Can't access HDD plugged in via a USB to SATA bridge?

I've just bought myself a new WD HDD, plugged it in, formatted it and given it a new drive number - all running well.

I now want to copy everything from my old (smaller) HDD, so i've plugged it in to an old USB to SATA II/IDE, the computer installed the driver and the disk is spinning up, but the drive won't show under my disk drives.

In Computer Management the drive shows up saying it's healthy, but it says it's a GPT Protected Partition. All the options to reassign a drive letter/format etc are greyed out, except one option to change it to a dynamic disk. I've refrained from doing this just yet in case it wipes my drive.

How do I access the drive to get all the data off? Any help appreciated.

Thanks

The USB to IDE/Sata might not have enough power since it is powered via the USB connection.....just a thought....

How much available space is left your OS drive.........you might want to try to make a folder on your desktop; copy all the data from your old drive to that folder.......then remove the old HDD and install the new one and then copy that folder to the new bigger HDD.....

It should have enough power, it's plugged into the mains, then USB/SATA controller itself allows me to plug the HDD in and connect via USB. It's also spinning up and showing within Computer Management.

My first thought was to move all the files elsewhere, but I only have a 250Gb SSD, the HDD is 2Tb and full.

Still could be a power issue.......do you have an external enclosure that is self powered you could try it in?

From your system specs you should have enough SATA ports......how come you cannot just run the old and new drive off the motherboard while you transfer your data......?

Hi there

seems the most sensible suggestion to me -- with the computer open simply plug the new HDD into a SATA port on the mobo and don't forget the power supply either.

For managing power to the HDD :

Use either the SATA power connector (the connector from the PSU --- ) -- if you don't have enough SATA power connectors then use a MOLEX connector -- the standard 4 pin IDE power connector-->SATA adapter.

Cheers
jimbo

Ended up doing exactly that. It's just a complete inconvenience as where my PC is situated the wires are short so have to take them all out to be able to pull the PC out into the open, it's located in a small enclosure up against a wall too and the thing is extremely heavy (Fractal Design R5), not easy to get back into place either. On top of that, I hate leaving it out in the open whilst everything transfers over as our annoying cat can't seem to stay away from it.

It did work previously on an older drive, though i'm guessing as the PC was pre-built last year that specific drive was created using their dodgy software or something. Got it sorted anyway. Cheers both.