External HDD, a royal pain in the @#&

techiemon · Feb 25, 2007

I just purchased a 320GB Seagate SATA II HDD and converted it into an External drive. I am using a SarKi-Fan External Box, that changes the transfer method to USB.

The idea of an external drive is great, but after yesturday I feel it is not a stable solution.

Question:

How often can I turn this drive on and off without damaging it? Or should I just leave it turned on even if it is not plugged into to any machine?

Issues:

1. Corrupted files already, cannot open or delete them.
2. Cannot reformat as system tells me I must force a format because the drive is in use. I am not one for forcing drives as it may cause other problems later.
3. Slower than USB Pen.
4. Sometimes in order to correct one machine not recognizing the drive on USB plugin the drive needs to be turned off and then back on.

Airbornederekc · Feb 25, 2007

the issue is with the external conversion kit. maby its not doing a good job. you should just buy one that is designed to be an external drive.

techiemon · Feb 25, 2007

You mean buy an HDD designed as an External drive not one converted into one?

MadMan007 · Feb 25, 2007

AFAIK the actual drives are the same. It's probably just a crappy enclosure, where the chipset inside doesn't do a good job, or maybe some other issue with your USB ports.

techiemon · Feb 25, 2007

Can someone make some recommendations then? I paid $30 for the enclousure, it has a fan. The other choice was a $12 model without a fan...

mcoleg · Feb 25, 2007

not sure what's available where you are at. try the other enclosure if you can return the one you have now.

you sure it's not a crappy hard drive? they do go bad all by their lonesome, you know.

techiemon · Feb 26, 2007

Well, the drive is not making any strange noises, and I do know that drives go bad. But I can use it, I have transfered data from it, but I know that doesn't mean it works right... I am sure I can get just about anything here, I just want to make sure I get something better.

Can I force the reformat without causing any permanent damage to the drive or my machines?

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

I did an HDtach test on the drive, let me know what you think.

mcoleg · Feb 27, 2007

via usb, i see... well, that doesn't really say much about any problems the drive might have.

you might hook it up directly to the pc and use seagate's software to check for errors. that should give you a better picture of what's going on.

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

I don't have any software from Seagate, if I go to their website, which one do you recommend I download? Disc Wizard or Sea Tools or something different?

I will take the dirve out of the case and attach it inside to one of the SATA controllers and run another test.

By the way, I still want to know what damage could be caused to the drive by turning it on and off alot?
Also, is there a way other then reformatting to remove a corrupted file? As I said previously if I reformat the system tells me that i have to force the reformatting...

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

Ok I finally got the external drive to reformat without forcing it, not sure why it worked this time, but it did. Do I need to partition this thing? Right now it is at 298GB, can I just leave it as it is or should I partition it?

FTC · Feb 27, 2007

Hi,

Re your hdtach, it is in fact perfect and the best you can expect from a USB2 drive in terms of performance.

Of course your enclosure may be generating errors / corrupted files, or you may have disk errors, but just in case make sure you always disconnect it by running first the 'safely remove hardware' thing.

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

It's an IDE not a SATA

Ok folks, I have found out that external drive I was sold is actually an IDE drive. I had not taken the box apart since I got it until now. I am disappointed. So actually I assume that my benchmark test for this drive is ok being it is an IDE drive, correct? I do not think the drive is bad..

And I have been able to reformat the drive to get rid of the corrupted files.

However, why is the IDE drive still slower than a USB Pen? Are their other solutions I can use? Is it possible to have an External SATA drive that connects via USB? Would it be more stable?

mcoleg · Feb 27, 2007

i'm glad you've straightened it out.

you'd still be limited by usb even if the drive inside an enclosure is sata...

there are external sata enclosures for just a bit more - same speeds as internal sata drives.

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

So actually it would double my speed then. It may be worth it. What enclousure would you recommend for stability and protection?

smokie mcpott · Feb 27, 2007

techiemon said:
However, why is the IDE drive still slower than a USB Pen?

because a usb pen is a solid state memory, it has no moving parts...

techiemon · Feb 27, 2007

Mmm that's true. It's too bad there isn't a 300GB USB Pen available. ha ha ha. But I have seen some flash drives that are getting up there up.

mcoleg · Feb 27, 2007

icydock and venus are the ones i like personally - solidly built.

techiemon · Feb 28, 2007

I ended up getting a NuSlim, I think it is a local brand, however, the e-sata part of the unit seems not to work, the USB works fine, but the E-Sata is not coming up when plugged in. There is software, but all but one thing is for Win98. E-Sata should come up in my computer and Administration tools right?

I plugged in the USB to try to format it, but it won't let me do that, the drive appears in Admin tools, but... Hmmmm

When the USB is plugged in, it comes up in Admin tools as 298GB not initialized, but I cannot find how to initialize the drive. There is a big red minus sign over the drive. Anyone know how to get the drive working?

Update: Drive is initialized and is not partitioned. Will now check after formating if E-Sata works.

Update: Still not coming up in the my computer window, but showing active in the Admin... Do I need to assign this drive a drive letter? I want to avoid doing so in order to avoid issues later if I wan to change the drive letter or install another device. As A USB drive a drive letter should be given to the drive on plug in? No?

Update: Cannot get E-sata to fuction nor can I get the drive to show up under my computer even with a USB connection. Am I doing something wrong?

mcoleg · Feb 28, 2007

yep, you need to initialize and assign the letter in order to see it in my computer.

External HDD, a royal pain in the @#&

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