On Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:09 -0700, "Godfrey DiGiorgi" <gdigio...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm no Windows guru but similar things happen on Mac OS X systems. > > - Back up that disk to another volume. > - run a file system and hardware check. I don't know what sw is > available on Win to do this, but you should be able to find utilities > inexpensively or free. > - if the drive checks out, it might be a sign of a failing controller > or enclosure interface. Swapping the drive to another known-good > enclosure would demonstrate if the enclosure was failing. Use a known > good cable of course... > > At three and a half years old, it's a little young yet to be close to > failure by the averages, but why take chances? A two terabyte drive > AND quality enclosure is barely two hundred dollars these days. I'd > add a new one to the system, clone the data over, then erase and > continue using the old one as a temp or work drive, keeping it backed > up, until it fails. With a suitably comprehensive backup system, the > risk of data loss is small. >
Thanks for the feedback, Godders. The disk (a Western Digital 'My Book') has already been backed up to another - I went out and bought a 1.5 terabyte backup drive a few weeks ago when my other external drive (a Western Digital 'Essentials') died suddenly (that one was actually younger than the 'My Book' but my son installed it in a new enclosure and it seems to be OK so it was probably a faulty controller in that case). I originally bought the 'My Book' for my old PC which didn't have a large internal hard disk, so I was using the My Book drive as a second drive. I've since upgraded to a new PC with a large internal drive so I don't really need the external one any more. But, as you say, it could be useful as a temp or work drive so I'll double check the cable and then try it in a new enclosure. Cheers Brian ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Brian Walters Western Sydney Australia http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ > On Tuesday, July 5, 2011, Brian Walters <supera1...@fastmail.fm> wrote: > > G'day all > > > > For several months one of my external hard drives has been acting a bit > > 'flaky'. > > > > The drive is permanently attached to the PC but when the computer boots > > there is no sign of the drive in Windows Explorer. However, after about > > 10-15 minutes, the autoplay window magically appears and the operating > > system reads the drive, which then becomes available. The drive > > continues to work properly thereafter - until the next boot when the > > process starts over again. > > > > My question is whether the hard disk itself is on the way to hard disk > > hell or whether the drive controller is likely to be the culprit. Or > > could it be a faulty USB cable? Would it be worth extracting the drive > > from its case and try installing it in a new case? The drive is about > > three and a half years old. > > > > Note that I'm not relying on this drive as a primary back up any more, > > but it is convenient if it keeps working. And I'm just curious as to > > why the drive would be behaving like this. > > > > > > > > Cheers > > > > Brian > > > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > Brian Walters > > Western Sydney Australia > > http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ > > -- > > > > -- -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Choose from over 50 domains or use your own -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
