[sojourner]

Having a little bit of trouble following your post:

- you say both drives work in the USB enclosure so BOTH drives work and the enclosure works
- the USB ports work because you used them to clone

Thus, are you SURE *XP* sees anything in your USB ports? In other words, could it be XP not seeing the ports is the problem?

[audaxero]

sorry, i guess the post got pretty long winded

In short(ish):

The new drive worked in the USB enclosure when it was new and unformatted, so i cloned my old hard drive to it. Therefore the drive proved it worked and the enclosure proved it worked.

Once inside the computer the new drive continues to work.

The old drive worked inside the computer (obviously )

But if i take the old drive out and put it in the enclosure it is not seen by the system anymore (even though, independently, the old drive and the enclosure have proved they work)

however, if i take the new drive back out of the computer and put it back into the enclosure, it is no longer recognised by the system, even though it did before when the disk image was cloned to it.

So both drives work when they are in the computer, and the enclosure works (but seemingly only so long as the drives haven't been in the computer before)

... and that's the bit that confuses me... somehow the computer does something to the drive that means when it is put into the enclosure, the computer does not see it... in the bios, in disk management, in a linux pre-boot environment, nowhere... even though both the disk and the enclosure are working, but somehow, not together.

[sojourner]

audaxero, I'm still having trouble following your posts but think I understand the situation, and can relate to the fustration a 'why doesn't this work' situation!

First, you cloned as follows (if understood correctly):
40GB in TP drive bay, 160GB in USB enclosure, utilized Acronis whilst in XP.

If this is the case it's surprising the 160 boots. Typically what I do (and others on this forum recommend) is place the new HDD (your 160GB) in the X30's IDE drive bay, place the old HDD (your 40GB) into the USB enclosure and clone from a boot cd. By placing the new HDD in the TP's bay you insure correct HDD geometry by the BIOS, so when data is written it can be reliably read again.

Do you have the means to clone the 160 in this manner? If so I'd do it, then see if the old 40 can be recognised in the USB enclosure in XP (and used as an auxilary drive).

As to why the drives are not being seen in the USB enclosure in XP, it MAY have something to do with HDD geometries (not sure). Perhaps others will chime in ... lot's of sharp guys here!

[mazzinia]

Doubt this will help, but when I've bought my x31 it had a 40gb original ibm hd with a japanese OS + hidden partition.

Some days after I put inside a new seagate and used factory cds to recreate an english installation (and by some weird thing the hidden partition never got installed, but this is not relevant).

What's relevant is that the first thing I've done with the original 40gb hd, has been to put it in an usb enclosure I bought expressely for the occasion... and that hd was recognized immediately and still is by any pc I've attached it to. Note that I've never reformatted it, nor added data, so it's still the original hd with the original ibm installation intact, hidden partition intact, and ibm geometry.
More, the usb box was the cheapest metal one I found in tokyo akihabara....

[basketb]

Do you have HD passwords enabled on the HDs?

[audaxero]

Ok guys, here comes the apology...

But first thanks for all your help in trying to figure this one out... but in then end i think i've boiled it down to just a common-or-garden loose connection...

By the looks of it there was something with the IDE connector which meant that the drives just weren't pushing all the way against the connector and the last millimetre or so of the pins on the drive were still visible. But as the new drive (initially) and the old spares i tried seemed to work like that i didn't think it was an issue.

But i guess swapping around all the drives seems to have loosened something up as i just tried the 40gb drive in the enclosure again and it plugged in all the way to the connector and when i turned it on... 'windows has found new hardware'

So i'm sorry guys to spin this one out for nothing but thanks for all your help and time...i'm glad it works but sorry for the time-wasting and that i didn't spot this one sooner

...And sojourner, cheers for the tip about cloning from a bootCD with the disk in the IDE bay, i realise now that i'd seen some of those posts...sounds a bit more reliable then the way i did it, even if it did work somehow...

[sjthinkpader]

...
More, the usb box was the cheapest metal one I found in tokyo akihabara....

I love that place, especially the back street small shops. All the used Thinkpad parts are well organized in bins. There is a shop to buy the IDE-ZIF, IDE-CF adapters. Shopkeepers can understand what a single bank DIMMs are (Minolta Color laser printers only use single bank DIMMs). I picked up #0 and #1 Phillips head power driver tips with thin shank and hard tip which reduced stripping screw heads.

In comparison, the shops at WanChai market in Hong Kong and GuangWah market in Taipei all seems to be selling the same hot consumer items of the day.