HDD not recognized in laptop ODD Caddy

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Baron_2

Commendable
Dec 2, 2016
5
0
1,510
Hi there! This is the first time I'm posting here, I'm an IT guy myself and most of the time I fix whatever I need with a lot of searching and research, but I'm just out of ideas, it's been 2 days since I'm trying everything.

I have an Acer E5-572G, came with a 1tb HDD and I just bought a 240 kingston uv400 SSD. I put the SSD in the main HDD slot (to use the full sata 3 6gbps bandwidth) and I bought an ODD caddy, to replace my dvd-rw with the old HDD.

I mounted everything, booted from an external usb, installed windows 10 x64 (HDD wasn't showing in bios, nor in the windows partition choser installer). The SSD runs perfectly, but I can't get the hdd to work. When I start the laptop, the HDD 'tries' to power on, you can hear it spin for like 2 seconds, then dies. The led is always on, so the caddy works, it's just something on the laptop/software part.

Here's what I've tried so far:
- updated BIOS, from 1.01 to 1.09 (latest version on the acer website)
- checked in disk management to see if it's recognized, but not letter-assigned (it doesn't show up there, never did while in the caddy, only the ssd)
- used my HDD in an external usb rack, it works and i can see both my partitions so the HDD is working
- tried 2 more caddies (i have a friend who sells them), nothing, the light goes on but the hdd doesn't, so most likely the caddy works too
- tried another HDD in the caddy, that one didn't work either
- i tried using the caddy in 2 different laptops (both running windows 10, so if it is a windows issue, it's understandable why it didn't work on either)
- installed Intel AHCI Controller driver / Intel Chipset driver, nothing
- tried turning on/off wifi and power saving mode (saw a topic where someone got it to work like this on W10 and it sounds just plain stupid, but it worked for him, not for me though)
- installed windows 7 x64 with all the drivers and etc, I saw most people complaining it was a W10 problem, but it doesnt work in 7 either

I'm running out of ideas, is it possible that my laptop just can't use the second sata slot for a HDD? Because I can't figure it out.
 
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ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
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It's not terribly inconceivable that a laptop's optical drive caddy is simply incompatible with a particular laptop model. We've run into that situation a number of times. Even as you've discovered that the same model caddy performs fine in another laptop.

We usually deal with Newmodeus - (https://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_45&zenid=b4926736cc7aa64e678c38dd581fc968al) when we're in the market for a laptop's optical drive caddy. They're a bit pricey but we've found their products reliable. I don't see a caddy on their website listed for your particular Acer, but you may want to check with them.

And, of course, check with Acer - although many OEMs are loathe to recommend a caddy because of the modification of their product.

I did notice one advertised on Ebay - http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-2nd-SATA-Hard-Drive-SSD-HDD-Caddy-for-Acer-Aspire-E5-572G-E1-572-series-/271576322082 - that you might want to take a look at. (I ordinarily avoid Ebay for my components - a personal choice).

(I might add that the most common problem we run into with these caddies (aside from the complete incompatibility issue) is the inability for an otherwise bootable HDD/SSD booting to the OS while installed in the caddy. Generally no problem with an installed secondary drive - as is the case in your situation).
 
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Baron_2

Commendable
Dec 2, 2016
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Thank you for your answer! I'm from Romania, so it's a lot of work to order from ebay/newmodeus, not worth it for a damn adaptor. Also, the Acer tech support here is absolutely terrible and they couldn't care less about those problems, especially since it's, as you just said, about modding and working on their product.

So I suppose I have to accept that my laptop model is one of the few that just don't work with those caddies. The only solution I have is an external usb rack, but it's just not as practical so it's a shame. I saw a page on acer's site, saying about some older 5xxx models that they needed a certain 1.2x bios version to actually see hdd's in the dvd bay, I suppose it's the same story here, except they didn't bother fixing it for a laptop that's ~2 yeas old already.

Also, could the partition style matter in any way? Both drives are formatted MBR, that's how they were both formatted when I installed windows (recently on the ssd and long time ago on the hdd). I see GPT is newer and recommended, but only required to boot from on uefi systems, which my laptop is not.

"Windows can only boot from GPT on UEFI-based computers running 64-bit versions of Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and corresponding server versions. All versions of Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, and Vista can read GPT drives and use them for data — they just can’t boot from them without UEFI."
 
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ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
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8,965
I can't imagine that the partitioning scheme, be it MBR or GPT, would have any effect on the problem you're experiencing.

One thing you might try...I'm assuming that the HDD contains an OS since that was the boot drive before you purchased the SSD. Of course I don't know if you've deleted the OS from the HDD assuming it's still part of the HDD's data contents. But if it is...delete the Windows OS from the disk - I'm assuming there's no need for it now - and see if that might resolve the problem. It's something of a "shot-in-the-dark" but perhaps worth a try.
 
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Baron_2

Commendable
Dec 2, 2016
5
0
1,510


I thought about that too, at first I had a linux partition on the hdd, deleted that and merged the free space with another partition. I also deleted the system reserved partition created by windows and also merged the free space, but I forgot to actually delete the windows files. I've now formatted the partition where windows was installed and tried again, nothing unfortunately, exactly the same. It's really frustrating because if I listen next to the hdd when I power on the laptop, I can hear it spinning normally for 2 seconds and then it just dies. Like, so close.. xD
 
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Baron_2

Commendable
Dec 2, 2016
5
0
1,510


I'll try to move everything worthy somewhere else these days and I'll try, I'll come back and tell you if it did anything. Thank you!
 
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Baron_2

Commendable
Dec 2, 2016
5
0
1,510


I just formatted my ssd + hdd (full format) to GPT and moved to uefi boot instead of legacy, reinstalled fresh windows, installed all the drivers, intel rapid storage tehnology, it doesn't work. I tried letting the hdd with only unassigned space, creating only one big partition, nothing worked. I suppose that's it, it just doesn't work. :) Thank you for your assistence, I'll get an external rack and keep the hdd in it.
 
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