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Kind of complex external hard drive issue

Desert Fox

Philosopher
Desert Fox
Joined
Feb 4, 2014
Messages
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I use a Western Digital 3 tb "MyBook" as an external backup drive.
I am having an issue where it sees the hard drive and then does not, sees it and then does not again.

It was for the longest time in one of my two USB 3.0 ports. Tried as an experiment plugging it into a USB 2.0 and started doing the same thing after a while. Same thing seems to have happened when plugged into one of the front slots.

I have several portable external drives which are not having issues.

Tried it on the TV server computer and seem to be getting a similar issue.

I am wondering if it is likely the drive controller. My understanding is that there is a 3.0 TB WD green drive in there and considering just mounting the drive in my computer (I have the bay location)
 
thaiboxerken said:
Are you using the same USB cable in each experiment?
Click to expand...

Switched USB cables in the process of testing

Of note as well, the seller screwed me original and sent me a defective drive.
It was through Amazon so WD did replace the drive however due to irregularities, they replaced it with a re-certified drive with only a 60 day warranty which has long expired.
 
Back up everything. Buy a new drive. Restore to the new drive. Throw old drive away. Lick wounds.

(This advice is based solely on posts I have read on this Forum. ;) )
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
Back up everything. Buy a new drive. Restore to the new drive. Throw old drive away. Lick wounds.

(This advice is based solely on posts I have read on this Forum. ;) )
Click to expand...

If there is still a good WD 3.0 Green in there, I don't see any point in throwing it away if I can rip the enclosure apart and rescue the drive.
 
The drives inside the enclosures are nearly always standard HDDs (2.5 or 3.5 "). So opening the enclosure, removing the HDD and putting it onto your PC will tell you if the HDD is OK.

However I prefer to not install it in a PC just in case the HDD has a rare fault that might strain the power or interface circuits of the PC. Instead I connect it to a USB to bare HDD adapter with its own power supply. Like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...19152&cm_re=usb_to_hdd-_-12-119-152-_-Product

BTW - this type of adapter is also helpful when removing malware, it makes it easy connect an infected drive to a clean PC to run scan/removal tools.
 
paulhutch said:
The drives inside the enclosures are nearly always standard HDDs (2.5 or 3.5 "). So opening the enclosure, removing the HDD and putting it onto your PC will tell you if the HDD is OK.

However I prefer to not install it in a PC just in case the HDD has a rare fault that might strain the power or interface circuits of the PC. Instead I connect it to a USB to bare HDD adapter with its own power supply. Like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...19152&cm_re=usb_to_hdd-_-12-119-152-_-Product

BTW - this type of adapter is also helpful when removing malware, it makes it easy connect an infected drive to a clean PC to run scan/removal tools.
Click to expand...

My roommate has one of those adapters actually but I have no clue where it is so need to wait until he gets home. Only thing I am worried about is that it is an older one and not sure if it supports 3 TB drives.
 
DrDave said:
Based on personal experience - there's your problem
Click to expand...

I have had better luck recently with WD than Seagate. . . .If the seller had not screwed me also the drive would still be under warranty.

I have a WD 1 tb in my laptop, a 500 GB in my netbook, a 2 tb wd passport, and a 1 tb wd passport.
 
I seem to recall that there would be a problem with usb2 ports being sent to sleep as a result of power saving settings, and that some hard disks did not reconnect upon port wake-up. I believe there was a setting that needed to change in the device driver to never send the ports to sleep - but it was a long time ago and I now have a mac, so can't point out the setting.
 
Desert Fox said:
Only thing I am worried about is that it is an older one and not sure if it supports 3 TB drives.
Click to expand...


A bit off topic here, but I only use (up to) 2 TB drives. That way if I ever have to transfer anything to a computer that is still on something like Windows XP 32bit I know it will still work.

On topic. Odd you have a problem with a WD "My Book" series external hard drive. I have found them to be way above average in reliability. But, then again, yours is a refurbished (re-certified) drive.
 
Kid Eager said:
I seem to recall that there would be a problem with usb2 ports being sent to sleep as a result of power saving settings, and that some hard disks did not reconnect upon port wake-up. I believe there was a setting that needed to change in the device driver to never send the ports to sleep - but it was a long time ago and I now have a mac, so can't point out the setting.
Click to expand...

You know how a computer makes a sound when it discovers or disconnects a drive. This does not occur when a USB port goes to sleep. I am getting that sound of disconnect and reconnect so not the issue.
 
OnlyTellsTruths said:
A bit off topic here, but I only use (up to) 2 TB drives. That way if I ever have to transfer anything to a computer that is still on something like Windows XP 32bit I know it will still work.

On topic. Odd you have a problem with a WD "My Book" series external hard drive. I have found them to be way above average in reliability. But, then again, yours is a refurbished (re-certified) drive.
Click to expand...

I tend to prefer WD drives myself as you can see from a few posts ago.
Roommate is testing the drive and seems alright.
At work currently so cannot verify.

I al looking at getting a 4 TB external drive as a new backup drive - WD mybook is around $130.

I really like WD passports and hope they come out with a 4 tb soon. I have a 2 tb but seagate has a 4 tb portable (2.5) drive and hoping WD makes one as competition.
 
I've used similar external Western Digital drives in the past. The ones I used had an undocumented "feature" where the drive went to sleep after five minutes of inactivity. Subsequent attempts to access them should have been put on hold while the drive spun up. It didn't always work: Linux had a fit when that happened and took the drive off-line. I almost returned of them, brand new, as bad until I figured that out. You may be seeing something similar.
 
Blue Mountain said:
I've used similar external Western Digital drives in the past. The ones I used had an undocumented "feature" where the drive went to sleep after five minutes of inactivity. Subsequent attempts to access them should have been put on hold while the drive spun up. It didn't always work: Linux had a fit when that happened and took the drive off-line. I almost returned of them, brand new, as bad until I figured that out. You may be seeing something similar.
Click to expand...

I was in the midst of doing a windows back up when it happened so I do not think that is an issue.
 
Ran some test diagnostics on the drive itself and it passed the tests
I mounted it in my computer and after a long fight with cables, everything is running alright.
The controller card encodes the drive however so everything was lost. Luckily, it is backup files so can just restore from originals.
 
I have the same problem with various HDDs and DVD drives connected with mini USB leads, in my case it's the leads and some leads that work in some drives don't work in others and vice versa so i always end up trying several leads to find which works with which drive.
 
alexi_drago said:
I have the same problem with various HDDs and DVD drives connected with mini USB leads, in my case it's the leads and some leads that work in some drives don't work in others and vice versa so i always end up trying several leads to find which works with which drive.
Click to expand...


Have you tried labeling the cables? I use regular commercial tags or pasteboard from boxes tied on with string. If you cover the printing with clear tape, it doesn't fade or rub off.
 
I have had a similar problem with a WD Passport, and it's usually to do with the cable. The connector at the drive is tiny and delicate. It's very sensitive even to jiggling, and can go dead in mid-operation. It is also very fussy about USB extensions. It's much more finicky than some other devices I have, but so far it has always recovered, if I restart everything and when using it on a laptop standing back and not touching anything until it's done.
 
I don't think my was a jiggling issue and I have so far had pretty good luck with WD Passports
 
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