Trouble with external USB, SATA

**prsings** · 04-17-2007, 11:18 PM

I installed my Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA HD (320 Gig) in a Sabrent Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE 3.5" Hard Drive to USB 2.0 External Aluminum Enclosure Case. When I opened My computer it didn't appear. I went to device manager, and it showed as a hard drive and as a mass storage device in my USB tree. Properties said it is working, and update driver says this is the best driver available. Details have info in most categories, If needed I will copy them.

In computer Management/Disk Management, it appears as a crosshatched box, Disk 2, 298.09 GB Unallocated, with no Drive letter. All my other drives have letters and say "Healthy." What I think need to do is format and partition the drive, but I don't know how to access it without a drive letter to select. Can someone guide me?

In Setup I have tried setting each HDD setting to "AUTO" all at the same time and each separately, still no drive.
I downloaded SeaTools (Dos) and ran a check on my HDDs but it didn't see the external at all. Same with TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk.)

MaverickUK · 04-18-2007, 03:18 AM

Hi,

If it's new, then you will as you said need to format and partition the drive before you can use it and before Windows will recgonise it under My Computer. To do this, follow instructions as below.

Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. From here, you will need to click on the left pane of the disk you will be formatting, right click and choose initialise disk, then ok.

Now, right click the right part of the display - the partition display area, and then select "New Partition". This should start up the New Partition Wizard, then choose primary partition - obviously do not change the partition size unless you wish to create more than one partition for the drive. You should then choose a drive letter of your choice, or let Windows choose one for you.

I would suggest you use NTFS file system for the drive. You should also choose the default unit allocation, unless you wish to make it higher - this will be more adequate for bigger files (if you will be using this storage as a stoage for music and such).

The device should now appear healthy under Disk Management.

Regards,
Nick.

**prsings** · 04-18-2007, 11:03 PM

Thanks, that was just what I needed.

04-17-2007, 11:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
prsings I helped the forums. Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Colorado Posts: 120 OS: WinXP Home My System	Trouble with external USB, SATA I installed my Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA HD (320 Gig) in a Sabrent Serial ATA (SATA) or IDE 3.5" Hard Drive to USB 2.0 External Aluminum Enclosure Case. When I opened My computer it didn't appear. I went to device manager, and it showed as a hard drive and as a mass storage device in my USB tree. Properties said it is working, and update driver says this is the best driver available. Details have info in most categories, If needed I will copy them. In computer Management/Disk Management, it appears as a crosshatched box, Disk 2, 298.09 GB Unallocated, with no Drive letter. All my other drives have letters and say "Healthy." What I think need to do is format and partition the drive, but I don't know how to access it without a drive letter to select. Can someone guide me? In Setup I have tried setting each HDD setting to "AUTO" all at the same time and each separately, still no drive. I downloaded SeaTools (Dos) and ran a check on my HDDs but it didn't see the external at all. Same with TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk.) __________________ PR My system is in my profile.

04-18-2007, 03:18 AM	#2 (permalink)
MaverickUK Tech Hardware Team Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Cheshire, England. Posts: 861 OS: XP Home My System	Re: Trouble with external USB, SATA Hi, If it's new, then you will as you said need to format and partition the drive before you can use it and before Windows will recgonise it under My Computer. To do this, follow instructions as below. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. From here, you will need to click on the left pane of the disk you will be formatting, right click and choose initialise disk, then ok. Now, right click the right part of the display - the partition display area, and then select "New Partition". This should start up the New Partition Wizard, then choose primary partition - obviously do not change the partition size unless you wish to create more than one partition for the drive. You should then choose a drive letter of your choice, or let Windows choose one for you. I would suggest you use NTFS file system for the drive. You should also choose the default unit allocation, unless you wish to make it higher - this will be more adequate for bigger files (if you will be using this storage as a stoage for music and such). The device should now appear healthy under Disk Management. Regards, Nick. __________________ Currently studying: CompTIA A+ CompTIA N+ Cisco Certified Network Associate Last edited by MaverickUK; 04-18-2007 at 03:19 AM.

04-18-2007, 11:03 PM	#3 (permalink)
prsings I helped the forums. Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Colorado Posts: 120 OS: WinXP Home My System	Re: Trouble with external USB, SATA Thanks, that was just what I needed. __________________ PR My system is in my profile.