external hard drive acting strange

tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
edited January 2007 in Hardware
I recently bought an external hard drive case because a friend of mine gave me a 120gig hd and a 250 gig hd. Anyway at first I tried to use the 250 gig hd, but it would not show up in my computer. It did however show up in the device manager, and also in disk management. It wouldnt let me select format, so I just selected delete partition and then it never showed up again. Then since it wasnt working I decided to try it with the 120 gig hd, and it worked perfectly(shows up in my computer). I have it set up and working right now, but I would rather use the 250 gig. Its some cheap usb ata case, but I'm sure it works, because i have the 120gig hooked up right now. Any idea what could be wrong thats not allowing me to use the 250 gig hd? thanks

edit - and btw the 250 gig hd worked perfectly while it was in my friends computer.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    I just recently had to purchase a new external hard drive enclosure. For some reason, my old P-ATA enclosure just would not work - would not even spin up - with Seagate drives larger than 160GB. I got so frustrated that I just bought a new enclosure at CompUSA for $29.99. Problem solved instantly.

    What if you format and partition the drive in your computer, then move it to the enclosure? Will it work then?

    It could very well be that the electronics mini-boards in your enclosure simply have a hardware compatibility problem with certain drives. I sure found that out with my old enclosure.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2007
    btw i forgot to mention im using a laptop, and at college so I dont have a desktop to try it in.

    I dont get why its showing up in the device manager and not in my computer. When I plug it in it says "found new hardware ect...", but never appears in my computer.
  • PterocarpousPterocarpous Rosie the Riveter Lives On in CA, USA! New
    edited January 2007
    tmh88 wrote:
    btw i forgot to mention im using a laptop, and at college so I dont have a desktop to try it in.
    I dont get why its showing up in the device manager and not in my computer. When I plug it in it says "found new hardware ect...", but never appears in my computer.

    A physical HDD can show up in Device Manager even though it doesn't show up in my computer. It does not need to be properly partitioned and formatted in order to show up in Device Manager. It must, however, be properly partitioned and formatted in order for it to show up in My Computer.

    ......I think.....this is the case. nooooowww I'm second guessing myself..... Someone correct me (gently please :rolleyes: ) if I'm barking up the wrong tree here...

    Is your external enclosure for a laptop or desktop HDD?

    I'm w/ Leonardo. It sounds as though your external HDD enclosure is bad or flakey at least. They're not too expensivem, these enclosures. So, you might just want to buy another one so you can use the larger capacity HDD.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2007
    Its for a desktop hd, but like I said, I already have the 120 gig hd hooked up in it and working. O well, its not that big of a deal, I just don't understand why the other hard drive wont work.
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