Anyone who knows anything about hard drives (int. and ext.)

Let me preface this by saying, I really don't know anything about hard drives, so excuse me if I say something stupid.

I have a 1TB SATA internal hard drive and just got an enclosure for it yesterday. It's an SATA enclosure and as far as I know is completely compatible with the drive, but for some reason when I turn it on, it doesn't do anything. The power light simply flickers (I'm pretty sure it's supposed to stay solid), but the drive doesn't power up (it doesn't make any sound). The drive worked fine in the other case I had.

The thing that confuses me is that there is only one connection to be made with this particular case. That is the SATA plug. You simply slide the drive onto the SATA plug... that's it. I don't see anything to actually provide power to the drive (I am not sure if the SATA plug is capable of providing power). The case I had before had the SATA plug and another plug with 4 holes in it that I'm pretty sure powered the drive. So, I have a connection on the hard drive with 4 prongs that isn't connected to anything; You can see it in the picture. I thought I needed something plugged into that port in order for the drive to operate. Someone please help.

http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0118.jpg[/img9909b56c08]

What does the end of the blue and black cable look like? The 4 prongs that are missing a cable are for the power, so if the blue/black cable doesn't go into it, either the power cable is missing (check the box), or it is the wrong enclosure for the hard drive.

If you have them, please post pictures of both the box the enclosure came in and also the end of the blue/black cable.

Yeah, it looks like you're missing the power connector. I haven't done anything w/SATA drives lately, but it's my understanding that it's similar to the old ATA standard one connector for data, another for power.

Usually the power cable looks something like this
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I'm uploading some more pics to photobucket right now, but figured I'd reply in the meantime (slow DSL).

The blue and black cable goes to the power LED and is very small consisting of only 2 wires (pictures on the way). The only cables in the box were the USB and the power cord (to be plugged into the wall). I double checked the compartments in the box and there was certainly no power cable. I do have the power cable from my old enclosure I could use, but I don't see any place on that little board inside the enclosure I could plug anything into. Correct me if I'm wrong (pics on the way), but I can't plug anything into the board.

EDIT

I am just noticing, even if I had a place to hook the power cable to on the board, if you look at the pics, I don't even have room to plug the power cable into the drive. That little board is in the way... It's not even possible for me to plug that cable in. How am I expected to power the drive using this case?!

But seriously, if I got the wrong enclosure, what HDD can work with a case that has no way to provide power to the drive?

Here are more pics and a link to the case at Newegg.

http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0123.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0126.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0129.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0130.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0131.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0135.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0137.jpg[/img08121162ce]
[img="08121162ce]http//i135.photobucket.com/albums/q144/mistertomlinson" alt=""/img_0138.jpg[/img08121162ce]

OK, I think I know what the problem may be. After doing some googling I found out, the plug that goes into the drive does indeed transfer data and power the HDD. I also noticed, when I unplug the drive from the enclosure, the light stops blinking and stays solid. Apparently, the flickering light is telling me there is a problem. I think the problem lies in the fact that the enclosure is for SATA 150 and my drive is SATA 3.0. I think I need to get yet another enclosure... DAMMIT!

I expect the enclosure's SATA controller may not support 1TB drives. Just a guess, but many enclosures have drive capacity limits of 500GB and 750GB. I've yet to see one that claims to support 1TB.

Regarding power be glad you didn't try to plug in a 4-pin molex power connecter -- you would have fried the drive! SATA drives include both SATA power connectors (to the left of the of SATA data connection, which is only about 1/2" wide), and traditional 4-pin molex power connections for those who don't have SATA-capable power supplies. Plugging in BOTH will fry the drive. That enclosure includes a one piece integrated data+power connector, so the molex power connector is not used.

SATA II 3G (there is no SATA 3.0) is backwards compatible with SATA 150 controllers. However a few early SATA 3G drives (like Maxtors) had problems with SATA 150 controllers and had to be jumpered to force SATA 150 mode, until their firmware could be updated. I'd be surprised if a recent 1TB drive had that problem, but if you can jumper it for SATA 150 it might help.

I couldn't find any jumpers on the drive...

If I repartitioned the drive in half (using my previous enclosure), would that work, assuming my new enclosure didn't support 1TB?

[quotef046b2cec1="mistertomlinson"]I couldn't find any jumpers on the drive...[/quotef046b2cec1]
They may not be putting jumpers on the latest drives anymore. I have this same model Hitachi in 750GB coming in on Monday, so I'll check, but I don't see anything in the manual that shows jumpers on the SATA version either.

[quotef046b2cec1="mistertomlinson"]If I repartitioned the drive in half (using my previous enclosure), would that work, assuming my new enclosure didn't support 1TB?[/quotef046b2cec1]
Doubt it. If the hardware has a fixed limit, then I'm pretty certain it won't recognize the drive. You're thinking of old-school BIOS and filesystem issues with large drives, which could be worked around with partition tricks, but this is potentially a hardware issue.

I don't know for a fact that your enclosure is limited, the specs on it don't claim any maximum size. I'm strictly stating that based on a lot of enclosure shopping I've done (I've bought several) and many still claim to support only up to 500GB or 750GB drives. I figure if the enclosure isn't limited, why state a maximum? Yours doesn't say one way or the other (and I checked the factory datasheet) so perhaps there is no maximum.

It did notice that it has pretty lukewarm reviews though, so I question the quality of it. Cheap enclosures are really hit & miss, and you're trying to stuff 1TB in there. I'd have recommended a Vantec for about $40, although last I checked they claimed a 750GB limit, but I remember reading someone saying they tried a 1TB and it worked.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to help me DMorris68. I really appreciate you going out of your way. + KRM. If you stumble into anymore info, please let me know. In the meantime, I guess I'll begin searching for another case. (

[quotea261902b72="dmorris68"]
Regarding power be glad you didn't try to plug in a 4-pin molex power connecter -- you would have fried the drive! SATA drives include both SATA power connectors (to the left of the of SATA data connection, which is only about 1/2" wide), and traditional 4-pin molex power connections for those who don't have SATA-capable power supplies. Plugging in BOTH will fry the drive. That enclosure includes a one piece integrated data+power connector, so the molex power connector is not used.
[/quotea261902b72]
Ah! Good to know! That was going to be my next question The green board obviously has a power connector on it (the thing that looks like a ps2 port), and I was going to ask where that connected to ) Sounds like you answered my question already!

Like I said in my original post, haven't had a chance to work much w/SATA drives yet... I got out of IT a little over a year ago and all my stuff @ home is older than that P