| Author |
Message |
Burning Gundam
Kell Dragon
Joined: 28 Sep 2003
|
 Posted: Jul 12, 2009 18:50 Post subject: Tech Question |
    |
|
I didn't want to register at some website to get an answer for this, but I seem to have the most bizarre problem with my new external hard drive. I'm hoping someone might be able to point me in a good direction.
So I bought a new Iomega eGo 1tb hard drive a couple weeks ago and backed up all my files, video, and music (now before you think "He should have backed this up somewhere else too", I have all this on 3 different drives. It just makes it more convenient to have it all on one large drive instead of distributed through 2 or 3). So since I keep all my DF stuff on my external drive, I formatted the drive to work with both OSX and Windows (FAT32). OSX doesn't seem to have any problems running this drive and I can leave it on without any ill effects.
Now this is where it gets weird. If I switch over to Windows, after about a day the drive will just randomly shut off for no apparent reason. Windows will then proceed to tell me that the USB device malfunctioned and can't be recognized. The only way to fix it is to switch the drive off and on again. It doesn't do this on OSX, just windows.
So I guess my question is this: Do I have a bad hard drive? Or is the driver used to run it on Windows just really funky? If it's a problem with the drive it's no big deal, I'll just be down $110. I have 2 other Iomega drives (a 160 and 320) and neither of them have given me this sort of problem.
_________________
I don't think outside the box... I customize it. |
|
Fenwar
Admiral Ackbar
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Jul 12, 2009 21:57 Post subject: |
|
|
Does the drive have its own power supply or is it powered off the USB port? Something I've seen affect portable hard drives is an under-powered USB port - using "extra" ports on the front of the PC doesn't work, but using the ones at the rear with a short extension cable is fine. Or vice versa.
(Although IME this tends to mean the drive gets recognised but doesn't spin up properly so you can't read any data, rather than failing after a set amount of time.)
(Also I get the impression you're dual booting; if it's the same hardware underneath then it shouldn't be that...)
|
|
Burning Gundam
Kell Dragon
Joined: 28 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Jul 13, 2009 01:21 Post subject: |
|
|
Yeah, this is all on my iMac and it uses its own power supply. It's almost as if something tells it to kill the power, it's really weird. As I said before, it only does this in Windows and it works perfectly fine in OSX.
_________________
I don't think outside the box... I customize it. |
|
AlexG
Dark Trooper Phase 1
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Jul 13, 2009 05:38 Post subject: |
|
|
Have you run diagnostic software on it, something like SpinRite?
_________________
This thread is going to die... isn't it? |
|
Burning Gundam
Kell Dragon
Joined: 28 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Jul 13, 2009 08:14 Post subject: |
|
|
Not yet, but I will try that.
_________________
I don't think outside the box... I customize it. |
|
The MAZZTer
Death Star
Joined: 25 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Jul 13, 2009 15:44 Post subject: |
|
|
If it happens on both OSs it's probably a hardware problem, save yourself lots of headaches and return it as defective, have them swap it for a working one.
Also this is the 21st century, Macs can read NTFS now AFAIK. If it's not natively supported then just install this: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/ Works great on Ubuntu.
NTFS has far better protection against data corruption or loss due to power failure or other interruptions. Plus you get modern file system features like support for large files over 4gb, hard links, etc.
_________________
http://www.mzzt.net/ | I am a respectable admin with a respectable sig. |
|
|
