Weird drive problem - cannot "see" laptop drive
Posted: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:51 pm
Hi,
I have a Toshiba laptop, a Satellite L455-S5975, that originally came with a WD 250GB 2.5" SATA drive.
I recently got a new 500GB drive, and replaced the original 250GB with the 500GB drive. I am a longtime BING user, so I installed BING on the new drive, and everything was good.
The problem that I'm having is with the original 250GB drive, which is now not installed on the laptop. I wanted to copy stuff off of the old 250GB drive, plus, after that, I figured I'd stick it into a 2.5" enclosure and use it as a spare external drive.
To copy files from the drive, I have one of those drive docks, where you can drop a drive into it, and access the drive via USB.
However, when I did that, I couldn't see the drive either in BING or in Windows.
So, I got a new 2.5" enclosure, that has both USB and eSATA output, and I put the 2.5" drive into that enclosure.
However, even with that, when I connect to the drive via USB, neither Windows nor BING can see the drive.
HOWEVER, if I hook up the enclosure to a computer, or to another laptop that I have that has an eSATA port, I can see the drive ok.
In other words, with this 250GB drive, I cannot see the drive via USB, but I can see the drive via eSATA.
As I said, it's a WD 250GB 2.5" SATA drive, and I can't figure out what would prevent the drive from being visible via USB. The only thing I can think of is that, since this was the original drive in the Toshiba laptop, maybe Toshiba does something, or does something to the drive (e.g., maybe some weird partitioning) that would prevent anything from seeing it unless via the SATA interface.
Does anyone know why this might be the case?
I'd really like to get this drive to work with the USB, so that it can be useable for storage.
Thanks, and, BTW, a little belated Happy New Year to you all!
Jim
I have a Toshiba laptop, a Satellite L455-S5975, that originally came with a WD 250GB 2.5" SATA drive.
I recently got a new 500GB drive, and replaced the original 250GB with the 500GB drive. I am a longtime BING user, so I installed BING on the new drive, and everything was good.
The problem that I'm having is with the original 250GB drive, which is now not installed on the laptop. I wanted to copy stuff off of the old 250GB drive, plus, after that, I figured I'd stick it into a 2.5" enclosure and use it as a spare external drive.
To copy files from the drive, I have one of those drive docks, where you can drop a drive into it, and access the drive via USB.
However, when I did that, I couldn't see the drive either in BING or in Windows.
So, I got a new 2.5" enclosure, that has both USB and eSATA output, and I put the 2.5" drive into that enclosure.
However, even with that, when I connect to the drive via USB, neither Windows nor BING can see the drive.
HOWEVER, if I hook up the enclosure to a computer, or to another laptop that I have that has an eSATA port, I can see the drive ok.
In other words, with this 250GB drive, I cannot see the drive via USB, but I can see the drive via eSATA.
As I said, it's a WD 250GB 2.5" SATA drive, and I can't figure out what would prevent the drive from being visible via USB. The only thing I can think of is that, since this was the original drive in the Toshiba laptop, maybe Toshiba does something, or does something to the drive (e.g., maybe some weird partitioning) that would prevent anything from seeing it unless via the SATA interface.
Does anyone know why this might be the case?
I'd really like to get this drive to work with the USB, so that it can be useable for storage.
Thanks, and, BTW, a little belated Happy New Year to you all!
Jim