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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
External Harddrive Question....
Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 2:11 AM on 02.26.10 |
| ->> I have a fairly new external harddrive-I turn it on, hear the motor turn, and then it goes quiet-never mounting on my desktop. Is this a harddrive crash? |
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Ray Anderson, Photographer
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San Francisco | CA | USA | Posted: 4:04 AM on 02.26.10 |
->> Could be if you ever do get the drive to finally mount make sure you back up the info on the drive to another hard drive.
You might want to consider the purchase of a Drobo S you can set it up to where if two drives fail at the same time you still have all your files saved on the other drives. |
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Ed Wolfstein, Photographer, Assistant
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Burlington | VT | USA | Posted: 8:23 AM on 02.26.10 |
->> Hi Debra.
Before you replace a drive, try a different cable, and/or try that drive on a different Mac. If it still doesn't mount after trying all that, then maybe the drive is telling you something... something bad :(
- Ed. |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 8:26 AM on 02.26.10 |
->> Debbie it could be a bad power supply. Look at your power cord does it have 5 little pins? If it does try borrowing a p/s from a friend that has a similar power cord. If it doesn't have 5 pins it is the coaxial type and you will have to open the case and put the hd in a different case to rule out the p/s.
Hard drives run on two voltages, 12 and 5 volts. The thing is that either half of the power supply can fail and the hd can still be good. If the 5 volt section dies the drive will spin and that's it. Without the 5 volts the logic portion doesn't get powered so the drive never does it's self check, and the computer never mounts the drive beacuse it can't communicate with it. If the 12 volt line goes out the computer will see a drive but won't be able to access it as the drive will not spin.
Good luck. |
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Geoffrey Bolte, Photographer, Assistant
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Spencer/Worcester | MA | USA | Posted: 9:20 AM on 02.26.10 |
| ->> Deb I believe you run a mac right? If so have you tried Disk Utility to see if that recognizes it? Sometimes it won't mount but you'll be able to force it to in disk utility. Also you might want to repair disk permissions on the main drive as that may or may not have something to do with the drives not mounting. |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 9:22 AM on 02.26.10 |
->> YAYYYY
WOO HOOOO
it was the power source!!!!
whew!
DLR |
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Peter Madia, Photographer, Assistant
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Pittsburgh | PA | USA | Posted: 9:26 AM on 02.26.10 |
| ->> I have had a problem like this before. What kind of HD are you using? Mine was a Western Digital. Something that worked for me was to unplug the HD from your computer and unplug the power supply from the HD. Plug the power supply into the HD and wait until you hear the motor turn all the way up and you know it is on. As soon as it is on plug the cable into the computer. |
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Chuck Liddy, Photographer
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Durham | NC | USA | Posted: 10:08 AM on 02.26.10 |
| ->> eric is one smart dude!!!! |
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Mark Loundy, Photo Editor
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San Jose | CA | USA | Posted: 10:35 AM on 02.26.10 |
->> Debra,
How did you fix it?
--Mark |
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Debra L Rothenberg, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 10:43 AM on 02.26.10 |
| ->> Mark-I used a new power cord from another external harddrive |
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Steve King, Photographer, Student/Intern
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Ann Arbor | MI | USA | Posted: 5:52 PM on 02.27.10 |
->> Debra,
I have also found that with my WD external drive that they recommend that you do not plug it into a power strip. It seems that those may limit the power to the device which will cause long term problems. Plug it directly into the wall if possible, and of course practice safe computing and back up regularly. |
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Nigel Farrow, Photographer
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Suffolk | UK | United Kingdom | Posted: 7:56 AM on 02.28.10 |
->> Steve
Personally I would never rely on mains power. I always power my external hard drives via a surge protected, uninterruptable power supply. I don't though power anything else through that whilst the hard drive is connected. |
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Alan Herzberg, Photographer
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Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 8:20 AM on 02.28.10 |
| ->> Is it ok to use the power cord with a hard drive if that power cord originally came with some other drive? Is there any difference between one power cord and the next that could damage a drive if used with the "wrong" drive? I've got a damaged power cord and am wondering about using the cord from an external drive that is already full and in storage. |
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Eric Canha, Photographer
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Brockton | MA | United States | Posted: 10:39 AM on 02.28.10 |
->> Alan what you want to look at is the output rating of the cord. It is ok to use a cord that has higher amp rating but not one that is rated for lower current.
If your current drive is rated at 12v 1a (12 volts 1Amp) then it is okay to use a 12 volt 1A or higher. If you were to use a 12v .5 amp the cord will burn out and could also damage the drive as a result. The same is true of the 5 pin cords. The higher the AMP rating (as it relates to the drive's requirement) the longer the cord will last and there will be less stress on the drive during periods of higher load. For a while LaCie was using 5 pin p/s cords that just couldn't do the job. They burned out at stupid crazy rates. I used to tell friends that bought LaCie drives to toss the cord and buy a beefier cord right up front before the drives ran the risk of damage.
Steve it would have to be an UBER cheap power strip to cause a power drop to the point of causing issues for the devices plugged into it. The typical 16 ga 6' strip just won't cause voltage drops that could cause issues. Back in the 'old' days it was advised to turn on your monitor FIRST in the powering up sequence (last in the power down) followed by the printer then accessories and finally the computer. This was because the monitors were all CRT based and in some cases huge power hogs. So yes it was possible to cause a dip or drop when they first came on and the tube was warming up. I just wouldn't worry about it in the typical setup. That being said I wouldn't plug the coffee maker in to the same strip as my sensitive electronics. But the same is true of the branch circuit coming off the panel. That's why the kitchen and the den are on two different circuit breakers.
A quality UPS with line conditioning is a great way to keep all of your computer gear in the lap of electron luxury.
Eric |
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Greg Honda, Photographer
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Honolulu | HI | USA | Posted: 8:24 PM on 02.28.10 |
->> I had a similar problem with a 500 GB WD. At first it would mount sporadically, I should have backed up the entire hard drive while I could. The percentage of mounting decreased over time and then would not mount at all. I finally got it to mount and it tells me that I need to format the drive before using it and it appears that there is no data on the drive.
I then took it to a local computer repair shop and they tell me it will cost me $350 for data recovery (which they will refund if they are not able to access the data). I get the call a few days later that they are unable to recover my data and ask if I would like them to do a "clean room service." They tell me that it is a very expensive process and could run me in excess of $1,000. At that point I tell them to stop and return my HD.
Now I am left with a HD with stuff on it that I can't access. |
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Alan Herzberg, Photographer
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Elm Grove | WI | USA | Posted: 9:53 PM on 02.28.10 |
| ->> Eric: Thanks. Big help! |
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