External Drive saying Format

[hip77]

Hi All,

I have a laptop and bought a new 60GB SSD as a boot drive replacement for my 500GB SATA, I then wanted to use the 500GB in a USB caddy, for data storage.

I've installed windows 8.1 onto the SSD and it works fine, I then plug in the caddy SATA and it says, format the drive!

If I swap the drives back, (500GB in the laptop), it boots fine and I can see the SSD in the caddy fine as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. So you can't see any files in the caddy what does disk Management show for it? It's suggests that the caddy, cable USB port are faulty. You could do with trying another drive in the caddy to see if that works. Is the caddy powered or just USB if it's not powered it may not have enough power for the drive.

 

[Riona]

Is your caddy a USB 3.0 or 2.0 caddy? A lot of USB 2.0 caddies lack the power to run the drive, and so have a 3 way USB cable. Does yours have said cable? If so, plug one end into a USB wall adaptor and the other into the PC, whilst obviously plugging one into the caddy. Also, does your caddy have a Micro/Mini USB plug or full sized? It could also be something to do with the formatting of the drive too. Does your PC have a UEFI or a BIOS?

 

[hip77]

Welcome to the forum. So you can't see any files in the caddy what does disk Management show for it? It's suggests that the caddy, cable USB port are faulty. You could do with trying another drive in the caddy to see if that works. Is the caddy powered or just USB if it's not powered it may not have enough power for the drive.

Thanks,
Disk Management says a single partition Raw (it has 5) I use the SSD in the caddy and it works fine. It's not powered, just two USB cables.

 

[hip77]

Is your caddy a USB 3.0 or 2.0 caddy? A lot of USB 2.0 caddies lack the power to run the drive, and so have a 3 way USB cable. Does yours have said cable? If so, plug one end into a USB wall adaptor and the other into the PC, whilst obviously plugging one into the caddy. Also, does your caddy have a Micro/Mini USB plug or full sized? It could also be something to do with the formatting of the drive too. Does your PC have a UEFI or a BIOS?

2.0 Caddy, yes three way, will try plugging both in first. Thanks

 

[hip77]

Plugged both cables into the laptop, no difference. I don't have a USB wall adapter. Caddy has full size USB. Laptop has a BIOS. Both drives are MBR.

Tried deleting the USB Drivers, no change

Tried SATA caddy in another 8.1 PC, same problem.

It's using the usb to ata/atapi bridge driver

 

[Riona]

Interesting. If an SSD works it's a drive issue or a power issue, so that narrows it down. Does your laptop have any USB 3.0 ports? (Blue ones).

 

[hip77]

No, but my PC does. Tried it, both USB ports, still the same.

 

[hip77]

Also, if it was a power issue, wouldn't it be more off a power error, not a format message?

 

[Riona]

You make a good point. I think your best option is to download a program like Macrium Reflect (Macrium Software | Your image is everything) and see if you can back it up to a disc image. If that succeeds, format the drive and restore the image to it.

 

[hip77]

Thanks for the suggestion

Anybody else got any ideas?