Second external HDD trouble!

dango

Hi i recently got a second external hdd (WD 500gb mybook) and when i installed it, it has caused my old external HDD (HDD in an enclosure) to not be recognised. I'm getting the beeping noises and "USB device not recognised" balloons from the computer and the HDD seems to be spinning in a surging manner. It's not recognised by device manager. I'm trying to ascertain the cause and a possible fix. Firstly i used the old HDD on another laptop and it isn't working properly on that either. This lead me to believe that it's the old HDD itself that's causing the problems. I intend plugging the HDD into my home computer when i get there to see if the enclosure is at fault. Any suggestions to get the drive working again?

Sherifu

The first thing i'd be doing is sticking it in a pc too, to check the data is ok. After that if the drive is working normally in the pc it means the enclosure is damaged. Either way you'll know when you put it in your pc.

Dilogoat

Sounds like the it's the problem with the drive itself. Strange enough that it happened after you got the other one. PC is the best idea. Go with that first and see what the story is.

dango

Thanks guys i'll do that when i get home. As a related query how do i go about it? I have the drive and an IDE cable, what do i plug into? and how do i test it? I'm a bit confused about master slave etc.?

Gadgetman496

The drive cable on the computer you are going to use should have a second IDE connection midway down the cable. Plug it into the MyBook drive and set the jumper on the MyBook to slave. There's normally a diagram on the drive itself or on a label on the drive showing the jumper settings.

As a by the way,

How did you go about opening the MyBook case?


-

dango

Sorry i don't think i made it clear, the mybook is the new hdd which caused the old one, in the enclosure, to malfunction. I'll be opening the enclosed one and not the mybook. Thanks for the advice

Gadgetman496

dango wrote: »

Sorry i don't think i made it clear, the mybook is the new hdd which caused the old one, in the enclosure, to malfunction. I'll be opening the enclosed one and not the mybook. Thanks for the advice

I understand now

While it's unusual that the original external drive baulked when you connected the WD My Book, I wouldn't be too sure it was the actual cause though?

As to my earlier query about the My Book, I found how to open it (Piece of cake )



-

dango

gadgetman496 wrote: »

While it's unusual that the original external drive baulked when you connected the WD My Book, I wouldn't be too sure it was the actual cause though?

Aye i know, maybe it was coincidental and unrelated. Either way i hope it's the enclosure and it'll work in the computer. That's all i can hope for...:(

Kernel

This happened with my old motherboard, and XP. It could be a problem with voltage supplied to the USBs on your mobo, or it could have been an XP problem. I researched the problem but could not find a solution. It's disappeared after my upgrade so I'm happy. It's almost certainly not a hard drive problem.

cance

Kernel wrote: »

This happened with my old motherboard, and XP. It could be a problem with voltage supplied to the USBs on your mobo, or it could have been an XP problem. I researched the problem but could not find a solution. It's disappeared after my upgrade so I'm happy. It's almost certainly not a hard drive problem.

its down to how much power is drained by the usb devices, even when devices are self powered they still seem to suck far too much juice from the usb ports. the older c series dells were crap for it!

powered usb hubs all the way.

dango

Well i'm home now and searching on the net i've found out that the HDD is a WD4000kd sata drive and my motherboard only works with IDE. I guess i need a sata->ide converter? Any ideas on where to get them, (rip of merchants) maplins? or this http://www.dabs4work.ie/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4TTL&CategorySelectedId=11141&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11141&InMerch=1