External USB drives hang...?

[Kenneth]

Howdy,

Running Win2K Pro...

I have two external USB hard drives connected to a hub that plugs into
a USB port on my system. These drives are used only for network backup
purposes.

Periodically both of those drives goes into a state I am calling (for
want of a better description) "suspension."

Here's what happens:

A dialog appears saying:

"Windows was unable to save data to \Device\HarddiskVolume3\$Mft. Data
has been lost" etc.

At that point, if I double click My Computer, both of the disks
display properly.

If I click again, the folders on the disks display properly.

If I try to open the (only) folder on each drive that actually
contains data I get an error:

"G:\K00 is not accessible. Error performing inpage operation."

At that point, if I click on the "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon it
shows:

"Stop USB Mass Storage Device"
"Stop USB Mass Storage Device"

or sometimes shows the drives with their letter designations:

"Stop USB Mass Storage Device G:"
"Stop USB Mass Storage Device H:"

Whether showing the drive letters or not, it is not possible to
properly stop the drives through Windows.

If I try, I get the error that the "Drives cannot be stopped at this
time. Please try later."

At that point, I have little choice (that I know of) other than
pulling the plugs on the drives, re-booting, and (essentially)
reinstalling them from scratch.

And so friends, with apologies for all the detail...

I am going nuts here.

Can you assist?

Very sincere thanks,

 

[Kenneth]

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:14:38 -0500, Kenneth



Hello again,

I should add that I run these disks with the most recent drivers...

Thanks,