Formatting a usb hdd

[DarkS1d3]

Hey all,

I just bought a 40GB laptop hdd and enclosure for it, thinking I'll make this nice pocket sized hard drive. Thing is I can't get it to format. I installed it into the enclosure, hooked it up via usb and windows won't recognize it. Disk Management doesn't see it either when I try to use that. When I do hook it up, it continuously clicks, recalibrating? Could that mean that there's not enough power getting to it? Any help appreciated.

Links to hdd, enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152501
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145329

 

[oplin]

Try searching on COD or click of death. Your drive is probably shot, but there are a ton of things you can try to recover the data but you aren't going to want to store data on there if you get it to work or at least not data that you can't afford to lose.

Don't think the power is the issue, but it could be. Can you try hooking the drive up to another machine if you take it out of the enclosure?

 

[DarkS1d3]

Yeah I'll see if I can use my neighbors laptop and check it out. I don't know why it would be COD though. I bought it brand new, there isn't any data lost, I just can't get it to be recognized by Windows to format.

 

[oplin]

It might have been damaged by shock or the shipping process to the store. Usually when a drive clicks it is not good.

 

[Dually]

Agree that usually clicking isn't a good sign ... but are you per chance connecting it via a passive usb hub? ... if so, then it could be lack of power.

 

[DarkS1d3]

Definitely agreed on clicking = bad.. I'll look into an RMA or warranties on it.

As for the usb hub, nope, its straight to the ports on my motherboard.

 

[Falls Included]

alot of usb devices arent able to be partitioned... have you ever tried to re-partition a usb flash drive? it doesnt work. try the laptop, and just use that to stick a partition on it. provided the drive isnt doa, it should work.

 

[DarkS1d3]

..Good point Falls, now that I think about it. Will try the laptop this weekend.

 

[unhappy_mage]

alot of usb devices arent able to be partitioned... have you ever tried to re-partition a usb flash drive? it doesnt work. try the laptop, and just use that to stick a partition on it. provided the drive isnt doa, it should work.

USB flash drives are different. And you can actually partition them just fine under Linux.

USB hard drives are supposed to act just like drives plugged in via real IDE ports, and for the most part they do. Including partitioning, last I checked.

 

[DarkS1d3]

hmm, interesting, then do you think its a dead drive? I have an RMA all ready to go for it, not sure if I should send it back though now. Gotta get in touch w/ my neighbor who has a laptop..

 

[oplin]

If it's clicking and you can rma it i would definately do that. Check your usb cable to, i spent an hour trouble shooting my sata dvdrw drive and all it was, was a bad cable. It would reconize but any data transfer i got BSOD, i had been using the cable for a year so that was really wierd.

 

[DarkS1d3]

Oplin, you sir are a genius. It was the cable. I switched out the usb to 5-pin cable that came with my enclosure with a cable that came with a camera that I have and like magic it recognized and formatted. Thanks again for all the help

 

[oplin]

Lol, glad to hear it was just the cable. I'm starting to see the point in spending a few extra bucks to get higher quality cables.

 

[ChingChang]

partitioning/formatting shouldn't matter if it's connected to USB.



I took a drive out of a laptop to put it into an enclosure for someone. Plugged it directly into the computer (USB adapter) and it recognized. Then put it into the enclosure (Mad Dog brand) and once it was connected it would just keep clicking.. took it out and when I connected it directly it worked fine. So I just tried another brand (Comp USA) and that worked. Used the same cable every time.

Looks like you're ok now though...