Need help: External USB-C HDD not detected

[Teo Ming Ern]

Hello,

I need some help here... I have two 500 GB Innostar 2.5" HDD that were extracted from two brand new Acer laptops. They were put into two HDD enclosures that are USB 3.0 compliant. And they were left there for a number of years untouched.

Yesterday, I decided to format them to use as storage HDD... but when I plug in to my Windows 10 laptop, Disk Management shows that they have been partitioned into 2 partitions with the boot sector still intact. There was not way for me to combine the partitions in Disk Management into 1 partition.

I went online and found a tool called MiniTools Partition Wizard. Reading the FAQ, I wiped the hard disk. I chose to write over with 0. For the first HDD, after wiping, I could see Tim HDD as G drive in Windows Explorer. I could click on it and see that the drive was empty under Windows Explorer. I didn't test transferring a file over. Anyway I plugged it out and repeated the same process with the second HDD... since this process took so long, I left the desktop running and went to sleep.

This morning, when I plug in both the HDD, they can't be detected by Windows Explorer or even Disk Management. Under Device Manager, I can see the two HDDs, Windows says no problem with either HDD...

I have no idea what happened or if I did the right thing... I suspect that the two HDDs are not formatted to the right file format and hence Windows can't detect them... but since the HDD cannot be detected within the Windows environment, I really can't initialize the disks or format them or do anything...

Even the partition software I use, MiniTools Partition Wizard can't detect them. I tried CrystalDisk also can't see the disks.

Unfortunately I don't have another laptop or desktop at home to check them...

Anyone can help? Much appreciated...

 

[Lastwishes]

Make a bootable Ubuntu usb stick. You can confirm your suspicions by seeing if linux detects it.

 

[Teo Ming Ern]

Make a bootable Ubuntu usb stick. You can confirm your suspicions by seeing if linux detects it.

Thanks... but that's a bit beyond me... can teach me how to do it and what I should do?

 

[Lastwishes]

Instructions: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview

Once that is done, just restart your pc and set the boot menu to the usb drive that you used. It'll boot into ubuntu from there.

If the external hdds are detected and usable from the ubuntu, you'll probably be able to reformat them there for use in windows.

 

[Entry Level PC]

Try Easeus Partition Master.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

 

[Teo Ming Ern]

Instructions: https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview

Once that is done, just restart your pc and set the boot menu to the usb drive that you used. It'll boot into ubuntu from there.

If the external hdds are detected and usable from the ubuntu, you'll probably be able to reformat them there for use in windows.

Thanks... will try!

Oh... so I plug in the USB flash drive, power on the desktop and it will automatically boot into Ubuntu? Or do I have to enter bios and select boot from USB flash drive? After I'm done with it, then how? Just shut down? Then remove the USB flash drive and my desktop will boot into Windows?

 

[Teo Ming Ern]

Try Easeus Partition Master.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

This works in the Windows environment right? So I think the software may not detect the HDD anyway... but will try...

 

[Lastwishes]

Thanks... will try!

Oh... so I plug in the USB flash drive, power on the desktop and it will automatically boot into Ubuntu? Or do I have to enter bios and select boot from USB flash drive? After I'm done with it, then how? Just shut down? Then remove the USB flash drive and my desktop will boot into Windows?

you will probably need to go into bios to set the boot to the usb drive. the rest of it is as you described.

 

[Teo Ming Ern]

you will probably need to go into bios to set the boot to the usb drive. the rest of it is as you described.

Ok can... will try...

 

[shadey]

Could be a failure with the enclosure. Try with a basic 2.5" to USB3 adapter. They're cheap.

 

[magix]

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/85819-erase-disk-using-diskpart-clean-command-windows-10-a.html
Can try using diskpart to delete the non windows partition on the usb disk.

- make sure u don't select the wrong disk and hit the clean or clean all command.

 

[jtjt00]

My feeling is either the HDD or the USB casing or both is dying.

 

[Teo Ming Ern]

Hello everyone... thank you very much for all the ideas... for some reason, when I powered on my desktop and plugged in the HDD, both were detected... one was already formatted the NTFS while the other was not initialized... so I could do the necessary in Disk Management... so problem solved... really weird... today I brought both HDDs to work and plugged into my work computer and both were detected... so case closed... thank you for the responses... much appreciated...