Storage Solutions External hard drive problem...

[Sei]

Hey everyone!

Plz help me out on this one..

I've got a samsung 3.5" 80gb hdd in an external case. It was running perfectly till now but has started giving problems recently.

It has two partitions of 40 gb each. One partition is absolutely fine. In the second one, some of the downloaded video files have stopped working recently.

The funny thing is that my comp almost hangs and McAfee's auto protection gets disabled as soon as i try to access those files. To get my comp to start responding again, i have to switch off the drive. The moment i do that the computer starts functioning normally again...

Apart from deleting , is there any other way i can solve this problem? Can this be due to a problem in the hdd, bad sectors etc??

 

[Hacker]

Can you copy those files to your main hdd, if yes then do that and format the partition. See if that helps.

 

[superczar]

most likely, corrupt file node structure...

your comp stops responding as explorer.exe keeps trying to read data in the wrong sector when trying to access files with incorrect nodes..

it's a common ailment with external hdd's , esp if there is a power failure or loose data (usb ) connection while writing...

salvage as much data as you can, then reformat...

and don't forget a full surface scan after the reformat

 

[mehargags]

superczar is right.. Its definately DATA mishandling of these stupid shit casings..

I really recommend using Branded external hard disks & not these ~300/- bucks low standard enclosures...They always give delayed write failed error on transfering 500mb plus files..

Try hooking up the hard disk to ur IDE port directly & try recovering as much data u can & then give it a FULL Format.

 

[superczar]

I really recommend using Branded external hard disks & not these ~300/- bucks low standard enclosures...They always give delayed write failed error on transfering 500mb plus files

That's true, the low quality USB-IDE chips on el-cheapo casings are really bad at handling sustained data transfers

however, since branded externall HDDs are prohibitively expensive, a sensible option is to opt for good quality casings (e.g. Vantec) or firewire casings....good quality casings usually come for 1200-2000/ for USB or 1800-2500 for firewire...

Eazy is the man for advice on casings though! Where art Thou Eazy..don't see you posting again

 

[Sei]

Thanks a lot.... will try and let you know...

 

[Eazy]

Eazy is the man for advice on casings though! Where art Thou Eazy..don't see you posting again

I have followed this thread ... but you and mehargags have said all what needs to be said.

The cheaper external cases are troublesome but every time I try to convince peeps to buy only the known brands of cases they go cold when they hear the prices. I have both the PATA and SATA Vantec cases and they are very good but pricey at 2500 and 3500 :O

Earlier I too bought a few cheaper USB cases and learned my lesson after having corrupted HDDs.

 

[Pixel]

@Eazy : i am goin in for an external hdd soon. Vantec for sure, but im confused. SATA or PATA ? i think the speed will no matter as the USB 2.0 / firewire will finally restrict the speed. What do u think?? i heard the SATA vantec casing does not have firewire, only usb. What do u'll recommend.. and pricing as well please..

~cheers

-Ash

Read eazy's post about eSATA.. that would not be practical for me as i will be using my ext hdd on my laptop as well as desktop.. but mainly on my laptop.. so there is no SATA port.. hence i would prefer firewire / usb 2.0.. is firewire much faster than usb 2.0 ??

 

[Eazy]

@Eazy : i am goin in for an external hdd soon. Vantec for sure, but im confused. SATA or PATA ? i think the speed will no matter as the USB 2.0 / firewire will finally restrict the speed. What do u think?? i heard the SATA vantec casing does not have firewire, only usb. What do u'll recommend.. and pricing as well please..

~cheers
-Ash

Read eazy's post about eSATA.. that would not be practical for me as i will be using my ext hdd on my laptop as well as desktop.. but mainly on my laptop.. so there is no SATA port.. hence i would prefer firewire / usb 2.0.. is firewire much faster than usb 2.0 ??

Vantec's eSATA case will need an eSATA port on a Notebook to run the HDD at SATA speeds - I dunno if any Notebooks has this port. You can still run a SATA HDD in this eSATA case connected to the USB2 port - waste of money if you are going to only run it this way.

I get a sustained data transfer speed of around 33MB/s with the Vantec cases connected to a USB2 port - dont know how fast a Firewire port is with HDD data transfers.

Take a look at is the Zippy ET-35UIS external case mentioned in the Sept issue of CHIP on page 52 this is a USB2 case but seems to take both IDE and SATA HDDs. Contact Big Byte Corp - 022-23894800 sales@bigbyteindia.com Big Byte India Price of this case mentioned in CHIP is 1200/- compare THAT to the Vantec cases prices !! :O If this case works well it could be a very good buy.

 

[superczar]

^^ I picked a Zippy SATA case a few months ago (After being pained by a couple of 500-700 rupee PATA casings) ..It is based on the reliable JMicron JM20337 chip

Have been using it with a 250 GB SATA seagate connected to a Mac...The casing has been running almost 24X7 for the last few months...No hitches with sustained data transfers at all!

Edit: Found a review of what seems to be the same casing (same chip, same looks, different generic brand name)

EXTREME Overclocking - Enermax Laureate External HD Enclosure Review - Page: 1 - Tweaking PC Hardware To The Max

 

[Eazy]

Have been using it with a 250 GB SATA seagate connected to a Mac...The casing has been running almost 24X7 for the last few months...No hitches with sustained data transfers at all!

