External HD won't detect with Sata to USB adapter? Suggestions would be appreciated :)

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Rossiit

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Nov 24, 2013
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Hi everyone,

In a nutshell I bought a cheap Sata to USB adapter off Ebay.
Currently I have a HP Dv6 Laptop and trying to recover some data off 2 Hard drives.

Hard drive 1 came out of an external hard drive enclosure which from memory is a Seagate 500gb. When I use the adapter and plug it into my laptop (USB 3.0) it connects and then disconnects repeatedly. Have disabled USB settings in Power Options and also had a look in disk management but doesn't show up.

Hard drive 2 came out of a Dell XPS which is a Hitachi 100gb Sata, is doing the same thing as HD 1. If I plug them into the USB 2.0 it will sometimes connect but won't show up in Disk Management.
I sometimes also get a message saying I have to format the drives...
Could it potentially be the Ebay adapter? Or is there a particular bug that happens with the OS? (Windows 7 64bit)

Has anyone got any suggestions or idea's that I could possible try? Help would be really appreciated :)

Thank you,
Chad.
 
Solution
Phillip Corcoran
"connects and then disconnects repeatedly"

That's a sure sign that there's not enough power available at the USB ports after taking into account whatever else is drawing power through them.

You can overcome that by buying a "Mains-powered USB Hub".
You need one that's safe, durable and reliable. There a lot of USB hubs available which don't tick any of those boxes, but this one definitely does (I have one): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-Speed-Power-Adapter-Mains/dp/B009R921SE/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1385384032&sr=1-1&keywords=pluggable+hub
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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Sep 7, 2013
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"connects and then disconnects repeatedly"

That's a sure sign that there's not enough power available at the USB ports after taking into account whatever else is drawing power through them.

You can overcome that by buying a "Mains-powered USB Hub".
You need one that's safe, durable and reliable. There a lot of USB hubs available which don't tick any of those boxes, but this one definitely does (I have one): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-Speed-Power-Adapter-Mains/dp/B009R921SE/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1385384032&sr=1-1&keywords=pluggable+hub
 
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Paperdoc

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Oct 19, 2006
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I'm sure Phillip is on the right track. I'm guessing the laptop has USB2 (not 3) ports, and those can supply only 0.5 amps power to a connected device, certainly NOT enough to run a common SATA HDD. For this reason, most adapters such as yours come with their own power supply module. You must power the adapter with that as well as connecting the USB cable to your laptop. So, do you have a power supply module for the adapter? If not, can you get one? If not those, Phillip's suggestion might work, provided the powered external hub allows a device to draw more than the basic 0.5 amps.
 
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Phillip Corcoran

Phillip Corcoran

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I suspect the adapter you bought off Ebay (or it's power supply) may be faulty. I used to have an adapter to use an internal hard drive externally and basically the adapter was cheap cr*p. I've never used one since. I bought a proper external hard drive enclosure and that was fine. Only takes a couple of minutes to swap drives if you have more than one you need to access.
 
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