Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler External HD winds down after connection?

I have an external USB 2.0 drive that hasn't been used in a few years.

When I first plugged it in, I was getting a "heartbeat-rhythm clicking" but it wasn't showing up in explorer. As soon as I plugged in the USB cable, it stopped trying to spin.

I tried putting it in the freezer for an hour and now when powered it spins and the clicking has gone away. Yet still, when I plug the USB cable (or a different one to make sure!), it spins down and goes quiet...almost as if I turned the power off.

There's nothing too critical on there but if I could get that data off it, that would be preferable...even if it takes a bit of effort. I have another external HD from the same manufacturer and I can switch cases/power supplies, etc...(I assume)...

Anyone have any thoughts as to why a drive would spin down when connected?

Sounds like the controller on the drive is dying. If you can get it back up, get as much off of it as possible, but don't count on it actually working again.

Thanks, Ken.

The controller is actually part of the drive itself? So switching cases wouldn't help?

You got it. Now, it's possible, but highly unlikely, that the USB/ATA board in the case has gone off, but that wouldn't cause the noise you describe.

Hmmmm... luckily, it's purring along nicely at the moment. Of course, that's without it being connected. All the clicking has stopped.

Unluckily, I just checked it's "sister" drive, and it's F/W, not USB....

I swear I had a third one though, a 5600 RPM USB 2.0 in the same case, etc...

Oh, that doesn't matter. As long as the internal connection (PATA or SATA) is the same, you can swap the drives between cases all you like.

I tried the Firewire drive now as well, since IT hadn't been fired up in a few years.

It's ALSO not being recognized.

I'm sharing the same power supply with the DIN cable between them, and wondering if the power supply isn't "steady"...!

Sounds like you may have a culprit.

what does placing it in a freezer do.. besides make it really cold?

'Legendary' fix for stuck drive heads. Sometimes it works but you have to be careful when taking it out and powering up. The condensation can cause a short.

NOW I find out!

It's running at the moment, and the data is being transferred~~~!

I have an external hard drive enclosure. It came with a USB data cable, and one cable which has a barrel connector on one end and a USB plug on the other. It just sucks the voltage from a second USB port.

When I had a 250 GB drive in it, everything I used it with was fine powering it with the single USB data cable. So I backed up my PS3 and copied the data to my computer. Then I took the 60 GB drive out of the PS3 and returned the 250 gig in its place. The restore from my computer to the now installed 60 went fine. But when I tried to read the backup data on the PS3 it did what you're describing. It took the extra power lead to make the drive spin up, and stay that way.

It seems different drive models, even of the same manufacturer and form-factor have different power requirements (the older, smaller ones actually being more hungry). And different USB ports can support different current draws.

Hey Mark,
Since I can only imagine that you have a giga-pile of photos that you store as part of your business, it might warrant a capital investment in a multi-drive enclosure running RAID. In this way, as soon as one drive shows signs of failure you can swap it out without data loss.

Nothing is perfect but it does greatly increase the odds. It used to be just a big business solution due to costs but now that personal NAS devices are popular you can probably find one in a pricerange suitable for your home/business.

Yeah.

This data was saved, and wasn't critical anyway, but I keep thinking a Drobo or NAS-type thing is in order whenever I get this network fully functional.

The important stuff is safe... backed up on DVDs and additional copies stored off-premises... but I need a more elegant solution.

I'm just not bright enough to know what that is!

Not owning one myself (practice vs. preach) I can't tell you the best solution but there have been a lot of NAS discussions on this board lately.

Plus, it would be an excuse to haul out the wood working tools and build a nice rack to mount everything in. Or, you can just keep staring at the racks in Tom's avatar's. Whichever wood you prefer, so to speak.....