The computer does not see the external hard drive via USB - what should I do? Connecting hard drives: USB, SATA and IDE.
Good day everyone, my dear friends. Today I want to tell you about how to connect a hard drive via USB to a computer or laptop. Personally, I had this question when I replaced it on my laptop, after which the old “hard” remained restless, although fully functional. Therefore, I hasten to please you. If you have such a device, then you can make a great one out of it mobile storage data.
There is, however, one small condition. These methods are only suitable for more or less modern hard drives having an interface no lower than SATA.
Cam Box - This is (as you understand) a certain box (plastic or metal), inside of which there is a special slot for a particular disk. Naturally, it is worth noting that there are boxes for both large HDDs (3.5) and small ones (2.5), which go under laptops.
The HDD is simply inserted into the box, and after assembly it will be no different from a regular external one. hard drive. After that, you just need to insert a USB cable into it and connect it to your computer. This way you get double benefits:
- You bring an old device back to life and use it;
- You practically get it for free external HDD
On such media it will be possible to store any backup and archival copies, or use it in everyday life.
All the fun will cost you an average of 300-500 rubles.
Adapter (SATA-USB)
The easiest and least expensive way is to purchase a special SATA-USB adapter. The adapter itself is a cable, at one end of which there is a connector for connecting a disk, and at the other end there is a USB port.
Well, I think you guessed what needs to be done in this case. Yes, it's simple. Connect HDD to the connector, and insert the other end into the USB port of your computer or laptop.
But it’s just worth considering that regular HDD(3.5) One USB cable may not be powerful enough, so purchase a cable with two connectors and use them simultaneously.
Depending on the company and the quality of the product, such cables will cost you approximately 200-600 rubles.
Dock station
The most expensive, but very effective option is to purchase a docking station. These devices are somewhat reminiscent of old consoles like Dendy or Sega. The similarity is that instead of connectors for cartridges, there are connectors for HDDs. All you have to do is simply insert the hard drive into this station, and then connect it via USB to the computer.
There are such devices different types, and in many cases you will be able to work not only with one disk, but with several at once, even of different form factors (2.5 and 3.5).
The cheapest options with one device will cost you no less than 1000 rubles, or even more. More powerful stations cost 3 and 4 thousand rubles each.
As you can see, there are enough ways to connect a hard drive via USB to a computer, for every taste and color. So you no longer have to leave all your devices unattended.
Well, this is where I end my article. I hope you liked it, so don't forget to subscribe to my blog updates and also share blog articles on in social networks. Good luck to you. Bye bye!
Best regards, Dmitry Kostin
The amount of information that a user stores on his computer increases every year. Therefore, many people face the problem when free space Almost none remains on the computer. We upload photos and videos from a digital camera to it, download a brand new movie that we plan to watch in the future, and so on. As a result, the hard drive is overloaded and the computer begins to freeze.
Decide this problem purchase will help external hard disk. You can throw everything on it necessary information, access to which will be no different from accessing information on the hard drive of a computer. In addition, connect external hard You can connect the disk to your computer, laptop or TV via a USB connector.
Now let's figure out how to properly connect an external hard drive via USB to the selected device.
At connecting an external hard drive to a computer or laptop it is necessary to connect the cable on one side, using USB plug or mini-USB, to the disk, and connect the other end of the cable, with a USB plug, to the computer into a USB port. Then wait for the computer to detect the new device.
If you connected an external hard drive, but it does not work, this is typical for hard drives with a capacity of more than 2 terabytes, consider another connection method. The reason is in this case There may be a normal lack of power for the hard drive. The fact is that it is powered from a computer USB port, which does not always provide the 5 volts necessary for the disk to operate. In this case, you will need to use a special USB cable with splitter or Y-cable.
Connect the Mini/Micro-USB plug to the hard drive, and at the other end of the cable, connect the two plugs to the USB ports on the computer. The main USB plug transmits data, the other USB plug is used for additional food.
Use the Y-cable that came with the kit to connect. hard drive. If this was not the case, then you will have to buy it in addition. Sometimes an additional cable is included with the drive, which can also provide the necessary power.
