External HD doesn't work. Wait, yes it does. Oh, no it doesn't.

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Arkayne, Nov 30, 2009.

  1. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    I have an external USB hard drive that's worked fine for about a year.

    I went away on a trip a few months ago and although I powered my computer off, I left the HD powered on. When I returned all the clocks in my house were blinking - power failure. I discovered shortly after that the external HD had stopped working.

    I get a "device cannot start code 10" in the device manager and it is not recognized anywhere besides there. I've tried uninstalling / updating drivers. If the HD is plugged in and powered on during a boot, the computer will hang at the bios. If the HD is turned on mid-boot, the boot will freeze until the HD is turned off again.

    Here's where it gets weird.

    About 2 weeks later, it just started working on it's own again with no prompting from me. I quickly transferred all my most important data off of it expecting it was a 10 minute window, but it worked for 2 weeks more. I was happy and assumed that was the end of it.

    Last night I left my computer on overnight to run a deep defrag on another hard drive. You guessed it - power failure. Computer works fine but the HD is back to the Code 10 error again.

    Although I'm going to just leave it plugged in hoping the hard-drive elves come out at night and repair it again, does anyone have any idea what this issue might be so I can help it along?

    TIA
     
  2. pclover

    pclover MajorGeek

    Sounds like the drive enclosure is shorting out or something is wrong with it. If you can I would try to take it apart and use it as an internal drive and see if that helps.
     
  3. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    That's what I'm thinking too. I was waiting for a friend who works in IT to look at it the first time it died, but it repaired itself before I brought it to him. He offered to check the case and put it in a tower to test it.
     
  4. pclover

    pclover MajorGeek

    I think putting it in a tower would be the best approach.
     
  5. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    I would attempt that myself, but (and this is where my hardware ignorance shines through) I believe it's a sata drive. I don't see the familiar four-pronged power slot at all either. This is something I'll have to hand over to my friend to do.

    (Thanks again)
     
  6. pclover

    pclover MajorGeek

    Just for your information SATA power cables are usually black

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    Ahh, I see. Looks like I'll need something like this.
     

    Attached Files:

  8. pclover

    pclover MajorGeek

    If you don't have any extra sata power connections on your power supply then yes.
     
  9. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    I'm not sure it has any at all, I'll pop open the case and take a look. I'll probably be offline for the night, thanks again for the help.
     
  10. Arkayne

    Arkayne Private E-2

    My curiosity got the better of me so here's what I did.

    - I open up the tower and the case for the external hard drive.

    - I leave the USB cable plugged into the HD/Tower.

    - I unplug the power cable to the HD, and instead plug the ribbon from my tower directly into the HD. In order to do this I have to unplug the connection from the HD case to the HD.

    - Nothing happens when I power on the HD, I presume because the HD case isn't powered.

    - So I plug the HD case's power cable back in. The HD and case turn on and Windows immediately recognizes it. The power cable from HD case to HD is still unplugged.


    So I got the HD open and on it's back plugged in normally via usb and power cable, but the HD is getting power directly from my tower's ribbon cable. The cable from HD case to HD is unplugged. I assume this means a new case will fix it, but I'm curious what this all means - not enough juice to power both the case and HD at the same time?
     

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