USB HDD reads for 1 min before being available

[jderudder]

Hi,

Recently I have reformatted an external USB2 80GB 2.5" HDD (USB
powered) using XP's disktools. One partition FAT32 (for compatibility).
Since I have done this, every time I plug the drive in any of 3 PC's,
the READ/WRITE light is on (rapid flickering) for about 20 seconds
before the drive is recognised. I get the exact same behaviour with a
3.5" 250Gb Powered drive that I have similarly formatted in the same
way, except that with this one it takes about a minute.
I have read about bad cables and underpowered Hubs, but using two
different cables (for the 2 drives) and having tested going direct
without the HUB, it has to be something else.
Is this something to do with XP formatting, or a parameter of the
formatting process? Coudl it be a MBR issue?

 

[charli b]

Hi,

Recently I have reformatted an external USB2 80GB 2.5" HDD (USB
powered) using XP's disktools. One partition FAT32 (for compatibility).
Since I have done this, every time I plug the drive in any of 3 PC's,
the READ/WRITE light is on (rapid flickering) for about 20 seconds
before the drive is recognised. I get the exact same behaviour with a
3.5" 250Gb Powered drive that I have similarly formatted in the same
way, except that with this one it takes about a minute.
I have read about bad cables and underpowered Hubs, but using two
different cables (for the 2 drives) and having tested going direct
without the HUB, it has to be something else.
Is this something to do with XP formatting, or a parameter of the
formatting process? Coudl it be a MBR issue?

it could be windows "indexing" the files on the drive.

 

[David Vair]

Virus scanner checking the files??

 

[jderudder]

No virus checker enabled...
and it does this without having any files on the disk.

It does feel like it's reading some stuff like Partition info or MBR

Saying that, I have noticed that in the last few days, at least one of
the drive seems to loose its connectivity, with a "Delayed writing
failed" or something to that effect... Could it be the cables after
all?

 

[David Vair]

I would do a full check disk on the drives, have it check the system files sounds like there may be
something wrong the drive.