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General discussion

External HDD Disconnects

Jul 23, 2006 8:39PM PDT

I have a WD 80GB IDE HDD I bought 3-4 years ago.
Since I now have a laptop I bought a 3.5" external case for my HDD with a USB connection and an external Power Unit before 1 year.
I connected it properly and it works fine.

Usually when it works it makes the spinning noise (the disk works at 7200RPM).
The problem is that sometimes I hear the spinning stop for a second and then restart.
Seconds later Windows display a ?HDD Write failure? message.
When I turn it off and then on again everything works fine!

Please tell me if this is the HDD or the case or the Power unit of the case.
And, that HDD has important data; do you think it might crash anytime and loose them?

Discussion is locked

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more info please
Jul 24, 2006 6:48PM PDT

What manufacturer & model name is your computer?
Are you running Windows XP SP2?
External HD plugged into front or back USB ports?
Model number of external HD enclosure?

1. You should always have good backups. External HD's are extra storage at best, but they are not the best for more dependable backups.

2. Whenever you think you might have a HD problem, backup all important data to another HD or optical disc IMMEDIATELY (or clone the HD to another HD).

3. Scan that HD with Western Digital's diagnostic tools. It will help to confirm if the HD is failing. Test the drive with Windows XP's HD error checking tools. You can perform these tests with the HD as an internal slave to help in pinpointing the cause.

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also
Jul 24, 2006 6:49PM PDT

Make sure your Windows is up to date and that you have the latest drivers.

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also also
Jul 24, 2006 8:00PM PDT

If after you have determined that the drive is OK, you have the latest drivers, and you have backups, reinsert the HD into the external enclosure and use Disk Management to delete all partitions on the HD. Create at least one partition and format.

If the drive still has problems, try a better external enclosure.

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Re: also also
Jul 25, 2006 3:26AM PDT

I backed up the important files in my external drive now.
I also scanned my HDD using WD program and no problems were found.
I also used chkdsk (windows checkdisk program) and no problem was found.

I am using SP2. My computer is a HP laptop and I am using the side USB ports. (there are no back usb ports in this model).

I don't know the brand of the HDD enclosure, it only says ''Moble HDD'' on it. It is a cheap HDD enclosure. There were no drivers in the package, is is plug-and-play and windows recognizes it as ''USB mass storage device''.

Also I must say that there is no ventilation in the enclosure (there is not a fan to holes) and when I touch it, it is very very hot.

Can high temperature cause this problem?

The thing I notice most when it happens is that it ''spins down'' and immediately ''spins up'', so what does that mean?

Thanks for taking time in reading my message and replying!!!

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Just sharing.
Jul 26, 2006 1:39AM PDT

I have one drive that does that. BUT I've learned in my case the drive was getting a little too full. I removed a gigabyte from it then had Windows 2000 do a CHKDSK on the drive on the next boot. While that took nearly an hour it appears to have solved the error.

Best of luck,

Bob