T23 won't recognize external HDD

[kurtista]

I have a t23 with a 12gb hard drive that i bought off ebay. i have a 120gb seagate internal drive i bought awhile back to put in my old 600, but i never was able to. I have the 120gig in a usb enclosure, but it just won't come up on windows. I should mention that the hard drive is formatted with a partial install of gentoo linux, a project a friend was helping me with that we never finished. I want to clone this 12gb hd and install the 120. any help is greatly appreciated.

[moronoxyd]

Well, Windows doesn't know how to handle Linux file systems, so those don't show up.

In the system tray (near the clock) you should see the green symbol showing that USB devices are connected. Move the mouse over that symbol and left click.
Now you should see a list of the connected devices.

Is the harddrive in that list?
If so, it was recognized by Windows.

Right click "my computer", select "Manage", then "file system management" (or suchlike, I don't know the English term by heart).
There you can repartition or reformat the external harddrive.

[kurtista]

it does not seem to find it there either. so i do not know that to do. on another note, i am new to this forum and do not know how to list the computer types that i own on the bottom of my posts. any help there?

[rkawakami]

As long as you are logged into the system, at the top of the page, underneath the "thinkpads.com Support Community" banner, there's a link named "User Control Panel". Click that then click the "Profile" link under "Options" on the left. Then click the "Edit Signature" link.

edit: Not sure if this will work, but this link might take you directly there: http://forum.thinkpads.com/ucp.php?i=pr ... =signature

[moronoxyd]

What happens when you connect the usb enclosure to the T23?
Does Windows show an error?
Or does nothing happen at all?

Note: You almost certainly need to power the usb enclosure with an external power supply. The USB port probably doesn't supply enough power on it's own.

[kurtista]

when i connect it to the T23, it does nothing at all. The enclosure has no place for any other power supply other than the usb. It does have a usb cable that has one normal end and seems to have a branch of two at the other end. what does this mean?

[nikki605]

Do you have another USB device that you can try on the USB port to verify the port works? A thumb/flash drive, digital camera, memory card reader or printer, etc.?

The USB Y-cable is so you can connect to another powered USB port for more power which could also be your problem. One USB port may not be providing enough power to drive the external HDD.

Here is an example: http://www.bixnet.com/5vps2powercord.html

[kurtista]

yes both ports work just fine. i can try plugging in both usb cables at the same time though. i didn't realize that it was for that. thanks.

[nikki605]

I'm not familiar with the USB port on the T23, but on my T21 it is a USB 1.1 (slow) and does provide power through the cable enough to power an external HDD.

Several years ago, I bought a USB 2.0 (faster) PCMCIA card that plugs into the card slot on the side. It does NOT supply enough power to the external HDD, so I have to plug the short end of the Y-cable into the T21 built-in USB port, just for power to run the external HDD. If I don't do that, there isn't even enough power to turn on the LED on the HDD enclosure.

[rkawakami]

The two T23 USB ports are also 1.1 speed. Depending upon the external drive's power requirements, it may or may not exceed the 500mA rating of typical USB ports.

[Walt]

I just bought an Hitachi external USB drive. It has its own power supply and therefore needs little-to-no power from the USB port itself.

However, when I plug it into my T30, nothing. No error. No connection either.

After some debugging, it turns out that the USB drive requires a USB 2.0 port, and the built-in ports on my T30 and its docking station are all USB 1.1.

I added a cheap $10 PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter, and bingo, with my Hitachi external USB drive plugged into it, the drive now works just fine.

Just to note, this did surprise me. I had assume an external USB drive will always work in any USB port, and simply slower in an USB 1.1 port. Nope.

[nikki605]

Some newer USB devices will only work on USB 2.0 ports. I also had to buy a PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter for my T21 (see info in my sig). I've learned to carefully read the specs of whatever the USB device is that I'm looking to buy. You know, the "fine print" that none of us read!?!