Adding external HDD but not showing Volume

Copper Contributor

Hi,

I had an old laptop with Windows10, I removed the 2.5" HDD from the laptop. I put it into a 2.5"enclosure. I plug it into another Windows 10 PC. New device found and driver installed. Cannot see drive in File Explorer. Went to Disk Management. Saw Disk 2 listed as "Unknown Not Initialized". When trying to initialize (GPT), I got "Incorrect Function". The partition is not showing any Volume information. The HDD should have 1000Gb, so it's not a monstrous size...

Is the disk corrupted? It was working fine in my old laptop, I was careful when removing it from my old laptop. Can't see how it can get corrupted by just unscrewing a few screws and sliding into an enclosure though?

Thanks for your time.

ed

6 Replies

@Ed_Canada_Ontario I've had this problem before that turned out to be caused by a faulty cable on the enclosure.

Though it might be that the external drive isn't plug and play and needs to be plugged in before the machine is turned on, assuming this wasn't already the case?

 

In regards to damaging the drive when removing it and installing it in the enclosure, you'd be amazed at how easily damage from static electricity can be caused so it's always a possibility. 

Thanks. Nice to know it wasn’t something obvious that I was missing on the setup side. Maybe a bogus enclosure from eBay.... darn...
Happy new year.
Cheers.

It could be that your SATA to USB converter is not good and causing problem

is it even a SATA to USB converter that you are using? i can't be sure since you haven't mentioned it.

Thought if it’s not a SATA I wouldn’t even be able to plug it in.... hmmm... think I will check the spec of the enclosure again...
Cheers.
Thanks, that looks pretty decent, USB C and everything.
try other ports of your PC too, front and back, see if it changes anything, it does for me when plugging my super old external HDD (+10 years old) to my super new PC motherboard.

also, from experience, there is a tool that i use when Windows disk management can't solve my problem, it's called MiniTool Partition Wizard.