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Western Digital External USB2.0 Hard Drive Help
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Posted by: gz_unit
I bought a new Western Digital External Hard Drive, (WDXB16000JBRNN, 160GB, USB 2.0/Firewire, with built-in USB2.0 Hub) which works, but with a daily problem. It will often "lose" it's connection to the computer, meaning I hear a "beep" and the drive is then gone (i.e. no longer listed under Windows Explorer or My Computer). I tried moving it to a USB 2.0 port on my motherboard that didn't have an adjacent USB device, which helped (initially, it would disappear everytime I moved my USB mouse) but it still happens often enough that I can't use it for automatic back-ups. I could try the firewire connection, but I'm not sure if I'd still be able to use the built-in USB 2.0 hub on the external hard drive. It does regain the connection after 5-30 seconds or so and will reappear under Windows Explorer on its own. Does anyone know the cause, or what I can do to remedy the problem?
My system:
Windows XP Home Edition SP1, all windows updates installed (except .NET)
Pentium4 2.8 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Asus P4B533-E motherboard
SB Live Platinum sound card w/ Live Drive
MSI G4 Ti-4600 128MB 3D Graphics card
Happaugue WinTV2000 card
3Com 10/100 Ethernet card
Creative 8X DVD
Plextor 16X CD-RW
internal ZIP drive
Thanks!
-gz_unit
Posted by: Antti2004
I presume that you OS is working OK and that your chipset drivers are 'uptoday'.
Visit http://support.wdc.com/kb.asp
Posted by: fffanatics
This seems like a pretty easy problem. Judging by the specs on your system, you have a pretty powerhouse machine. By that I mean that your machine has a ton of things inside of it that use a lot of power (the CPU, your Ti4600, harddrives, etc). You probably don't have a very good power supply to support all of this. One of the nice features of USB is that external power is not needed in order to run your WD HDD.
So what I'm saying is that you probably don't have enough power in your power supply to support everything in your system. An easy way to double check this is to unhook your 2 CDROM drives and boot up your computer. Plug in the WD HDD and see if it works. If it does, then that means that you are using too much power on your power supply. If that's the case, I would invest in buying a new one... perhaps a 400W or 430W power supply. I bought an Antec TruePower 430W for my file server (4 hard drives, cdrom) and it's rock solid, have never had any problems with it.
Posted by: gz_unit
Hmmm. I have a 350W power supply, but the WD external hard drive has its own AC power cord that's plugged in, so I assume it has all the power it needs directly from the wall. My OS is working well, and I have all the latest drivers. I've also posted with WD tech support, I guess if they can't come up with anything else, I'll give a new power supply a try. Thanks!
-gz_unit
Posted by: fffanatics
Hm... that seems pretty odd. Perhaps the AC power cord isn't working properly? I'm not exactly sure. Before you go out and buy a new power supply, you can check to see if you need one or not. The easiest way to do this is to unplug the power cords from your 2 cdrom drives inside your computer and boot it up with the external WD HDD plugged in and see what happens. With the 2 cdroms drives not hooked up, this should give you all the power you need for the WD HDD.
The only other thing I can think of is perhaps an incompatibility issue. Goto the control panel, and go to administrative tools and then to computer management. Look under the drive management section to see if there are any conflicts or something.
Perhaps there is an IRQ violation? This would be rare, but if you don't know anything about IRQs... they are very important to the computer. There are 15 or 16 IRQs (interupt request.. something or other) and each device is assigned one. So your hard drive gets one... your cd roms, video card, sound card, other pci cards, LAN card, etc. If you don't have enough IRQs then that might explain why your hard drive keeps dying. It might be getting assigned an IRQ that is already assigned to something else. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to fix this. You might want to search around on google or microsoft or something about IRQ sharing. I think this is a feature of the motherboard. It allows multiple components to 'share' an IRQ without any problems. I doubt that this is your problem... but it's a possibility.
Posted by: Baldrick
Hey
Dell Inspiron 8500
2.4Ghz P4m
512 MB Ram
Gforce 4200TI GO 64MBRam
Win Xp Home SP1 (with all recent updates)
Ive got the same problems as stated above, Ive got 2 external disks, 1 WD250Gb usb2/firewire and one self made (BIG case and wd200Gb disk) also usb2/firewire.
When I only had the 250Gb attatched on usb2 it worked perfectly but when I got my new disk those problems suddenly appeared. I am now running them on firewire with 1 drive connected to my laptop and the other ones to each other.. This works fine but they tend to just stop and the light for a busy drive just stays on. I have to unplug their power to get it back n running. (both have their own power supplies) Ive got an usb2 hub with an own power supply as well but they wont stay connected to it..when I connect either of the drives to the hub it shuts down no matter if the supply is connected or not.
this is really annoying me now coz Ive only got an 30Gb internal drive in the laptop so Ive installed some games on the external disk and its not very reliable to play when the disks behave like that.. Also I do alot of video editing and its not fun risking loosing a file I am working on coz the disk suddenly disconnects...
Thanx in advance hoping for some help here...
Regards
Baldrick (not my real name :P)
Posted by: Baldrick
Just to explain my problem a little more in detal have a look at this site: (and I must say that my western digital drive does not have these problems, its my Exsys 9030 case with an wd disk in it that is the problem)
http://www.bustrace.com/products/delayedwrite.htm
I have been trying to figure out which chipset Exsys r using so that I could find a firmware upgrade but their louse crap site doesnt inform of such detailed information.
Hoping it is the oxford something ata/firewire bridge thingie..
Posted by: Baldrick
http://www.exsys.ch/english/ex_9030/ex_9030.html
and thats my external case... sorry for multiple threads....hoping for an quick response...
Posted by: madman55
u two arent the only ones with the problem with wd external 120-160 GB hardrives. i also have one and it sucks. the exterior body frame is weak. a 5 year old could easily squeeze it up. thats why im taking mine back and getting either a wd with better frame or the maxtor, or seagate. its too bad that best buy doesnt sell a wd with better frame support.
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