Hard drive stopped working with External USB 2.0 enclosure..

[developmental2]

Hi all..

Just to make my life interesting, the "Bytec" external USB 2.0
enclosure I have stopped working with a particular hard drive, a 160GB
Western Digital 7200RPM IDE. I thought the drive died, so I connected
it inside the computer with IDE, and it worked perfectly (as a slave
drive).

Then I thought perhaps the enclosure malfunctioned, so I tried an old,
20GB HD drive with it. To my surprise it worked..!

I am worried. perhaps this means the 160GB drive is singing its
swansong? when I conenct it to the enclosure, its status light is on
but the drive won't start, only a repeating click sounds and the drive
of course won't come up in Windows 2000.

It cannot be any configuration issue as I've made no changes to the PC
and it worked fine for two years ..

Thanks

 

[kony]

Hi all..

Just to make my life interesting, the "Bytec" external USB 2.0
enclosure I have stopped working with a particular hard drive, a 160GB
Western Digital 7200RPM IDE. I thought the drive died, so I connected
it inside the computer with IDE, and it worked perfectly (as a slave
drive).

Then I thought perhaps the enclosure malfunctioned, so I tried an old,
20GB HD drive with it. To my surprise it worked..!

I am worried. perhaps this means the 160GB drive is singing its
swansong? when I conenct it to the enclosure, its status light is on
but the drive won't start, only a repeating click sounds and the drive
of course won't come up in Windows 2000.

It cannot be any configuration issue as I've made no changes to the PC
and it worked fine for two years ..

Yes, clicking sounds suggest it's dead.
You might try hooking it up internally to a system but odds
are it won't matter at this point.

 

[Rod Speed]

Hi all..

Just to make my life interesting, the "Bytec" external USB 2.0
enclosure I have stopped working with a particular hard drive, a 160GB
Western Digital 7200RPM IDE. I thought the drive died, so I connected
it inside the computer with IDE, and it worked perfectly (as a slave
drive).

Then I thought perhaps the enclosure malfunctioned, so I tried an old,
20GB HD drive with it. To my surprise it worked..!

I am worried. perhaps this means the 160GB drive is singing its
swansong? when I conenct it to the enclosure, its status light is on
but the drive won't start, only a repeating click sounds and the drive
of course won't come up in Windows 2000.

It cannot be any configuration issue as I've made no changes to the PC
and it worked fine for two years ..

I'd check the power supply outputs in the external case with a multimeter.

It may be that its failing and cant power the 160G drive properly
but can power the 20G drive adequately, or the 160G drive is more
sensitive to the 12V rail voltage sagging than the 20G drive is.

 

[developmental2]

I'd check the power supply outputs in the external case with a multimeter.

It may be that its failing and cant power the 160G drive properly
but can power the 20G drive adequately, or the 160G drive is more
sensitive to the 12V rail voltage sagging than the 20G drive is.

Hi Rod,

That must be it. I checked the uppity USB 2.0 chassis with a different
160GB 3.5" drive and it didn't work as well, but the 20GB still works.
Most Unfortunately the power supply port in this chassi has this PS/2
like cable connector, wonferfully unstandard with 6 pins in a circle
around a plastic central pin. The power supply label says 12V 2A and 5V
2A, am I to assume that if I buy a "no brand" plain AC adapter with 2A
12V and somehow connect it to the chassis (cut the wiring to expose the
copper or something), it should work? I don't want to burn a good
drive just for trying to save 50 bucks on a new chassis.


thanks

 

[Rod Speed]

That must be it. I checked the uppity USB 2.0 chassis with a different
160GB 3.5" drive and it didn't work as well, but the 20GB still works.
Most Unfortunately the power supply port in this chassi has this PS/2
like cable connector, wonferfully unstandard with 6 pins in a circle
around a plastic central pin.

You should still be able to measure it at the IDE drive molex connector
as the drive powers up. Bet its well down in the 12V its meant to be.

The power supply label says 12V 2A and 5V 2A, am I to
assume that if I buy a "no brand" plain AC adapter with 2A
12V and somehow connect it to the chassis (cut the wiring
to expose the copper or something), it should work?

It should do, but I'd measure it first to be sure that that is the problem.

Not that easy to do tho, you may just have higher than allowed
ripple on those rails as the drive is spinning up so you'd really
need a CRO to do that and you are unlikely to have one available.

I don't want to burn a good drive just for
trying to save 50 bucks on a new chassis.

You could just buy another external enclosure.