There are several more reasons Why is my external hard drive not working?:
1. There is not enough power through the USB port. This can also happen if you connect the drive to the USB ports located in the front of the system unit. Then just connect it to the ports on the back of the system unit, directly to motherboard.
2. The hard drive may be faulty - take it for diagnostics.
3. Faulty USB port - connect to another port.
4. Problem with the cable - you need to purchase a new one.
If you store a lot of movies, videos or photos on your hard drive, you can ensure their comfortable viewing using connecting an external hard drive to the TV. There are no difficulties in this. The main thing is that the TV has a free USB port, or better yet two ports.
If the TV has more than one USB port, but several, and one of them is labeled HDD IN, plug the main plug for the external hard drive into it. Plug the plug for supplying additional power into the port nearby.
Turn on the TV, press the Source or Input button on the remote control and look for the partition with the hard drive.
I will end here. I think now you understand how to connect an external hard drive via USB to a computer, laptop or TV.
Rate this article:Webmaster. Higher education with a degree in Information Security. Author of most articles and computer literacy lessons
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Discussion: 2 comments
P.S. The problem of connecting an external HDD (drive, hard drive, hard drive) to the TV is solved!!
I must correct my previous statement about replacing MBR with GPT or vice versa - the problem is deeper.
The GPT tabular standard is required for the TV to read drives larger than 2.2 TV (the limit for MBR), while the computer reads it without restrictions. And increases the life of the HDD.
Working for me, with a PANASONIC TX-49DXR600 TV, drive HDD Seagate STEL8000200 (8 TB) has following parameters: GPT, NTFS, cluster of 8 sectors of 512 bytes, has a partition ( logical drive) MSR (Microsoft System Reserved) size 128 MB.
The MSR section on the drive has no meaning, and is most likely used for equalization (offset at 1024 kV) and as buffer memory for the controller. It is created by the DiskPart application found in Windows.
The parameters mean that this drive has the old magnetic track layout - 512 bytes (sector size - physically not changeable), and most modern drives (since 2010) are manufactured in the new Advanced Format - new format sector markings, 4096 bytes (4 KB).
Thus, we can state that the problem with most drives is unreadability of a sector size of 512 or 4096 bytes.
Unfortunately this technical parameter not specified by manufacturers. You can define it like this: on your computer, point the cursor over your external HDD, right-click and select “format” - in the formatting parameters, when selecting the cluster size, the minimum is indicated, this will be the sector size (512 or 4096 bytes).
Therefore, ask the seller to indicate the HDD sector size.
In my case, you can use disks with 4096 byte sectors (I have two of them) formatted with the FAT32 file system, which limits the file size to 4 GB. For low-resolution films, it will do. To reduce the size of a video file, I recommend the free Avidemux program 2.6, which allows you to reduce the size and quality of the “stream” and divide the file into parts, in addition, copy video from one container to another (for example, from .avi to .mkv) without losing quality and convert one video or audio codec to another, so how not all containers and codecs are read by TVs (a Software problem).
The problem that the TV reads the NTFS file system with a sector layout of 512 bytes, and does not read NTFS with 4096 bytes, lies in the inferiority of the USB controller driver installed in the TV software.
If both markup is not readable, format it to the FAT32 file system, it is supported by flash drives. Sometimes the driver does not support GPT, then replace it with MBR.
To format to the FAT32 file system you need to use the program Paragon Hard Disk Manager or similar. WITH using Windows FAT32 has limitations.
Request driver updates from the TV manufacturer (for the USB controller) with support for the HDD NTFS format with sector markings of 512 and 4096 bytes.
Answer
The capacity of the hard drive cannot in any way affect the lack of power, find a more plausible explanation. The influence of the volume of the hard drive can only be felt when several plates are used to create volume inside the disk, which also need to be untwisted. And to spin it up you need power with a current of more than 500 mA. There is a 2.5" IDE drive with a capacity of 40GB, which has an indication on the cover that the current consumption is 0.7A. Naturally, connecting it to one USB 2.0 port is useless. But 0.7A may not be the starting current, so 2 USB screws may not be enough.
Answer
Hello, friends. Sooner or later, disk space runs out. We constantly fill our devices with data and one day we find out that there is no more space on our disk. And I want it to always be there. Today I’ll tell you how you can quickly solve this problem yourself. In today's article we will connect the hard drive to the computer ourselves.
