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windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

shutter
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

I have a usb caddy, and it is attached to this laptop... I have several HDD`s I want to access,.. one of which is a Windows Vista Home Premium.... the others are variations of Linux Mint...
I am running Windows Vista on this laptop... and when I plug in the Windows Vista HDD into the caddy, it eventually shows up on Computer.. as a seperate drive..... Great. !  
However, none of the Mint HDD`s show up... despite the fact that when I plug one in... I get the message  " installing device driver"  and then "Device driver installed successfully"   " your device is ready to use"... If I right click the icon, I get the same/similar message.... however, as  there is no recognition of the "device" ... so how can I use it?
29 REPLIES 29
PeeGee
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

So, have you installed any software to read the Mint disks as they are probably ext3 or ext4, assuming default formatting, and Windows won't know how to read them. Do they show up in the admin tools for disk management with unknown format partitions?
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shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

no I haven`t installed any software to read them... I would have expected windows to "recognize" the HDD in the same way as it recognises my USB stick with Mint on it... (Seeing as it is in a USB Caddy).. should appear as a drive, in the same way  ? ? ? 
VileReynard
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Windows can only read FAT & NTFS.
If it is a Linux disk, you could try changing your BIOS to boot from it.
( Remember to switch off any "secure boot" malware ).

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

I don`t want to boot from it... I just wanted to remove any filesI might need... (pics and docs) and then format it for windows....
I suppose I could access them from a Mint HDD installed... as that will "see" the drive...
but how can I format it for windows from Mint ?
twocvbloke
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Hook it up to a linux computer, pull the files off it that you want, then hook it back up to a windows computer and then format it from there... Smiley
Windows has been designed to be anti-linux (hardly surprising seeing as M$ are losing out to them!!), so getting it to read a linux filesystem requires third party software, often not freely available if you want to read and write to said drive, it harks back to the days of floppy disks, where you have various differing formats that were incompatible with other systems (E.G. Amiga, Apple, DOS, Atari, etc.) despite having the same media, it's just a way to keep people on one OS flavour to stop them roaming about if you will, which isn't fair to the end user...  Roll_eyes
Waldo
Grafter
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Registered: ‎01-08-2007

Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

I suspect the easiest solution would be to download DiskInternals Linux Reader software to access the Mint filesystem from within Windows.
picbits
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Chances are you have it formatted to an EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 format which Windows cannot read.
Grab another drive formatted to NTFS, boot into Linux and copy the files over. You could also consider copying them to a USB flash drive formatted to FAT32 or NTFS (if you have any files over 4Gb) then reading them through your WIndows machine.
shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Quote from: twocvbloke

Hook it up to a linux computer, pull the files off it that you want, then hook it back up to a windows computer and then format it from there... Smiley


Erm.... read original posting.... and title
IF windows cant see it..  it dont exist... and therefore I cant format it... that is the problem.. how to format it back for windows ? ntfs or fat ....
picbits
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

If you have a Linux computer, you can use GParted or similar to remove the partitions on the drive and effectively leave a blank hard drive.
Windows should then be able to format it (create a new partition through Control Panel -> Disk Management first).
*Edit - in fact try the Disk Management and see if it sees the drive through there. If you do remove partitions then you will lose any data stored on them
shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

OK guys.... I have downloaded diskinternals... and will give that a try... not sure how to use gparted.. but can give it a go, if nowt else works ! ! 
as usual... thanks very much for the helpful advice...  Wink
twocvbloke
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Quote from: shutter
IF windows cant see it..   it dont exist... and therefore I cant format it... that is the problem.. how to format it back for windows ? ntfs or fat ....

It should stick the drive in as an unknown format drive in My Computer, if not, then go into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, & open Computer Management, then go down to Disk Management on the left pane, find which HDD is unknown, right click it and hit Format... Smiley
Windows DOES see it, it's just microsoft being a PITA about it... Smiley
PeeGee
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

Mint will format the drive to FAT without problems (12, 16 or 32 as appropriate) and without size limitations. As per MS Windows, you need to go to the partitioner/disk managerment to format as needed. It's safer to use MS Windows disk management for NTFS even if Mint offers the option, because of the way MS "tweaks" the format for newer Windows Roll_eyes
Phil
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Using a TP-Link Archer VR600 modem-router.
shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

OK... thanks for the updates.. guys....  am busy doing other stuff now.. so will get on to it, later this coming week.
much appreciate your input...  Wink
shutter
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Re: windows doesn`t "see" my Caddy HDD

@2cv .... yup... followed your Control Panel instrs and it does show the linux hdd there...
When I right click on it.... it has Format greyed out... but it does have "delete volume" on it... so will give tha a go... and then see if I can format it from windows...  Wink
having done that... I then deleted the partitions... and then right click again, to "create new volume" .. following the instructions on that, brings up a format page  whihc has NTFS as one of the format suggestions... so... away we go....
Thanks very much...