WD20EARX, cannot detect via USB enclosure.

[cpatrick]

Recently purchased a 2TB Caviar Green external HDD. It will not read when plugged into the computer via USB. I have removed the drive and installed it on the internal SATA port, and the drive is recognized as normal. I've even ran diagnostic tests on it, and it passes them all. 

I've tested the drive with a second SATA>USB converter that works for all of my other drives, and I get the same problem. I've tried reformatting the drive a few different ways, to no avail.

Could someone please tell me the proper way to format the drive so it will be recognized when used via USB enclosure?

[cpatrick]

Running W7 HP 64bit. Have tried booting up into GParted and get the same lack of recognition.

[alexthurman]

I have the same problem.  My 2TB WD20EARX drive will not wotk in my Acomdata USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure.  However, my 2TB WD20EADS works in the enclosure.  What did Western Digital do to make the 2TB WD20EARX no longer work in enclosures?

[fzabkar]

The "X" is a 6Gbps drive. Try reducing its SATA interface speed via the OPT1 jumper.

[alexthurman]

Yes, I tried putting a jumper on pins 5 and 6.  Still not working.

[alexthurman]

It seems that the 6GB transfer is the issue.  Any way to bump it down to 3GB like the EARS and EADS drives?

[fzabkar]

That's what the OPT1 jumper is supposed to do. In some models it drops the rate by one notch, while in others it drops it all the way down to 1.5Gbps. I have even seen this difference in behaviour in the same model with different firmware.

For example, "Caviar Black drives that have a model number of WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 use the SATA 3.0 Gb/s pin layout - setting Jumpers 5 & 6 on these model drives will enable OPT1 which will set your drive to 1.5 Gb/s". For other versions, the same jumper sets a speed of 3Gbps ("PHY enabled").

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/search/1/a_id/5387#jumper

WD has a utility called WDSSpeed, but I think its function is to enable 6Gbps in those 3Gbps models that support it. I don't believe you can go the other way.

[alexthurman]

I tried another Acomdata USB 3.0 hard drive enclosure that the WD20EARX DID work with. So, it appears that Acomdata may have made some changes in their second first version of the external enclosures.