SATA HDD to USB Constantly Disconnects and Reconnects

So I recently bought a Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter. Once I got it I hooked it up to my 750gb Seagate Barracuda hard drive; it let me view the files, but after I wanted to access my user folder, it said something about not having permission and closed unexpectedly. After that happened, I shut it off. Now when I plug it into any one of my computers, it repeatedly connects and then disconnects within 30 seconds. What should I do?

Try a different cable. Try the Seagate in a computer. Try a different drive in the Vantec.

I just tried using the adapter on my laptop's hard drive and it worked perfectly. As I said before, the hard drive connected and then some permission error came up and it closed unexpectedly and I turned it off. It powers on and I can hear it running. It has something to do with the hard drive, but I'm not sure what to do.

Does the drive work when connected directly to a computer's SATA port, as opposed to the adapter?

If you can't keep it connected long enough to look at SMART values, run chkdsk, run Seagate's diagnostic tools, etc, I'm not sure there's much you can do. If it keeps disconnecting in Windows, I would try a Linux live CD like Parted Magic. If it'll stay connected in that environment, you should be able to run some diagnostics. I'm sure Seagate makes a bootable test program, and that might be the first thing to try, assuming it doesn't require your drive to be connected to a motherboard SATA port.

Tried running chkdsk and all it said was "Cannot open volume for direct access." The drive letter won't even show up, Windows just makes that sound when a new device connects and then the disconnect sound right after. Also tried Parted Magic, the drive somewhat showed up but it wouldn't let me do anything to it. Seagate tools didn't work either.

I have also attempted to plug it into another pc of the same model, but it gave an error when booting saying something like the ATA Controller had an error or something. Is there something I can do to fix this?

bjtheazn said:

I have also attempted to plug it into another pc of the same model, but it gave an error when booting saying something like the ATA Controller had an error or something. Is there something I can do to fix this?

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Are you using the Vantec SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter when you try to connect the drive to another PC or did you connect it directly to an internal SATA port?

I plugged into my laptop using the usb adapter, it didn't work so I tried it on two other computers. After that I put the hard drive directly in an internal SATA port; the computer is the same model the hard drive came from. Nothing is working for me, except when I first plugged it in.

bjtheazn said:

After that I put the hard drive directly in an internal SATA port; the computer is the same model the hard drive came from. Nothing is working for me, except when I first plugged it in.

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Was the hard drive detected in the PC's BIOS when you tried to connect it internally?

The BIOS detected the hard drive and displayed the model number. It threw some sort of error and I don't think there were any options to try to fix it. I'll do it again and see what the error said if you want.