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Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Thu 28 Feb, 2008 6:37 am

I just lost contact with my external hd

300+gigs worth of back ups and movies...

Anyone have any advice on what to do? I looked in on it and eventhough computer was turned off, it was running its fan loudly (but not loud "broken", just loud "in use"). So I pulled out the powercord (and plugged it back in, this did nothing, just resumed fan use).

This is what I get for having downloader running (and 3 EQ instances) for 3 days straight

Creac · Post by **Creac** » Thu 28 Feb, 2008 6:45 am

What do you mean lost contact?

How is it connected to the PC (USB)?

What were you expecting to happen when you put the power cord back in?

Turn the external unit off (disconnect power if that's the only way) and disconnect from your PC. Whilst disconnected from your PC, reboot your PC. Once rebooted, power up the external HDD (but keep it disconnected from your PC) and after a minute, connect it back to your PC and give your PC a moment to detect it and add it.

If you still can't see it from explorer, right click on My Computer and choose Manage.

Once that new screen comes up, go down to Disk Management and then see if the drive is listed but perhaps not assigned a letter (it may be conflicting with something else). If need be, assign a new letter. If it's not showing at all, then you possible have a problem with the external case (more likely than the HDD failing).

As for leaving machines on - mine are very rarely switched off - it does them no harm at all and in many respects improves their life as it's the startup/shutdown period that places the greatest strain on a system.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Thu 28 Feb, 2008 5:31 pm

Creac wrote:What do you mean lost contact?

How is it connected to the PC (USB)?

What were you expecting to happen when you put the power cord back in?

Turn the external unit off (disconnect power if that's the only way) and disconnect from your PC. Whilst disconnected from your PC, reboot your PC. Once rebooted, power up the external HDD (but keep it disconnected from your PC) and after a minute, connect it back to your PC and give your PC a moment to detect it and add it.

If you still can't see it from explorer, right click on My Computer and choose Manage.

Once that new screen comes up, go down to Disk Management and then see if the drive is listed but perhaps not assigned a letter (it may be conflicting with something else). If need be, assign a new letter. If it's not showing at all, then you possible have a problem with the external case (more likely than the HDD failing).

As for leaving machines on - mine are very rarely switched off - it does them no harm at all and in many respects improves their life as it's the startup/shutdown period that places the greatest strain on a system.

It's a USB hd. It showned up as "Unknown device" in the management system, when I tried yesterday. I'll try the whole reboot, plug in etc. stuff, but I don't like the fact that it was running its fan at max even before I plugged USB in yesterday.

And as far as I remember, handbook said that it could only operate the hd for a number of hours at a time or it would not like me. Is why I thought the 3 day constant uploading from the hd (albeit at only ~30 kb/s) could have screwed it.

Creac · Post by **Creac** » Thu 28 Feb, 2008 5:42 pm

Once the drive gets to normal operating temperature (a matter of minutes) it makes no real difference how long it's on.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Thu 28 Feb, 2008 6:26 pm

Creac wrote:Once the drive gets to normal operating temperature (a matter of minutes) it makes no real difference how long it's on.

That's another thing... an hour+ after I unplugged it, gf helped me get it out (I had cramps from work out, long story

) and it was still quite hot, I'd guess 40-50 degrees celcious.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Thu 13 Mar, 2008 1:00 am

Just plugged it back in and it's there. So either a glitch or the USB port died... I have always had issues with my USB ports (sometimes when I start computer USB mouse doesn't work... I have to deactivate and reactivate USB hub to get it working).

So thanks.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Fri 14 Mar, 2008 12:13 am

It died again... this time while watching a movie... I had some minor lag for 10 mins, then it got worse and I decided to copy the file from external to desktop. Watched movie from there. Today I notice that the harddrive isn't there again.

Fuck.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Fri 14 Mar, 2008 12:20 am

It's the same damn issue as I have occasionally with mouse. Except I can't fix this by reactivating USB port, I gotta power harddrive down and put USB in different slot.

Any clue how to look for faults in a USB port/driver? I thought for sure this problem had persisted from one motherboard to the next, but now I'm not so sure I remember correctly.

It at least persisted through at least two BIOS updates and one motherboard driver update.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Fri 14 Mar, 2008 12:24 am

Neat... restarted downloads and one of the two gives a "Error: Disk read error - dataerror (cyclic redundancy error), read fails".

Seem to recall them cyclic redundancy errors being bad.

Edit: Super. Tried restarting the download that failed and the other one fails giving a read error... and the harddrive is gone again.

Edit2: It must be my download program that's fucking it up. Just killed the program and the harddrive returns... wonder if it's because it's full... makes alot of sense, since it claims to still have 140 gb free! Er.

Definately the downloader that's doing some shit... says the folder with my recent downloads is empty, but it should actually contain ~40 gigs... sigh... if someone embedded some shit in any of these movies, I'm gonna be upset.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Wed 26 Mar, 2008 8:47 am

Hello again.

Tried hooking up my harddrive again today after not being able to get in contact with it the last few days. Clicked the icon and it was searching for a while... then said the disc isn't formated, asking if I want to format now.

I suppose that means the data is now lost. But how the fuck? It's just been sitting there.

Post by **Thoraf** » Wed 26 Mar, 2008 10:16 am

NO that's not necessarily the case.

have you tried putting it in a new case? I've had troubles like this on old intermittantly faulty cases

needeless to say don't format it until you've tried to access it via other means.

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Wed 26 Mar, 2008 4:51 pm

Thoraf wrote:NO that's not necessarily the case.

have you tried putting it in a new case? I've had troubles like this on old intermittantly faulty cases

needeless to say don't format it until you've tried to access it via other means.

I have no other case, it came in the one it's in :/

I'm gonna see about bringing it to ex's house and trying it in her laptop. My own computer couldn't start again today (first time around) even though the drive haven't been in... so maybe it's "simply" the USB ports that's forking with me again. Slim chance, but.

Post by **Thoraf** » Wed 26 Mar, 2008 5:41 pm

Buy another case.. they are typically pretty cheap. drop the drive into the newcase.. voila. tested, and you either don't have to purchase a new case to replace your faulty one, orrrr. you have a spare case for next tiem

Vexo · Post by **Vexo** » Wed 26 Mar, 2008 7:57 pm

Thoraf wrote:Buy another case.. they are typically pretty cheap. drop the drive into the newcase.. voila. tested, and you either don't have to purchase a new case to replace your faulty one, orrrr. you have a spare case for next tiem

Quite sure the warranty is void if I open it though

So if it is faulty, I'm screwed.

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