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    Recognizing a new external hard drive

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by adyingwren, Jul 2, 2009.

  1. adyingwren

    adyingwren Notebook Evangelist

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    Hey guys. I just bought a new Seagate 1.5TB drive. I fit it into my external hard disk case and connected it to my laptop by USB. However, it won't register as a hard drive on my laptop (Vista home premium x64). Under control panel, it is recognized as a device but that's it. There are no further details about it.

    Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
     
    adyingwren, Jul 2, 2009
    #1
  2. newsposter

    newsposter Notebook Virtuoso

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    how are you powering the external drive?
     
    newsposter, Jul 2, 2009
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  3. qhn

    qhn Notebook User

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    Agree. If no external power, it will be tough to turn that much disk storage. Other issue could be that the external housing itself, not be able to support more than certain amount of GB

    cheers ...
     
    qhn, Jul 2, 2009
    #3
  4. adyingwren

    adyingwren Notebook Evangelist

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    It's powered externally. Anyway, I actually got it working now after formatting it with Paragon Partition Manager. The only problem is that it shuts down after maybe an hour of copying stuff onto it. I suspect its overheating. Sorry if it sounds stupid but do 3.5" drives really need air cooling?
     
    adyingwren, Jul 4, 2009
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  5. goofball

    goofball Notebook Deity

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    Depends on the enclosure and how often it is reading/writing. I've used the Freeagent 1TB and it didn't need need any cooling.
     
    goofball, Jul 4, 2009
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  6. Nankuru

    Nankuru Notebook Evangelist

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    Plastic cases, close fitting cases with poor airflow, high ambient temperature, and intensive use all raise the drive temperature. It usually takes quite a lot to overheat the drive but it is possible.
     
    Nankuru, Jul 4, 2009
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  7. adyingwren

    adyingwren Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks guys. I kept it in an entirely enclosed aluminium case which lead it to stop working pretty fast. So i took it out and now its just the bare drive sitting outside. Ambient temperature is 25 degrees centigrade (77 degrees Fahrenheit). And it still overheats/stops working.
     
    adyingwren, Jul 4, 2009
    #7
  8. Nankuru

    Nankuru Notebook Evangelist

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    Doesn't sound like it's overheating. Likely hardware or possibly software.
     
    Nankuru, Jul 6, 2009
    #8