Delayed Write Error for external USB 2.0 drive...could it have been a Windows Update that caused it?

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

I have an external USB 2.0 HDD (160 GB) connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card. About 7
weeks ago, early December, this drive used to work and copy big files fast. Now
I just get Delayed Write Errors and the machine locks up. I've been searching
the internet for causes of this problem, and there are many issues with this.
The only M$ answer has to do with drives that don't run at HIGH SPEED (Article
ID 908673, January 6, 2006)! A hot fix is available if you are running the drive
at slow speed. C'mon, this problem has been around for 30 months, at least, on
various complaint boards.

The latest "FIX" I read suggested uninstalling the latest Windows Updates (KB
905915 & KB 910437) which were released in December, 2005. I haven't tried that
yet, but I did come across a very irate user of that Windows Update (KB 905915),
and here is the link to THAT tirade!
http://petesbloggerama.blogspot.com/2005/12/windows-update-maybe-not-thank-you.html

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/PrintSearchContent.asp?LINKID=1070

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

I have an external USB 2.0 HDD (160 GB) connected to a USB 2.0 PCI
card. About 7 weeks ago, early December, this drive used to work and
copy big files fast. Now I just get Delayed Write Errors and the
machine locks up. [...]

The latest "FIX" I read suggested uninstalling the latest Windows
Updates (KB 905915 & KB 910437) which were released in December,
2005.

KB905915 has absolutly nothing to do with USB devices, KB910437
neither.

I turned off my DSL modem, the NAV was manually disabled, the Sygate firewall
was exited, and the Logitech icon near the clock was exited.

I had the XP firewall turned off all this time, but in the advanced tabbed
section the Firewire & Local Area Connection boxes were checked. Copying with
those two checkboxes on and the two patches installed got me nowhere, nada. I
unchecked the two checkboxes in the XP firewall and tried copying, and there was
a little progress but the copying would lock up after a minute.

Well, I uninstalled KB 905915 and then my USB drive would copy for about 3
minutes at full speed, then it would crap out. I uninstalled KB 910437, so both
of those updates were gone, and now I can copy 2 GB in 10 minutes flat.
There does seem to be some wild variation going on, the time remaining indicator
for the 2 GB copy kept jumping up and down and during the last minute or so, it
would jump from 30 seconds back up to 2 minutes then back to 45 seconds and
would just randomly change depending on what it felt its rate of copying was.

With both of those Windows update patches still installed, the number of minutes
left remaining to copy the file jumped way up past 40 minutes quite quickly, and
when that happens, a Delayed Write Error cannot be that far behind.

My conclusion is that the two updates killed my ability to use my USB 2.0
external hard drive and I will make a note to never download them again.
Hopefully they won't get rolled over into a new numbered patch and I wind up
downloading the malware again!

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

"Cymbal Man Freq." <Don't (e-mail address removed)>

I have an external USB 2.0 HDD (160 GB) connected to a USB 2.0 PCI
card. About 7 weeks ago, early December, this drive used to work and
copy big files fast. Now I just get Delayed Write Errors and the
machine locks up. [...]

Did you check the HDs for physical errors, e.g. www.hdtune.com ?

Yup, it doesn't look like there should be a connection. The first
seems to comewith pain for some folks, but limited to IE, as one might
expect. The second is a Windows Update to fix broken Windows Update.

I turned off my DSL modem, the NAV was manually disabled, the Sygate firewall
was exited, and the Logitech icon near the clock was exited.
OK...

I had the XP firewall turned off all this time, but in the advanced tabbed
section the Firewire & Local Area Connection boxes were checked. Copying with
those two checkboxes on and the two patches installed got me nowhere, nada. I
unchecked the two checkboxes in the XP firewall and tried copying, and there was
a little progress but the copying would lock up after a minute.

Sure sounds like hitting a dead sector to me.

Well, I uninstalled KB 905915 and then my USB drive would copy for about 3
minutes at full speed, then it would crap out. I uninstalled KB 910437, so both
of those updates were gone, and now I can copy 2 GB in 10 minutes flat.

Sounds like getting rid of the patches fixed the problem, but this may
not be due to the logic of the patches. If the patch happened to
include a bad sector within the code, then that could account for this
mileage irrespective of what the patch is supposed to do.

There does seem to be some wild variation going on, the time remaining indicator
for the 2 GB copy kept jumping up and down and during the last minute or so, it
would jump from 30 seconds back up to 2 minutes then back to 45 seconds and
would just randomly change depending on what it felt its rate of copying was.

Was the copy one 2G file, a collection of files similar in size and
type, a mixture of sizes (erratic "progress" estimates) and/or a
mixture of types (variable impact of resident av scanning)?

With both of those Windows update patches still installed, the number of minutes
left remaining to copy the file jumped way up past 40 minutes quite quickly, and
when that happens, a Delayed Write Error cannot be that far behind.

Sounds like bad hardware, but could be a software effect to. As the
former can eat data and yourinstallation, I'd rather exclude this than
assume "it can't happen here". It certainly can and does happen to
external HDs, what with dodgy power and data connections, possible
poor cooling, and risks of mechanical trauma in the frame.

My conclusion is that the two updates killed my ability to use my USB 2.0
external hard drive and I will make a note to never download them again.
Hopefully they won't get rolled over into a new numbered patch and I wind up
downloading the malware again!

I agree with your assessment, but would want to check hardware in case
the mechanism isn't what you assume it was.

---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Don't pay malware vendors - boycott Sony

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

See "Firewire drive corruption" thread:
Monday, January 30, 2006 3:26 PM
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 12:57 AM

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/12946/
Event ID - 51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a
paging operation
(from the linked page)
*************************************************************
I'll get back to this on Saturday or Sunday.

The drive formats, gets to 100%, stalls, then errors out. The disk partition
says "Healthy", but there is no FAT 32 or NTFS file system and the Volume Name
just comes up as the drive letter instead of what I typed in.

If I muck around too much with this, I may get a 160 GB USB 2.0 drive that has
no free space and no used space and becomes totally inaccessible!

 

[Larry(LJL269)]

My USB2 enclosure states that HD must be FAT32 &
formatted b4 inserting in the enclosure.

Also I had to use Adaptec drivers for PCI USB2 card,
not XP drivers.

HTH-Larry

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 04:40:49 GMT, "Cymbal Man Freq."

|http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/12946/
|Event ID - 51 - An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a
|paging operation
|(from the linked page)
|*************************************************************
|I'll get back to this on Saturday or Sunday.
|
|The drive formats, gets to 100%, stalls, then errors out. The disk partition
|says "Healthy", but there is no FAT 32 or NTFS file system and the Volume Name
|just comes up as the drive letter instead of what I typed in.
|
|If I muck around too much with this, I may get a 160 GB USB 2.0 drive that has
|no free space and no used space and becomes totally inaccessible!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Any advise is my attempt to contribute more than I have received but I can only assure you that it works on my PC. GOOD LUCK.

 

[Jonny]

Hard drive website may provide software for partitioning and formatting
their USB or Firewire connected hard drives in XP.

 

[Cymbal Man Freq.]

This is an internal drive within a CompUSA USB 2.0 enclosure. (Western Digital
160 GB)

I had it formatted as 4 Primary Drives (Logical Drive Option was not available
at partitioning time) before as about 30 GB of FAT32 + 30 GB of FAT32 + about 47
GB of NTFS + 47 GB of NTFS.

Some error messages I got while the drive crashed concerned the drive letter and
something about security. [(the drive letter) T:\$Security$...blah, blah, blah],
anybody know what that might be about? The machine was shutting down on purpose
but hung up on the USB drive crashing.