I connected an internal hard drive onto my desktop via SATA-USB cable and it doesn't show up in device manager or disk management

Question

I have tow internal hard drives from an old pc and I want to migrate their content onto my new desktop; however, the task is not proving easy. I bought the SATA to USB cable on Amazon, owned by a brand called EYOOLD, expecting things to work out well. Regardless of anything that I do, it seems that the drive does not appear anywhere within the device manager or disk management. I suppose the cable does work because it has two lights that turn on whenever it is plugged in, but I still can't figure out why the drive does not register. Please help me!

My PC is a Windows 11 Home version 22H2, a 64 bit operating system with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700G processor. Let me know if you need to know anything else.

Answer 1

Make sure the SATA to USB cable is properly connected to both the SSD and the USB port on your computer. Ensure that the connections are secure and not loose.

Try connecting the cable to a different USB port on your computer to see if the SSD is detected.

The cable or adapter itself could be faulty. If possible, try using a different SATA to USB cable or adapter to rule out any issues with the hardware.

Ensure that your cable or adapter can provide sufficient power to the SSD.

Ensure that the SATA to USB cable is compatible with the type of SSD you're using (SATA SSD or NVMe SSD). Some cables might not support certain types of SSDs.

Sometimes, a simple restart can help refresh the USB connections and resolve minor issues.

If possible, try connecting the SSD using the SATA to USB cable on another computer to see if the issue persists. This can help determine whether the problem is with the cable, the SSD, or your computer's USB ports.

Even if the SSD isn't showing up in Device Manager, it might appear in Windows Disk Management as an uninitialized disk. Search for "Create and format hard disk partitions" in the Start menu and check if the SSD is listed there. If it's listed, you might need to initialize and format it.

Answer 2

Kairo Munoz---you have selected the wrong SATA to USB cable from Amazon. Your HDDs are 3.5 inches and that cable supports only 2.5-inch drives. Either you replace it with the one that costs $16.98 or else get another one that supports 3.5-inch drives. A 3.5-inch drive requires a 12V power supply and the cables for 3.5-inch drives come with a separate 12V power adapter. So make sure you check that before buying.

Your two drives are also of two different SATA versions one having SATA II and another SATA III. And I am not sure whether SATA III would work with such cables but you can give it a try.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Yes still more good advice.We were also caught out by HD that had not been initialised or fmatted. Remember that the long fmat checks the drive for faults. The short one dont. We would add that we find some HDs will respobnd to Sata/USB cable. Some wont. We also found that the same HD will show up on an EXT Sata Cable with additional power. We found that with 2 int drives, one is usualy the boot drive and its that one that prefers EXT SATA cable with ext power. Thats as far as we got. We are only dimwits but put us up against Politicians.Police.HM Courts etc and they start runnin.