Thanks for the very comprehensive answer Al!


>>Hi,
>>my old disk drive in my USB to SATA 3.5" Hard Drive enclosure died so I bought a new one (2TB) and plugged it in. However, when I power the enclosure on and plug it into my USB port, nothing happens. Even if the disk has not yet been formatted, shouldn't the PC recognise it as a new drive? Or maybe my enclosure has died too?
>
>When you connect a USB device you should hear sounds (different ones when you disconnect) if you have your computer's audio turned on. Do you hear those sounds?
>

Audio is on, but not getting the normal beep when this got turned on before.

>If an unpartitioned/unformatted drive is successfully connected, it of course won't appear in File Explorer until it has Windows-compatible volumes defined. You can do that in Disk Management; the new drive should appear as 100% "Unallocated". Right-click on the space to create partition(s), Simple volumes are best for most use cases, format as NTFS (the default).
>

Disk Management shows my 2 existing disks partitioned properly, my DVD drive shows up as well, but nothing else.

>A few reasons why you may not get it connected as expected:
>
>- New drive not properly installed in enclosure. SATA is fairly foolproof but you might want to ensure the enclosure's combined connector is firmly plugged into the drive
>
>- If the enclosure is really old it may not support 2TB drives
>

It is a couple years old, at most 3, but I guess that is possible.

>- Enclosure has died
>

This is what I am leaning towards as there is a slight fried smell around the circuit board.

>- New drive was DOA
>
>- You may need to power on the enclosure; some have a non-obvious power switch
>

Yes, it's powered on.

>- Some enclosures have an LED activity indicator which is cabled to the USB/SATA bridge board via a 2- or 3-pin header. Often that cable has to be disconnected, then reconnected when replacing the hard drive. If you plug it back in incorrectly it *might* cause problems:

I haven't had to do that when putting other drives in (they were already formatted though whereas this one is a brand new unformatted one).

>- Best case scenario is the design may not care, the enclosure and LED may work fine either way
>- Most likely case is the enclosure would continue to work except for the LED
>- Worst case is hooking it up backwards causes the enclosure to fail
>
>If you're using a desktop computer, you could spend a few bucks to get SATA data and power cables (the power supply may already have a spare SATA power cable), pop open the case and temporarily directly connect the new drive to the motherboard. You don't have to mount it in place, lie it upside down so the electronics on the control board aren't touching anything. If you do that test, bear in mind some computers (e.g. certain Dells) require you to manually configure the SATA ports to be enabled or disabled in the BIOS. In that case you have to enable for the test, then remember to disable when you're finished or the system will beep and stop during each POST due to "drive not found".
>
>For a few more bucks you can get adapters such as http://www.ncix.com/detail/vantec-ide-sata-to-usb-3-0-3e-136157.htm , which allow you to connect many types of drives to a system via USB. I've had excellent luck with Vantec, I've used the earlier USB 2.0 version of that device for a long time, it works great. With something like that you could quickly test your new drive without having to buy separate cables or popping your computer's case.

Thanks for all the ideas. Very helpful.