Using old hard drive

I have a 500gb ssd with my previous windows set up and files on. I had upgraded to a 1tb ssd a couple of years ago, clean installed (on a different laptop).

Kept the old 500gb one as additional file back ups. I now want to wipe the 500gb and use it as an external storage drive in a case. But it is not being recognised by windows. Other drives work in the case but not this one. At first I thought it was a dead drive, Bht just wondering if it’s something else (ie it has windows on from another computer). Any way I can check if it’s working and access contents? Don’t need the contents as I’m planning on wiping it but do need access to it to reformat it.

A couple of things:

First, since this is an SSD you want to make certain that the enclosure that you are placing the drive in supports TRIM operations (very important for SSDs). Not all enclosures (especially old models) support this.

That said, even if your enclosure does not support TRIM, you should be able to at least see the SSD. I'm wondering if the reason that you don't see the SSD is simply that a drive letter is not assigned to it.

Could you possibly try this...

1) Leave the SSD disconnected.
2) Open DISK MANAGEMENT and take note of what you see there.
3) Connect the SSD and wait a few seconds to allow it to be seen by the system.
4) Refresh Disk Management (select Action > Refresh at the top of the screen).

Do you now see an additional drive that was not there previously? If so, could you take a screenshot and post it here?

If you are still not seeing that SSD, do you have any other enclosure in which you could try that drive? Would it be possible to connect it to a SATA port and power internally on a desktop computer to see if it is seen then?

If other drives work in the case, I would say the drive died. Don't get rid of it until you know for sure. I had an old 250GB Kingston SSD that I replaced with an 500GB Samsung SSD. I put the drive in my desk and after not being used for a couple of years it died. I stored it in the container the Samsung came in, so I have idea why.

Thanks. I should have thought to look in disk management. It does show there as “unknown “ Not initialised - unallocated. However if I right click on it no options to format - everything greyed out except properties and help.

Did you right click where it says disk 1 ?

If you rt click where it says disk 1 you should get the option to initialize it.

1. initialize
2. create partition(s)
3. format partition(s)

cant format until the disk has ben initialized and partition (s) have been created.

Sorted - went into properties and disabled and re enabled device and it shows up now, with its partitions.

SIW2 said:

Did you right click where it says disk 1 ?

Click to expand...

Yes and also in menus. Right click only showed properties but disabled and re enabled device and it shows up now with all its partitions.

Hmm. Deleted two of the partitions so they are unallocated ready to format but can’t seem to delete the third partition 855mb Recovery Partition. Right clicking just gives “help”. So have only been able to format the rest of the disk. Would like to get rid of that partition.

Might be because of the partition id.

Can either change the id , or use diskpart with override

Thanks. I did it in disk part. Can’t remember what did it now. I did clean first, then extend. So sorted now, newly formatted 500gb ssd.

the Diskpart CLEAN command will remove all partition tables and leave it completely unallocated, ready to make your own partition.

DISKPART> help clean

Removes any and all partition or volume formatting from the disk with
focus.

Syntax: CLEAN [ALL]

ALL Specifies that each and every byte\sector on the disk is set to
zero, which completely deletes all data contained on the disk.

On master boot record (MBR) disks, only the MBR partitioning information
and hidden sector information are overwritten. On GUID partition table
(GPT) disks, the GPT partitioning information, including the Protective
MBR, is overwritten. If the ALL parameter is not used, the first 1MB
and the last 1MB of the disk are zeroed. This erases any disk formatting
that had been previously applied to the disk. The disk's state after
cleaning the disk is 'UNINITIALIZED'.

Bree said:

the Diskpart CLEAN command will remove all partition tables and leave it completely unallocated, ready to make your own partition.

DISKPART> help clean

Removes any and all partition or volume formatting from the disk with
focus.

Syntax: CLEAN [ALL]

ALL Specifies that each and every byte\sector on the disk is set to
zero, which completely deletes all data contained on the disk.

On master boot record (MBR) disks, only the MBR partitioning information
and hidden sector information are overwritten. On GUID partition table
(GPT) disks, the GPT partitioning information, including the Protective
MBR, is overwritten. If the ALL parameter is not used, the first 1MB
and the last 1MB of the disk are zeroed. This erases any disk formatting
that had been previously applied to the disk. The disk's state after
cleaning the disk is 'UNINITIALIZED'.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bree that is really useful to know.

I use the free version of Mini Tool Partition Wizard, it recognises all types of discs better than the Windows one and will have no bother resetting a drive back to only one partition.