Installed 500Gb drive into external enclosure, Vista not seeing the HD

looks like the hdd is up for toss. you need to see data recovery specialist to regain data .

please go to my computer, right click -> 'manage' -> disk management

do you see the external HDD listed there?

An external storage-device has four major components:

* the USB cable

* the power-adapter

* the disk-drive inside the enclosure

* the USB-to-disk-drive adapter inside the enclosure.

One of these components has failed.

Try a different USB cable.

Try connecting to a different USB port on your computer.

Try connecting to a USB port on a different computer.

Take a "multi-meter" and measure both the voltage and amperage output from the AC adapter, and compare with the specifications on the label on the adapter.

Open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and then connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in a desktop computer, to see if it works at all.

Purchase a new, compatible, disk-drive, and install it in the enclosure, to "revive" your external storage device.

Get the part-number and serial-number from the label on your disk-drive, and access the manufacturer's web-site, and use "check warranty status", to see if they will replace the device, at minimal cost to you.

Try connecting it to a different USB port on your computer.

Try connecting it to a different computer.

If the problem persists, either:

* the USB cable is damaged,

* inside the enclosure, the disk-drive is not functioning
(although the lamp indicates that it is getting electrical power)

* inside the enclosure, the USB-to-disk-drive adapter has failed.

If the warranty is still valid, Seagate will replace it, at no cost to you.

Or, open the enclosure, and remove the disk-drive, and temporarily connect it as a "slave" disk-drive in a desktop computer, to see if it is working at all.

Or, buy a new, compatible, disk-drive, and mount it into the enclosure, to make a "new" external disk-drive.

Hi there,

The could be only two reasons for that problem with enclosure or hd. You need first figure out which one is the problem.
Plug the HD directly to the computer and see if computer can recognize it. If computer can recognize HD and you can access it then the problem with enclosure and something got burned when power got back. If you the enclosure still under warranty try to get replacement of if you electronic tinker you might try to fix it. If computer not able to recongnize HD and you can't access it from WIN then HD got fried. I would not recommend to store any important data on HD there is always a chance it will fail at some point.

Cheers, DS

That could even be a USB problem, I have the same one, my issue turn out to be just power. You are not the first one to have that problem. Replace the USB cord and see if that affects anything.

Hello,

All external drives should work on Windows 7 without need for additional drives unless they have encryption software on them.

The drive showing as unknown device is generally an indication of a failure in either the drive or it's enclosure. To verify this try connecting your drive to a different PC and see if you receive a similar error. If you do not, respond with the exact model information and I'll see if I can find the software you need for 7.

If you do get the same error it's most likely that either the enclosure circuitry or the drive itself has suffered a failure. If this is the case, take the external to your local PC shop and have the techs there transplant the hard drive inside it into a new enclosure. Once in the new enclosure they can test the drive to see if it works. If it does buy the new enclosure and your good to go. If not the drive itself has experienced a failure and you will likely need the help of a pro.

If you need a pro, comment back with your location(Country, State and City) and I will recommend one or more facilities that can serve you for this need.

Hope this helps FixYa,

Crankstart

Try a replacement USB cable first. If that does not fix the problem, then the USB to SATA adapter board is faulty, in that case you will need to take out the internal disk to replace the external enclosure.

see
YouTube - How To: Take Apart A Western Digital My Book Enclosure

If unit is under warranty see : WD Support > Warranty Services > End User > Warranty Policy.

Note any SATA external enclosure willl work wthe same with the internal WD HD.

I had a similar issue with windows 2008 and windows 7. the drive lost all its info and had to be reinitialized under both of those O.S.'s..
You can try that as long as it doesn't have any data you need.. Once you do that the drive will work and you can start using it. The file system under vista and above is slightly different than xp.

I'm not saying this will solve all problems, but it solved it for me. I am running Vista and got this to work following someone's instructions from another forum.

The slot in the enclosure that you plug the hard drive into has one set of holes fewer than the hard drive has pins. This means you can plug the hard drive in two ways "left" and "right" if you will. I had to plug my hard drive in so that the unused pins were farthest from the power cable that plugs into the hard drive.

Incidentally this made the screw holes line up better, too.