HEY !!! take care man .... HDDs boil inside these cases... I too used to keep HDDs in my External USB2 cases running thru the day.... but the moment I got the eSATA case I could see in XP the temperature of the HDD in the case ... it was 63C during a format of a HDD and it was idling at around 50C .. MAN that is HOT :O ... when the HDD was at 50C the side of the external case felt only a bit warm so I never suspected that the HDD temp was so high - the same HDD when placed inside my computer case gives me around 48C during a format and 38C on idling !!! :O

Edit: Found a review of what seems to be the same casing (same chip, same looks, different generic brand name)
EXTREME Overclocking - Enermax Laureate External HD Enclosure Review - Page: 1 - Tweaking PC Hardware To The Max

YUP looks like the same Case ... good review !!

 

[superczar]

Yes, I realized that ...I was actually thinking of letting the HDD stay open but then I noticed this:

Since the case is all metal, and fits very snugly against the top surface, the entire case gets warm to the touch within minutes of being turned on, thereby indicating that the case is transferring heat from the HDD

Unfortunately there is no way for me to judge the exact temperature...Tell me if you feel i should just open up the case , take the HDD out with just the wires connected, and let it do its job au-natural

 

[Eazy]

.Tell me if you feel i should just open up the case , take the HDD out with just the wires connected, and let it do its job au-natural

Done that ... removed top but kept HDD screwed to the tray with the PCB and had a table fan blowing air at the bare HDD on full speed - this reduces the temps about 5C but then I worried about dust on the open PCB and having stuff falling on the open HDD and PCB.

Strangely keeping the HDD out in the open and having a table fan on full never brought the temp of the HDD anywhere near the temp it runs at inside the computer case. So I removed the top cover of the external case and shoved the HDD inside a drive bay of my computer case and said to myself "now lets see what temp the HDD will you run at" .... and it was close to the temp I get if it is attached inside the case. So my computer case does have excellent air flowing over a HDD Specially since I sandwich my HDDs between 2 120mm fans.

Just a week back a friends Seagate 120GB IDE drive died inside a External case - death definately due to excessive heat. R.I.P.

 

[Pixel]

Vantec's eSATA case will need an eSATA port on a Notebook to run the HDD at SATA speeds - I dunno if any Notebooks has this port. You can still run a SATA HDD in this eSATA case connected to the USB2 port - waste of money if you are going to only run it this way.

I get a sustained data transfer speed of around 33MB/s with the Vantec cases connected to a USB2 port - dont know how fast a Firewire port is with HDD data transfers.

Take a look at is the Zippy ET-35UIS external case mentioned in the Sept issue of CHIP on page 52 this is a USB2 case but seems to take both IDE and SATA HDDs. Contact Big Byte Corp - 022-23894800 sales@bigbyteindia.com Big Byte India Price of this case mentioned in CHIP is 1200/- compare THAT to the Vantec cases prices !! :O If this case works well it could be a very good buy.

thats pretty cool.. its half the price of the vantec casing!.. i enquired today, the vantec casing for IDE with USB 2.0 and firewire for 3100.. im sure i can get a better deal some where else .. i called up Nilesh from APEX (i think APEX).. he quoted 3500 for the case EAZY picked up in AUGUST for 3450!.. (the sata case) .. if ne1 knows where i can get this vantec for 2500~2800 i dont mind picking it up..else the zippy sounds pretty decent.. :hap2:

 

[Eazy]

.. he quoted 3500 for the case EAZY picked up in AUGUST for 3450!.. (the sata case) .. if ne1 knows where i can get this vantec for 2500~2800 i dont mind picking it up..else the zippy sounds pretty decent.. :hap2:

It was 3450 + 4% ... I had mentioned later in my thread that I forgot to mention the VAT.

Nilesh is in some way connected to the people importing the Vantec stuff - I am not sure about the exact connection but I think he is part of the company that are the importers ...... so I doubt you will get a better price on Vantec products.... UNLESS... we get RIO to get 10 people together to import Vantec cases at a low rate ..... like he has done for Artic Silver ..... J/K

 

[Pixel]

@Eazy : hehe yeah n i forgot to ask him whether it was 3100 + 4%, 3500 + 4% ..

newayz im either goin in for the zippy (1200) or the vantec usb2.0/firewire 3100 (should get this at a better rate hopefully)

 

[Eazy]

I mentioned this earlier in another thread but I am going to repeat it here as it is important....

When I saw that my Maxtor 120GB SATA 1 HDD was running at very high temperatures inside the Vantec eSATA case I had looked up some forums for a HDD which ran cool and would not get burned to death inside an external case. The info I picked up was that there have been a lot of newly released 160GB single platter HDDs by practically all the HDD manufacturers and these drives run pretty cool compared to the older generation of HDDs.

I like Hitachi HDDs the most so I picked up their 160GB single platter SATA II HDD and I find this runs in the eSATA case at around 38C idle and Max at 46 on load.

These series of 160GB are quite cheap - I paid 2825/- for the Hitachi. The Seagate was available for 3100/- when I checked a couple of weeks back. Seagate have this drive in 2mb and 8mb buffer.... make sure you get the 8mb one.