Re: Dying/Broken USB external enclosure HDD?

[Rod Speed]

Weird, I missed this post.

Yeah, I have had a few that showed up much later too.

I got an e-mail reply. I will think about this.
I need to confirm it is an enclosure problem or not.

Bet its that stupid PS2 connector for power.

That certainly explains all the symptoms you have seen,
the drive going missing. The original problem of not
being able to use it as a destination for a backup, and
the single pending sector, likely that was caused by a
write being done when the connector failed to connect.

A replacement power supply is unlikely to help at all.

Cool. I need confirm that the enclosure is the problem and not that HDD
first.

Uh, yes the enclosure.

I won't be carrying it around a lot. Just need to swap
between computers EXTERNALLY often with cables.

Uh, wouldn't dropping enclosures be the same?

Nope, the better enclosures do prove some protection
for the drive inside them for the milder drops.

Very easy to break off a component with a bare drive.

Heh, even ESATA ports are rare
True.

like Firewire (OK, dead technology now)!
Dang USB!

Yeah, tho it does have a cleaner cabling system than eSATA.

 

[Rod Speed]

OK, I am back!

That’s your front, not your back.

Chkdsk.exe /f /r finally completed/finished, but it found bad sectors:
http://pastie.org/private/z7rjb1qrpgqp3npdguhtw ...

SMART showed more problems: http://pastie.org/4467559 ...

I don’t find those very readable, show the SMART stats again.

Its self extended long tests still failed.

I tried ESATA cable on a newer PC with its updated 64-bit W7,
but it didn't even see the drive or detect it connected!

Do you know if that actually works with other eSATA drives ?

Do I have to do anything special to use it?
Nope.

And yes, I moved the enclosure's external cables to another computer
and power strip outlet. Its self extended long tests still failed.

I think I need to take this HDD out and connect it with external cables
soon.

I wouldn’t bother myself. All the symptoms you have reported can be
explained by that lousy PS/2 power connector for the external housing.

 

[Rod Speed]

OK, here is what I discovered.

Enclosure's fan doesn't spin

Dunno, surely you can feel if its spinning or not ?

that we saw from SMART's temperature readings

I saw no evidence of that from the SMART temperature reading
that you posted after Frank showed you how to get the series.

The drive does run too warm for my taste, but there isnt any
evidence that the fan wasn’t spinning during that particular test.

and Amazon's reviews. Enclosure seems OK since the HDD
still can't do self tests (both long and short ones) with
different external cables and adapter with
http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU2-Supports-2-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B000J01I1G/
... !

What ?

So it looks like this HDD is hosed! Does everyone agree?

Nope, I haven't seen any evidence for anything except that
you have see the drive go missing at least once and its likely
that the pending sectors were just a result of the drive not
getting power during a write due to that lousy PS/2 connector.

Also, I used the just released gsmartcontrol-0.8.7-win32.
http://pastie.org/4467999 for the updated/new
results which look bad and the same to me.

Still just one pending and one offline uncorrectable,
both of which could easily have happened just because
the power to the drive went missing during a write
due to the stupid PS/2 power connector.

Time to find a new external 2.5" HDD then!

Why do you want a 2.5" HDD now instead of a 3.5" ?

 

[Rod Speed]

When the HDD was taken out, I wiggled its power
cable to the circuit board and it sometimes fan.

What ?

It seems like a bad power cable?

Can't understand that previous sentence.

 

[GMAN]

OK, here is what I discovered.

Enclosure's fan doesn't spin that we saw from SMART's temperature
readings and Amazon's reviews. Enclosure seems OK since the HDD still
can't do self tests (both long and short ones) with different external
cables and adapter with
http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU2-Supports-2-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B000J01I
1G/
.... !

So it looks like this HDD is hosed! Does everyone agree? Also, I used
the just released gsmartcontrol-0.8.7-win32.
http://pastie.org/4467999 for the updated/new results which look bad
and the same to me.

Time to find a new external 2.5" HDD then!

How much to sell the enclosure to me?