Laptop HD not recognized in USB enclosure

Yes.  As I said, it works with the new hard drive, just not with my original hard drive (I tried both connected to the same Dell desktop running XP).

 

ah1f,

 

I appreciate you responding, but you are misunderstanding my post and the situation.

 

My original hard drive is not dead and I use it daily in my laptop. It does have problems that can probably be attributed to O/S or file system corruption, but I don't think there's anything physically wrong with the hard drive itself.

 

I cannot do a clean install on the original hard drive. I must keep the data files intact. I have over 10GB of files in My Documents alone, plus other data files in other folders that would need to be backed up. It's too much to back up to a thumb drive, I don't want to back up to my NEW hard drive since that's the one I want to do a clean install on, and I'm not going to buy more hardware at this point.

 

I need my original drive to work as-is in the enclosure. I need to understand why it currently won't.

 

So if anyone else can help with some useful troubleshooting steps, please, I'm all ears.

Thank you.

If the old drive still works in the computer you can try reinstalling it, transferring the files you need then switch them back. Unfortunately it sounds like your old drive may have died completely.

Have you installed the XP drivers for the enclosure? XP does not always recognize external drives without new drivers.

Can you please explain why you think the hard drive is dying?  A bad drive was the last thing on my mind, so I'm trying to understand why you think this is the case before I go doing something that could potentially cause further instability.  Thanks.

 

 

The description of the symptoms, the fact that this system runs very hot, which kills drives readily, and the fact that the drive is as old as it is all point to a drive developing bad sectors.

 

"While my NEW hard drive works just fine in the enclosure, I cannot get my original hard drive to be recognized in it, either when connected to my laptop or to a Dell desktop. The enclosure powers up, but XP never assigns the drive a letter."

 

 

Since you say it will boot in the system, put it there, and back it up somehow - to an external drive, CD, DVD, etc.

 

Then run the extended diagnostics on the drive - I'll bet it's dying.

 

Did you run an extended diagnostic on the hard drive?  Given the nature of the system and its age, the drive is very, very much suspect hardware-wise.

 

Try the drive on another system - if it won't read there, it's very likely dying rapidly.  If you can't get another system to read it, and you need the data, you're in for an expensive ride with a data recovery service.

 

ejn63  - I have no access to another laptop to try this drive in.  But again, as I said, the drive *DOES* work when installed in my laptop.  The drive is not dead, and I don't need data recovery at this point.  I just need to get the drive to work in the enclosure.

 

 

 

Where do I find the extended diagnostics utility?  And what are the chances of it causing further problems with the hard drive if there are already issues?

 

It probably sounds like I've never backed up my system, which is not the case -- I already back up my most important files.  I would just prefer to do a *complete* back up before I start doing things that may accelerate losing the entire hard drive, but I need to figure out the best way to do that.  If I have file system issues, then I don't want to transfer those issues to my new hard drive or to another computer system, so I'm doing a lot of manual file copying.

F12 at powerup, Dell diagnostics.

 

Yes, if the drive is indeed dying, the more you use it, the greater your chances of losing everything.

 

Extended diagnostic is complete after a very long 3 hours.

Not a single error reported.

 

So back to my original question... how do I troubleshoot why my hard drive, which works in my laptop, is not recognized when in an external enclosure? Could the FAT partition have anything to do with this? If not, then what else could possibly be causing it?

Thanks in advance for any other suggestions.

If the drive works as internal, but not external, I suspect a faulty external case - either that, or it's not getting enough power to spin the drive (again, that could be a faulty case or faulty USB cable).

 

External case works just fine with the NEW hard drive that I purchased to replace my original hard drive.  I'm also using dual USB plugs, which I understand provides the power needed.

 

Please, if anyone has any TROUBLESHOOTING steps that I can take to determine what might be going wrong, I would greatly appreciate the assistance!

 

Thank you. 

 

Is it possible that the old HDD is PATA and your external enclosure is SATA or something like that?  XP does not require any drivers to recognize external hard drives.  They are pure plug-and-play.  So, something else is at work here.

 

When you removed the old drive from the laptop, did you take the blade connector at its back and transfer it to the new hard drive?  The old drive needs to go into the external enclosure without this connector and your new hard drive needs to go into the laptop with this connector.