Macbook Pro won't recognize harddrive anymore

[poptilyoudrop]

I have a Seagate 500GB Momentus 7200 harddrive which I was using as my internal bootdrive.
I have replaced this with a Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB harddrive.

I now want to connect my old Seagate as an external via USB to copy my old files to the new harddrive, but the drive just won't show up anywhere (also not in Disk Utility). But if I switch the drives again, my Macbook still boots just fine from the Seagate. So it just won't read it as an external. I've tried different cables. Why won't it recognize it?

 

[Fishrrman]

How are you trying to connect the Seagate?

What type of enclosure are you using?

Can you try a -different- enclosure, or USB3/SATA docking station?

It's -possible- that whatever enclosure you are using, requires more "USB bus power" than the Macbook can provide. If that's the case, the lack of power may not be enough to "get the drive spinning and mounted"...

 

[poptilyoudrop]

I don't have any other enclosures. Would a SATA-USB cable help? Or would that also no give enough power? I've also tried a Y-cable with no luck.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I don't have any other enclosures. Would a SATA-USB cable help? Or would that also no give enough power? I've also tried a Y-cable with no luck.

Have you tried plugging the external hard drive into other USB ports?

 

[poptilyoudrop]

^Yes, also tried that. Can an enclosure with power source be bought separately for this kind of thing?

 

[poptilyoudrop]

How are you trying to connect the Seagate?

What type of enclosure are you using?

Can you try a -different- enclosure, or USB3/SATA docking station?

It's -possible- that whatever enclosure you are using, requires more "USB bus power" than the Macbook can provide. If that's the case, the lack of power may not be enough to "get the drive spinning and mounted"...

I think a docking station would be a great solution! I just checked that out.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I think a docking station would be a great solution! I just checked that out."

A good idea.
You need a "USB3/SATA docking station".
Don't worry about the "USB3" part, should be backward-compatible with USB2.

Numerous ones are available at places like amazon.com.
Just enter "usb3 sata dock" into the search bar.

I suggest that you get one that has specific support for "UASP" (USB attached SCSI protocol).

These are VERY handy devices to have around...

 

[blue-bear]

I'm having a similar problem as well. The thing I worked out was not to plug the USB fully in just plug most of the way and it'll start recognising

Never had the issue before but with the new macs I seem to run into this problem

Hope this helps