So, friends, you have discovered that you have a problem, but don’t worry, connecting the HDD is actually simple. IN regular computer install from one to six hard drives. You can make them into a place to store files, you can install another operating system. For example, you have Windows 10 on one disk, and Windows friend 7. When necessary, you boot from “seven”, and when not, from “ten” - you can do that. And you can do RAID arrays if necessary.
We connect a 3.5 hard drive from a laptop to a computer via a USB adapter
The easiest and most trouble-free option is to buy an external portable hard disk. This drive is connected via a USB connector and used as a large flash drive. The advantage of this solution is that you can store a lot of things on it? It connects easily to your computer, is compact and easy to carry. There are also disadvantages:
- the presence of a cord that must be connected all the time;
- speed read-write lower than that of a disk connected in the usual way;
- special sensitivity to shocks and falls.
What does this have to do with a laptop disk? Inside this building is the most regular hard laptop disk. And if you have such a used laptop disk, you can make it portable yourself. The most important part is the adapter. You can buy an adapter in a store, taking the disk with you, and the seller will select an adapter for you, and perhaps even a beautiful case. Putting everything together we get a portable disk:
It can now be connected to a USB port. Or this option, without an adapter, just a connector screwed to the case, into which the hard drive is then inserted. The case itself can be secured in the system unit basket with screws:
This option is suitable for connecting an HDD without an adapter, inside the system unit. Read on.
Connecting a HDD without an adapter at home
You can easily connect the same 3.5 hard drive yourself. You will need an additional SATA cable for the hard drive and possibly an additional power plug (if there are not enough connectors on the power supply). On sale there are the following cable options where everything is in one:
Let's open it system unit Having first disconnected all the wires from it, unscrew the screws:
...remove the cover,
Connect the data cable to the motherboard...
...and the hard drive along with the power connector:
It is highly desirable that the 3.5 disk does not hang on the wires. If possible, it is better to secure it in a stationary state to avoid vibrations and shocks.
Then, we find a suitable place for it and secure it, if possible, with standard mounting screws in the basket, or at worst with plumbing tape, so that our disk is firmly and motionlessly fixed. We put the cover of the system unit in place.
How to connect a second, additional hard drive to a computer via a SATA connector
If you have a standard hard drive from your computer, you can just as easily connect it as a second drive. We do everything according to the same scheme. First, we secure the new disk with standard screws on both sides in the disk basket so that there is no vibration:
Then we connect the cable and the power connector. The disk is connected.
Connecting an IDE hard drive to the motherboard and SATA connector
If your computer's motherboard has connectors for connecting hard IDE drive, you can try connecting such a drive. For a long time, all computers worked on the IDE interface, something like this until 2005. A disk with such an interface looks like this:
The connection socket looks like this:
Sometimes the connectors are multi-colored. And the cable for connecting to the motherboard looks like this:
The blue block connects to the motherboard, the black (topmost) to the hard drive, and the white to the DVD drive.
Eat important point using IDE disk ov. If you are going to use such a disk, you need to correctly switch the jumper to the position Master or Slave. This option tells the system what role this disk will play. Master— this disk is considered the main one, and loading will take place from it. Slave— secondary disk.
U different manufacturers own pinout of jumpers. The decoding of the switching modes is always indicated on the disk case:
By setting the jumpers to a certain position, we indicate the priorities - which disk is the main one. Previously, when there were several such disks, it took a lot of time to switch them. SATA interface free from these shortcomings. IDE interface has long been outdated and is no longer used modern devices. However, you can connect your existing IDE drive to the SATA socket on the motherboard using a special adapter. You need to connect the adapter to the IDE drive:
...and a SATA cable and power cable to the motherboard and power supply. In this way, you can increase disk space by some, albeit small (by modern standards) amount. Everything is more than a flash drive!
If you bought new hard disk, it must be initialized before use, otherwise Windows will not see it, even if it is connected correctly. This is done using special programs type Acronis Disk Director 12. First, install the disk in the system unit, connect, load Acronis Disk Director:
At first you will not see the new connected disk under Windows. However, if in your Windows versions If the “Disk Management” snap-in is available, you can try to initialize the connected disk through this snap-in. In the photo, we first went to “Computer Management”, then to “Disk Management”.
