Re: About USB hard drives and errors
Paul E Condon put forth on 4/11/2010 4:40 PM:
> All of the computers are hand-me-downs. None have eSATA capability. So
> far I have not convinced myself that spending money would help solve
> the problem. Perhaps in a few years, computers with eSATA will start
> showing up in dumpsters. Maybe I should just wait.
Hand-me-downs aren't well known for their reliability, especially if they
weren't, ahem, treated/handled properly during the decommissioning process.
If these external USB hard drives were new-in-box, I'd suspect the USB
cables/interface more than I would the new drives. I assume you've swapped
the USB cables?
If you're powering the external USB drives via the USB cable, DON'T. Plug
in the wall wart transformer to power the drives. You could be having
issues with dirty/insufficient power on the USB cable to the drive.
Have you purchased and installed a ~$10 PCI USB 2.0 card, loaded the
drivers, and tested the reliability of the drives with the PCI USB card? If
not, I'd recommend that as your next step.
--
Stan
Reply to: