Passport drive won't access files properly

[rh0000]

I have a Toshiba Satellite A100, bought in March 2007 and running Windows
Vista Home Basic. I bought your Passport USB drive in April 2008. Right from
the very start it has given problems, to do with not being able to access
files because my PC freezes, or files taking a very long time to be accessed.
When I plug the drive into a USB port, it can take several minutes in order
to access a file contained within a few nested folders. If the file is a word
document, or an audio file, for example, attempting to open the file can
cause the word processing or audio software to stop working completely.
Attempting to copy a file from my laptop to your Passport drive, or vice
versa, often fails and in the process may cause Windows explorer to stop
working. Yesterday, though (after several attempts) I was finally able to
copy a file from your drive to my laptop, it took over an hour to copy a
single file of 33MB. So all sorts of things may happen, none of them
pleasant. The troubles don't arise all the time, but they do arise most of
the time, and they happen whether your Passport drive is the only peripheral
plugged into a USB drive (apart from an external mouse, which I always use),
or whether your drive is one of a number of peripherals plugged into my
laptop - either separately or via a USB hub (either powered or unpowered). Do
you know what is going on and how I can make your drive usable? I have two
other external drives (powered by their own power source) and these work
perfectly. Why does your drive limp along so badly as to be virtually
unusable?

model number
WD3200ME-01

serial number
WXH208970242

Reference number given for the above question on Saturday 26 July 2008
080726-000894

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version for windows communities, pcw forums, toshiba forums

USB external drive won't access files properly

I have a Toshiba Satellite A100 laptop, running Windows Vista Home Basic. I
have a Western Digital “passport†external hard drive, which has no separate
power source, as it draws its power through the USB port. Sometimes the drive
works okay, but I often have huge problems in accessing files on the drive.
Opening a folder can make Windows “hangâ€. Opening a Word or audio file can
make Word or the audio software crash. Copying files often fails and in the
process may make Windows explorer stop working. Recently I tried to copy a
33MB file from the external drive to my laptop, and while it did this it took
over an hour. So all sorts of things can happen, none of them pleasant.

Problems can happen whether the external drive is the only peripheral
plugged into a USB drive (apart from an external mouse, which I always use),
or whether the external drive is one of a number of peripherals plugged into
my laptop - either separately or via a USB hub (either powered or unpowered).

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can make my USB external drive
usable? I have two other external drives (powered by their own power source)
and these work perfectly. Why, much of the time, does this drive limp along
so badly as to be virtually unusable?

 

[Curious]

Whose passport drive did you buy? None of the peer to peer members of this
newsgroup sell drives.

 

[rh0000]

My apologies. By mistake I cut and pasted the email I sent Western Digital,
who made the drive, as well as the message I meant to post. My error may have
arisen from the fact that I was struggling with Internet Explorer, as Firefox
3 (which I normally use) wouldn't let me sign on to the Microsoft forum.
Anyway, the text I meant to input now follows. Does anyone have any
suggestions?


USB external drive won't access files properly

I have a Toshiba Satellite A100 laptop, running Windows Vista Home Basic. I
have a Western Digital “passport†external hard drive, which has no separate
power source, as it draws its power through the USB port. Sometimes the drive
works okay, but I often have huge problems in accessing files on the drive.
Opening a folder can make Windows “hangâ€. Opening a Word or audio file can
make Word or the audio software crash. Copying files often fails and in the
process may make Windows explorer stop working. Recently I tried to copy a
33MB file from the external drive to my laptop, and while it did this it took
over an hour. So all sorts of things can happen, none of them pleasant.

Problems can happen whether the external drive is the only peripheral
plugged into a USB drive (apart from an external mouse, which I always use),
or whether the external drive is one of a number of peripherals plugged into
my laptop - either separately or via a USB hub (either powered or unpowered).

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can make my USB external drive
usable? I have two other external drives (powered by their own power source)
and these work perfectly. Why, much of the time, does this drive limp along
so badly as to be virtually unusable?

 

[Michael Walraven]

It is possible that your device is drawing too much power from its USB hub.

In Device Manager,
check Universal Serial Bus controllers / USB Root Hub(s)

under properties/Power tab
you will find the power drawn from each port, make sure that the total for
that hub is less than the max of 500 ma.
(check when having problems, and when not having problems)

Michael

 

[rh0000]

Thanks for the suggestion. At the moment the drive is working perfectly. For
example, I copied a folder from and then to the drive, the folder containing
240 files totalling 2GB, the whole process (each way) taking about 4 minutes,
which I think is fine. I seem to be drawing 2mA in all this, which does
strike me as very low, but it's the device which disappears in hub properties
when I remove the drive. I'll see what happens when the drive next misbehaves.

 

[rh0000]

These are all good suggestions. I am running SP1. I haven't tried to download
Vista drivers from the WD website, but it's worth a try. When I bought the
drive (this April just passed) I relied on the label on the box which said it
was okay with Vista, but I know that companies who claimed their stuff was
okay for Vista have later on produced updated and improved drivers etc. I
will also try the idea of using the drive with another PC, to see if the
problems arise there as well. At the moment the drive is working perfectly,
which makes me think it might be some sort of software clash. Anyway, thanks
for your ideas.

 

[Michael Walraven]

2 mA seems very low to me also, perhaps that is the load when it has spun
down. If you looked when the drive was active (maybe searching the drive for
something) it might show a larger number.

Michael

 

[rh0000]

It was 2mA all the time, even when the drive was copying files successfully.
As far as I can tell I was looking at the right port. I'll have to wait and
see what happens when the drive next misbehaves.