However, I always use Acronis; it is guaranteed to see all disks connected to the computer.
Need to choose required disk, right click bring up the menu with your mouse, select “Initialize disk”, and then at the very top click “Apply pending operations”:
After initialization, we create a partition or partitions on the disk, formatting them in a file format. NTFS system. At this point, the operation of connecting the disk to the computer can be considered completely completed. We connected it physically and programmatically. After these steps, the disks can be used for their intended purpose - installing an operating system or making volumes out of them to store your data.
If you decide to install another operating system on a new drive, then after installation, when you boot your computer, you will need to select the drive on which you installed it. This is done through the BIOS. To enter the BIOS, first press the key DEL, and then select the desired disk:
I repeat, you need to select from the list that appears the disk that you need. You can then change the download at any time. In general, you can connect a hard drive yourself very easily, try everything and you will definitely succeed.
Connecting a hard drive to a computer or TV seems like a simple procedure, but like anything, there are some undercurrents and rocks.
And so the first question that I most often hear is why there are two paired USB cables on the cables for connecting an external hard drive to a personal computer. Someone will say spare parallel, for more fast transfer data, but it is for something completely different.
Actually not everything USB outputs, especially on older computers, provide stable power necessary for the operation of your external HDD. It is through the second, short (thin) one coming out of the main one that you can get the additional power you need. You can also use an additional (USB power cable).
It is recommended to connect the main cable for fast usb port (3.0), and additional power to the weaker USB port (2.0) is possible in two identical ones, but it is not advisable to do the opposite.
If the device does not work, it may be for the following reasons:
There is not enough power (power);
The sequence of USB cables (main, power) is connected incorrectly
Non-working USB ports;
The appropriate drivers for USB ports are not installed (you need to install the official driver).
Recently used hard drives was questionable due to slow data transfer. But on this moment USB 3.0 appeared instead previous version– USB 2.0. After this, users and keepers of Terabytes of information breathed a sigh of relief. After all, in fact, an external hard drive is a necessary thing that makes life easier for many. Many users now have additional external memory, but disk performance leaves much to be desired.
SO, WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW USB 3.0
Due to the increased transmitted current, almost doubling, the new development allows you to power a significantly larger number of devices from one port.
Manufacturers have proven that the newly created USB 3.0 will allow you to duplicate information from a computer to an external hard drive 10 times faster than USB 2.0.
This will allow you to save your time and eliminate the need for connection additional sources nutrition.
CONNECT THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE BY YOURSELF
Remember that to replace your hard drive with a new one, you do not need to replace your entire computer. External storage devices are sold separately and are easy to connect to your computer. To do this, you don’t need to call a professional, because you can easily do it this work on one's own.
If you own the computer: install new board you can do it yourself without any problems. In your personal computer there must be an unoccupied slot PCI Express version x1. You need to turn off the computer, open the system case, insert the card into the desired slot and assemble the computer. In order to new map earned, you need to install the appropriate driver. With this your work is done, you can calmly go about your business on your personal computer. As you can see, doing this yourself will not be difficult.
The approximate cost of the external hard drive you need is from 500 to 800 rubles.
If you are a laptop owner, installing a new hard drive will be even easier for you. Your laptop must have an ExpressCard slot. You need to turn off the laptop, insert the card into the desired slot, turn on the laptop, install the driver.
Laptop cards are a little more expensive - about 1000 rubles.
How to choose the required form factor of a hard drive.
There are currently two types of factor forms in circulation - 2.5 and 3.5 inches. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages.
2.5 INCH FORM FACTOR.
Its advantages include:
compactness;
a light weight;
does not require additional nutrition;
resistant to mechanical stress.
The disadvantages are:
relatively small volume;
the cost of disk space is higher;
works slower compared to 3.5 inch models.
2. 3.5 INCH FORM FACTOR.
Its advantages include:
weighty capacity;
performance (compared to 2.5 inch models);
price disk space below.
Its disadvantages include:
mandatory presence of an additional power source;
heavy weight (about 1 kilogram);
big sizes.
