Failed USB External Drive

[BobArch2]

Well, I haven't tried a format but I did try a CHKDSK and it failed. I can't remember the message I got...

If you want to see the results of the chkdsk op go to the Event Viewer:

CHKDSKLog.gif

For Bob: Much like the chkdsk, I tried the safely remove icon and got a "...can't do that..." kinda message.

I've found that sometimes, I just have to leave the system as is for awhile and then retry the Remove... It is frustrating!

Good luck and don't get too frustrated. Remember, it is only a piece of cold metal!!!

As an added comment, I went searching for your external unit... searching for CAUE 37500. Found a link at Newegg.com where one user posted that the HD in his Cavalary enclosure was a Western Digital. I would suggested that Cavalry uses whatever HD best suits its needs. As stated in an earlier message in this thread I have an external called LaCie and in my case the actual HD is an Hitachi. Using something like Belarc Advisor or SIW might reveal the actual HD unit inside the Cavalry enclosure.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Bob. I hadn't thought to check what's inside the metal.

What's so frustrating about this is that if I power on the drive, Windows recognizes it immediately. As I've said, I've copied a large number of files to it for testing and it works like a charm. That's what makes me think it's got to be a drive or Windows setting that's causing it to barf when I try to run Shadow Protect. That's one of the reasons I quickly jumped on the idea of "write caching" thinking that SP is working too fast for the drive.

Still waiting to see if I hear from Cavalry about my detailed email...

[StuartR]

...As I've said, I've copied a large number of files to it for testing and it works like a charm. That's what makes me think it's got to be a drive or Windows setting that's causing it to barf when I try to run Shadow Protect...

For what it's worth, my brother's external USB disk was fine for copying files, it was only when he ran his image backup software that it failed. This was definitely caused by an external USB hub.

Your problem may, of course, be completely different.

[DaveA]

Now that the newer hardware have more than 2 USB ports, we have quick using hubs. We have the likes of printers, scanners and "permanent" external drives plugged in a port on the back of the machine and use the front ones for the "Portable" devices.
We still have the rebooting "issues" when the Seagate's are on, but have not had any other issues.

[BobArch2]

Now that the newer hardware have more than 2 USB ports...

Quite agreed. My 5 year old motherboard allows for 10 USB ports. 2 in the front, and four in the back. I can use another 4 by using connectors on the motherboard for any internal devices. However, I don't use those. I had spare PCI slots and so have added 2 PCI cards giving another 8 external ports with 2 internals... if so desired.

At this stage, I'm not using any of the internals. Like you, I reserve the 2 front ports for any one-off type attachments. The other external ports on the rear being used for keyboard, mouse, 2 backup drives, printer, labelwriter, APC UPS and Palm Pilot interface.

Hubs have gone the way of the dodo... IMHO. OMMV.

[Bigaldoc]

Before I go any further I want to say THANK YOU to all of you for hangin' in with me through all of this trauma! From what I'm about to say, you'll see I couldn't get from here to there without you.

My machine has 5 USB ports on back and 2 in front and I've currently got NINE devices in service by using one of the 5 rear ports for a powered hub. I'll have to cross that bridge when I get there because I'm not keen on adding more cards right now.

However, here's what I've done this afternoon and it's taken a long, long time to get here. I disconnected my SDHC card reader from a front port and connected the Cavalry USB drive instead. Again, Windows recognized it immediately. I did a CHKDSK and boy, did it take FOREVER to run. The majority of that time was checking free space. It did make me boot in order to do it and I'm not sure why. Anyway, no trouble found, no bad sectors, etc. I then ran a Shadow Protect backup of my Vista partition and it ran SUCCESSFULLY this time with NO delayed write messages!

So, it does seem that this drive, like my scanner and printer, doesn't work when run through a hub! I'll settle for that and figure out what to do next if I have to. For now, I think I'll connect the card reader to the hub and see if I can proceed that way, without having to eliminate two devices or add any cards. That's my long story for today and I've got my fingers crossed that those @#$%^&* messages DON'T start popping up later. Thanks again to all!

[Bigaldoc]

What I hope may be a final postscript. I wanted to mention (since Stuart has commented on it) that I have not yet disconnected the powered hub, but I may if I can come up with a strategy for "using" my nine devices with "only" seven built-in ports. I think I can do without the USB floppy drive since I've only used it once or twice and there are one or two more devices that I could disable until needed and use one of the front ports for those rare instances, such as the card reader AND second USB drive (as has been suggested in the past by more than one person). Since my two USB drives are used ONLY for alternating weekly backups, it isn't a problem to switch them on Saturday prior to backup.

I left the Cavalry drive connected and running all night after that one-off backup yesterday. No popups as had happened prior. This morning I did another one-off backup, this time of my Win 7 partition and it too completed successfully; the drive is still connected and running.

[JoeP]

You might want to check what you accumulated power usage is on the hub. Could be the Cavalry disk is putting it too close to the limit. Could be the hub is failing. Maybe you could more easily check out a newer hub than juggling devices.

Joe

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks, Joe. That may be a project for "tomorrow" or whenever...

After unplugging the Cavalry from it, the hub now has "only" two devices attached. I'll have to trace the cables to remember which two.