external drive failure

[Guest]

I use an external hard drive for media files. Recently my computer has
started to "loose" contact with the drive after trying to play a file. This
usually occurs immediately, but sometimes takes up to an hour or not at all.
I am then forced to reboot my computer to attempt to play the file again.
What could be the problem?

 

[Guest]

Same problem here with my External drive, its a new 80 gig Comstar 7200 rpm
usb2.. has worked great for 2 weeks then suddenly the drive letter vanashes
from My Computer, the comes back maybe 20 minutes later, then goes away
again.This was in one day. Now for some reason it was been working with out a
problem for the past 5 days. Some people say that you should stick with a
name brand drive like Western Digital or Seagate... I have discovered there
is a Maxtor drive inside this Comstar, and that Maxtor have a history of
trouble. I don't trust this drive anymore even though it works now, so
looking at getting a name brand.

 

[Leythos]

Same problem here with my External drive, its a new 80 gig Comstar 7200 rpm
usb2.. has worked great for 2 weeks then suddenly the drive letter vanashes
from My Computer, the comes back maybe 20 minutes later, then goes away
again.This was in one day. Now for some reason it was been working with out a
problem for the past 5 days. Some people say that you should stick with a
name brand drive like Western Digital or Seagate... I have discovered there
is a Maxtor drive inside this Comstar, and that Maxtor have a history of
trouble. I don't trust this drive anymore even though it works now, so
looking at getting a name brand.

It's not the "Drive" that you normally have a problem with, it's the
electronics that the vendor uses to connect the drive to the USB
interface and the connecting parts.

Your issue sounds like heat problems - where it works for a while then
stops then comes back....

 

[Guest]

I Agree 100% Leythos thats its the electronics inside the external drive
housing thats is causing the problem, and you mention that it could be a heat
problem, I should have mentioned that the problems started just 5 minutes
after the Comstar 80 was connected, and the case was still cool, so
malfuntioning low quality electronics I would suspect is the culprit.