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External USB Box or HD problem?

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(@lonelywolf)
Posts: 31
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Hi,

yesterday my boss come to me with his external usb box (Mobile Disk, External Data Storage) IDE, HD Quantum Fireball which seems to be dead.

I switch on the box, and windows (Disk Management) told me that the disk itìs unreadable, and no USB icon appear.

mmm what a bad thing …

so i tried to put that disk in another external box, Enermax SATA/IDE *_*
i switch the box, plug the usb cable in my pc and…all works fine as nothing happened.

mmm disk mechanic it's perfect i suppose, no file system problem..a power problem? what kind of electric problem can produce something similar?
it's an HD problem, or a power-external box problem?

i'm not able to determine this..can you help me?

thanks

 
Posted : 11/10/2006 10:34 pm
hogfly
(@hogfly)
Posts: 287
Reputable Member
 

If the disk works in another enclosure I would suspect the controller in the first box to be at fault.

 
Posted : 11/10/2006 10:50 pm
(@lonelywolf)
Posts: 31
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

i should test another IDE disk in that box, however i forget to tell you that from the first external box, i can hear the hard disk that start to spin but stopping immediately after, then start again and stop, start again and stop..
i was a bit worried that the HD was really die, instead in the other box was perfect.
Let me try an IDE disk…but let's suppose that another IDE works fine..what i should think?

thanks for your reply ^_^

 
Posted : 12/10/2006 12:07 pm
(@mindsmith)
Posts: 174
Estimable Member
 

I had the same problem previously - it appears it was the result of a power supply issue to the USB drive. The drive had been connected via a USB hub - with other USB devices connected - check the power consumption requirements for the drive . Connecting it directly to the machine or another machine seemed to solve the problem.

From then on I only connected the USB drive directly.

Regards,

 
Posted : 12/10/2006 1:23 pm
(@lonelywolf)
Posts: 31
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

ok, but i'm just curios to understand exactly, what kind of power supply is P
how can i discover this?

 
Posted : 12/10/2006 3:52 pm
(@offline)
Posts: 5
Active Member
 

fyi, usb hubs are good for maybe a keyboard and mouse. I would not recommend using them with any sort of writable media. If it's a laptop, plug it in directly, if it's a desktop you can buy a PCI USB2.0 card fairly cheap, and plug it into that.

That being said, as Hogfly said yesterday, these symptoms seem more an issue with the enclosure's controller. I would test a known good drive in it and see if you encounter the same problems. You say the drive works in another enclosure (plugged into the same computer?) so I would lean towards the original enclosure being faulty.
It could still be a drive issue, and it just had enough cooldown time or was jostled around enough to work fine in the other enclosure… check the event log next time you have it up and running and see if there are any disk read errors in the system log. If so you will want to let your boss know and back that data up.

 
Posted : 12/10/2006 6:42 pm
az_gcfa
(@az_gcfa)
Posts: 116
Estimable Member
 

I am unable to explain the following observation but I have experienced this effect on numerous hard drives As hard drives become older they have a tendency to run hotter. Older drives that run hotter also have a tendency to require more electricial current and will sometimes overheat power supplies.
When I have a drive that starts acting funny, now you see it and now you don't, I always connect the drive to a new power supply and begin the off-loading process.
I've been told that the main bearings burn out. I had a ole seagate drive that when it was powered down the only way to get it working again was to tap is with a hammer over the main bearing. This drive worked this way for about 6 months – I reckon I tapped it a little to hard one day! The newer drives have different bearings and are suppose to last longer.
Also, a drive that is going bad will burn up enclosure power supplies. For some reason, the enclosure power supplies just can not handle the increase load and constant demand. I only use enclosures for short term quick connect needs.

 
Posted : 13/10/2006 10:06 am
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