Weigh the negatives and positive sides these two types and choose the one that suits you. Typically 2.5 inches hard disks are used as a high-capacity flash card, they can be taken with you everywhere. 3.5 inch drives are more suitable for home use. They are often purchased by lovers of “big” and high-quality information.
Today, the most popular and high-quality, according to experts, are the following models:
FreeAgent 3.5-inch 2 TB drive, Seagate (features the highest performance);
Samsung S2 Portable 2.5-inch drive, capacity 640 GB
Currently on the market there is great amount various models, but among this large selection It's not worth getting lost. Before purchasing, compare your financial capabilities, goals and the required amount of device memory you need. Look at reviews in online stores, consult with experts or with friends who have already purchased this useful item. Then you can decide to buy without any twinges of conscience. Remember that “the miser pays twice.” A high-quality item will be resistant to mechanical stress, work efficiently and will serve you for many years.
Often, not all users may know exactly how to connect an external HDD to own computer. Everything is relatively simple here. For 3.5-inch hard drives, one end of the HDD is connected to the USB port of the computer, while the other is connected to a 220 V power supply. The fact is that the power supply of a computer or laptop is not enough to spin up such a hard drive. This approach allows high speed transfer data to a computer.
For a 2.5-inch HDD, one end of the cable is connected to the hard drive, the other is inserted into the USB connector. There is one thing! If your computer does not “produce” the required 5 V from the USB connector, then you should also connect the second end of the Y-shaped cable to the PC. Then yours new hard drive will receive additional power and will work without problems. For additional power, a second cable can also be supplied separately.
connect external hard drive
Diagram of connecting an external hard drive to a computer.
The data transfer speed will be directly affected by the USB port. If first USB ports 1.0 the data transfer rate was as much as 12 Mb/s, but already in USB 2.0 data is transferred at an astonishing speed, i.e. up to 480 Mb/s, which is considered a good indicator. And USB 3.0 operates at super speeds - up to 5 Gbps. But connection interfaces are very different. For example, if the laptop was brought from America, then it will be possible to use the Firewire or eSATA interface, which makes HDDs of this type truly universal for any laptop.
Don't think that connecting an external HDD will cause special problems from the user's side. Not at all, as soon as the laptop “sees” the external hard drive, you can try to test it. To do this, any document is created on the laptop desktop and then it is easily dragged with the mouse to the external HDD. And if all ports are working normally, then this process will take a matter of seconds.
Hard drives of this type will always be needed as additional capacitive storage media. And the user will no longer have to buy an impressive number of empty disks, on which all the information will be recorded. necessary information. And indeed, why spend significant amounts of money on capricious and poorly made in China “dumbos” when you can buy a reliable and multifunctional external hard drive from famous brands type Western Digital, Seagate or Hitachi.
Internal hard drives are relatively inexpensive and widely available. Most likely, you have already replaced 1 or 2 such media over the years and some of them are still collecting dust in the bins of your bedside tables. It is for you that we have prepared material on how, with the help of all body movements, you can take advantage of the opportunity to transform your internal hard drive to external with support USB interface. If you are interested, then welcome!
To implement our idea large quantity You don’t need any components or any special knowledge. The main component is a special adapter for hard drives, which is a metal case with a USB output, a board and connectors inside the box for connecting the hard drive.
On average, the price for such a design varies around 1000 rubles. The cost depends on the interface. For USB 2.0 you will pay less, for 3.0 you will pay more. The whole difference is in speed.
There is also one important factor to consider: not all adapters are the same. There are several types of them, each of which differs in the supported HDD drives. You can see an example of such a difference in the screenshot below:
Installing a hard drive is quite simple:
- Insert the hard drive into the appropriate adapter for this particular model.
- Connect the adapter wires to the hard drive.
- By using USB cable Connect the adapter to your computer or laptop.
Important! Since the adapter models, as we have already said, are different, the connection methods may differ slightly. Thus, some adapters require connection to a PC or laptop using two cord wires: one for connecting directly to a computer or laptop, the second for power, the second side of which is plugged directly into an outlet.
Actually, that's all! The only problem you may encounter is when, after all that has been done, the computer system cannot detect the connected device. In this case, we strongly recommend that you read the material on our website dedicated to the actions that need to be taken in such situations.