External HD problem
January 21, 2007 8:46 AM Subscribe
Trouble with an external hard drive & it's USB connection, possibly. (details inside)
Hey, just to clarify details; It is a Western Digital MyBook 250 GB model.
Recently it stopped being recognised by my macbook but upon being plugging it into a PC it worked again. It has now decided to cut out on me after a week of service.
Error messages now appear when it is plugged in to the tune of "The specified I/O operation on \Device\Harddisk\DR17 was not completed due to time out period expired."
I'm guessing it's not a mechanical fault so freezing it and the likes probably won't help but I'm stumped as to what else I can do to get this working?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Hey, just to clarify details; It is a Western Digital MyBook 250 GB model.
Recently it stopped being recognised by my macbook but upon being plugging it into a PC it worked again. It has now decided to cut out on me after a week of service.
Error messages now appear when it is plugged in to the tune of "The specified I/O operation on \Device\Harddisk\DR17 was not completed due to time out period expired."
I'm guessing it's not a mechanical fault so freezing it and the likes probably won't help but I'm stumped as to what else I can do to get this working?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Well it could be either the drive or the enclosure. A good first step is trying to isolate it by finding another drive for that enclosure or putting that drive in another machine/enclosure. Also you mean its, not it's.
posted by frieze at 9:00 AM on January 21, 2007
posted by frieze at 9:00 AM on January 21, 2007
Response by poster: Re: TheNewWazoo - Indeed there is a wireless router in the area but that wasn't on when the HD troubles started so it seems unlikely it's that. I gave it a shot there anyhow just a few mins ago to be sure but alas the HD is still kaputt. Thanks for suggestion though.
Re: Frieze - Indeed you're right, that's what I meant; thanks for correction.
As for separating and checking the HD & enclosure individually, well it's still in warranty so I best not open it up, so I have something to fall back on. Sorry, should have stated that in the question.
posted by jhayes at 9:16 AM on January 21, 2007
Re: Frieze - Indeed you're right, that's what I meant; thanks for correction.
As for separating and checking the HD & enclosure individually, well it's still in warranty so I best not open it up, so I have something to fall back on. Sorry, should have stated that in the question.
posted by jhayes at 9:16 AM on January 21, 2007
Well, if you can mount it on a PC (or a Mac) again, copy everything off of it. Now, if it's under warranty, I'd just go ahead and get it replaced -- it sounds like it's marginal, and failing.
Outside of opening it up, there's relatively little you can do. Your description doesn't make it sound like some sort of file-system error that could be fixed with a re-format.
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2007
Outside of opening it up, there's relatively little you can do. Your description doesn't make it sound like some sort of file-system error that could be fixed with a re-format.
posted by NucleophilicAttack at 10:56 AM on January 21, 2007
I'm seconding NucleophilicAttack -- if you don't want to crack the case because of the warranty, then you ought to back up your data (not that you don't have backups already -- right?) and have it replaced.
If it wasn't under warranty, or if you had bought the drive and enclosure separately (so they had separate warranties), then I'd say start isolating the problem and replace the faulty unit. But if you're treating the whole thing as a sealed box, then you might as well use that warranty and get a new one.
It's really not worth messing around with hard drives. Once they start to go downhill, it's my experience that they generally die, taking your data with them if you didn't heed the early symptoms.
Let WD deal with this problem.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:22 PM on January 21, 2007
If it wasn't under warranty, or if you had bought the drive and enclosure separately (so they had separate warranties), then I'd say start isolating the problem and replace the faulty unit. But if you're treating the whole thing as a sealed box, then you might as well use that warranty and get a new one.
It's really not worth messing around with hard drives. Once they start to go downhill, it's my experience that they generally die, taking your data with them if you didn't heed the early symptoms.
Let WD deal with this problem.
posted by Kadin2048 at 2:22 PM on January 21, 2007
Suggestion: if there is stuff on the drive you care about, buy a second drive and back the flaky one up using ddrescue.
Then organize a warranty claim.
posted by flabdablet at 5:12 PM on January 21, 2007
Then organize a warranty claim.
posted by flabdablet at 5:12 PM on January 21, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 8:51 AM on January 21, 2007