1 TB HDD in HDD caddy is not recognized

crackhammer · 15 Oct 2018

Hello folks,

Just to speed up the aging laptop (Acer Aspire 5740), I replaced HDD with SSD and in the process of replacing the optical drive with the old HDD in HDD caddy.

I have been trying to figure out what's wrong all weekend. The HDD works flawlessly. If I put the HDD in the external enclosure, I can use the HDD. But once I put it in the caddy, it is not recognized at all, not in the BIOS, not in the device manager, not in disk management.

I suspect the caddy is faulty but how do I make sure that the caddy is faulty and no other issue with the laptop?
The optical drive worked without a problem.

Have been searching all threads over the web throughout the weekend. No solution, if any that I found, has worked.

Thanks in advance.

Clintlgm · 15 Oct 2018

Seems to me you answered your own question your Optical drives works and your hard drive works, the only thing between the two is the caddy you are using so that has to be the point of failure. Most likely you have the wrong caddy for your notebook and the connections are not lining up?

crackhammer · 15 Oct 2018

Thanks, mate.

I put the caddy on top of the DVD drive that I pulled out and it seems pretty much OK. I even used Vernier caliper to make sure that the port is aligned and it seems it does.

Put the caddy in another laptop and it works flawlessly, but that laptop is Windows 7, not Windows 10. So the caddy is working.

Now the goal is to find out why it doesn't work on my laptop?

Any pointers?

Stitch194 · 15 Oct 2018

@crackhammer. Just a suggestion! Did you by chance wipe the old HDD? If not you may have an address conflict with the SSD and the old HDD.

Clintlgm · 15 Oct 2018

crackhammer said:

Thanks, mate.

I put the caddy on top of the DVD drive that I pulled out and it seems pretty much OK. I even used Vernier caliper to make sure that the port is aligned and it seems it does.

Put the caddy in another laptop and it works flawlessly, but that laptop is Windows 7, not Windows 10. So the caddy is working.

Now the goal is to find out why it doesn't work on my laptop?

Any pointers?

hmm, the hard drive caddy's I'm familiar with replace the optical drive there is only one SATA connection in that slot so if your only putting the Caddy on top of the DVD the DVD is using the only SATA connection. here are some links to a few of them be sure you get one that will work specifically in your notebook. as you see there are a few different ones https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...=10MH4STPYWTEN There are some other brands including one from Acer for your notebook in this Google search Acer Aspire 5740 optical drive replacement hard drive caddy - Google Search

This one is for your notebook Amazon.com: Deyoung 2nd SATA Hard Drive HDD SSD Caddy Adapter for Acer Aspire 5740 5740DG 5740G 5745: Computers Accessories
Here is a video spicific for your notebook HDD Caddy for Acer Aspire 5742 - YouTube there are lots of other vidios on You Tube

zbook · 15 Oct 2018

See if you can borrow a drive from a friend, neighbor, relative, or local computer store.
Test the swapped drive in the caddy.

Try3 · 15 Oct 2018

crackhammer,

I once had the same problem.

I had to remove additional parts of the laptop until I could see the caddy connection from above. I discovered that it was only partially inserted despite feeling fully inserted so the connections were not properly made. I managed to get some strong thread around the connection then I jiggled it about whilst pushing on the caddy until it went all the way in. It has been fine ever since.

Perhaps you have the same problem?

Best of luck,
Denis