Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Suspect my Seagate USB external hard drive going out

Aug 7, 2016 9:17AM PDT

Seagate - Model Number: ST500DM002-1BD142

Dell desktop - Inspiron 3647 – windows 10

Maybe about a month ago started noticing that I had to reboot from time to time in order for the external hard drive to be listed in windows explorer.

Device Manager = Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)
First “Restart your computer” - maybe this will fix it.

Recently backed up important stuff to “DVD”. So we're good there.

Within the past few days issue became more acute. Found something on Google to try – Shutdown and unplug power to computer and unplug power and disconnect USB cable to external drive. Hold power button down for ten seconds to remove reserve power from computer. Reconnect power cord to computer, boot up and wait till “normal” status is achieved. Plug power cord to USB device and then connect USB device cord – check to ensure that the USB device is working as normal. Worked initially, but then the problem returned several hours later.

Found something on Google that suggested I go to Device Manager and uninstall all USB controllers. Did that – rebooted – no luck.

Maybe not an issue but booted into 'safemode' and ran – sfc /scannow – no effect

Changed USB “cable”, rebooted, currently external drive is working. Downloaded and ran a program from Seagate to test external hard drive, results below, came out good.


--------------- SeaTools for Windows v1.4.0.4 ---------------
8/7/2016 9:00:59 AM
Model Number: ST500DM002-1BD142
Serial Number: S2ANE3J7
Firmware Revision: KC47
SMART - Started 8/7/2016 9:00:59 AM
SMART - Pass 8/7/2016 9:01:04 AM
Short DST - Started 8/7/2016 9:01:23 AM
Short DST - Pass 8/7/2016 9:02:26 AM
Fix All Long - Started 8/7/2016 9:03:58 AM
Fix All Long - Pass 8/7/2016 10:25:06 AM

Looking for any suggestions going forward in case I continue to have issues with this external hard drive. I assume last step is to buy a new external hard drive. If I need to buy a new one, maybe some "basic" info I need before I go shopping.

Thanks in advance,

Eddie

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Seagates have a history.
Aug 7, 2016 9:45AM PDT

If you see a Seagate with any glitch, my tech friends advise to remove all content from it (backup, or your choice) and try starting over with it but always mark the drive as a suspected bad drive.

I might try to remove all the partitions from it, make a new single partition, let it format quick then run a disk test again. This on USB takes a few days on some setups so you can see why some just replace the drive.

-> I need to cover the backup topic. Never drive your last copy of a file down to one place. That's unsafe.

- Collapse -
Thanks Bob
Aug 7, 2016 9:58AM PDT

So, any "brand" or 'brands' suggestions? Their not very expensive anymore so maybe best to just buy a new one. Any spec's to look for?
Thanks in advance

- Collapse -
I don't know best today.
Aug 7, 2016 10:04AM PDT

I will share I picked up a pair of Toshiba Canvio Basic 2TB USB 3.0 with cable for under 99 bucks each. Seem nice enough.

- Collapse -
Answer
Code 43
Aug 7, 2016 10:29AM PDT

That's a generic error that says something is busted.

Since this is a 3 1/2 hdd I'll assume you have an ext power source.

Swap the usb cable.
Try a different usb port.
Swap the enclosure.
Swap the hdd.

- Collapse -
Code 43
Aug 7, 2016 11:24AM PDT

Thanks for replying - already replaced the usb cable and its connected to a different port. So giving a little time, been a few hours, to see if it will continue to work. If by tomorrow morning still have an issue probably buy a new external drive.

Thanks again

- Collapse -
Answer
Suspect my Seagate USB external hard drive going out
Aug 8, 2016 11:10AM PDT

SeaTools thoroughly tests your Seagate, Maxtor-brand, and Quantum-brand ATA drives. If it passes all tests, then the problem is usually located somewhere else in your system. It is important that you not risk losing all your data by returning a perfectly good disk drive. Additionally, removing your drive will reduce your productivity until it is replaced. Prior to the availability of SeaTools, many of the hard drives returned to Seagate were found to have no problems. That means a significant number of customers who were returning their good disk drives were forfeiting valuable data and productivity.

There are two versions of SeaTools, one runs in Windows and the other runs from its own bootable operating system on a CD or floppy. While both versions can initiate the drive's built in self test (called DST), the bootable version, SeaTools for DOS, has additional capabilities if bad sectors are found.

An interesting aspect of disk drive technology is that since early 2000 disk drives are constantly using idle time to scan for difficult sectors. If found, these sectors are considered questionable and they are the first ones tested by the DST short test. This way, the benefits of the long scan are enjoyed without the long duration of the whole drive scan.

- Collapse -
Not happy with Seatools.
Aug 9, 2016 8:18AM PDT

A client had boot issues and we ran Seatools which gave it a passing grade. So we wiped the drive, started with no partitions and installed again. Still boot issues. Seatools still passed.

Swap in another HDD and repeat the wipe and OS install. All good.

Seatools, while a nice idea doesn't seem to be a good enough test.

- Collapse -
Answer
What about hard drive Sleep in Power Options?
Aug 10, 2016 2:11PM PDT

In Windows Power Options (Start/Control Panel/Power Options) click on Advanced. In the dialog box list locate Hard Disk and click the arrow or + beside it. Make sure the "Allow hard drive to sleep after ..." is set to "Never". Save/OK and close the window.
Sometimes external hard drives go to Sleep because of this setting and are not recognised when they you try to access them later. And, sometimes a Windows update may change your previous setting in Power Options from Never to something else which would explain why this began happening only recently.
Having said that, we've had more than one Seagate external drive fail on us at home and we're "light" users, so don't be afraid to replace the drive with something like a WD Red which is intended for always-on use.