Problems with WD 750GB external (using SATA->USB Casing)

[susanjohnyba]

HDD: Western Digital WD7500AAKS, 750GB, WD Caviar.
USB Casing: TAG SATA to USB (also supports IDE->USB)

Here I'm giving my problems with an external HDD of 750GB which I converted using a TAG SATA to USB casing. Please give some time in reading it, I beg to all the experts to help.

I bought it 'bout 6-7 months ago. For about 2-3 months it ran very well and then it gave me the biggest shock. One day without any warning or ultimatum, it's format was gone alongwith 50% of data, rest of the data the HDD shad to be recovered. After this incident it started to behave non-friendly and it used to stop at anytime while running. Regardless of all that I continued to fill it up.

That incidents continued and from 2 days before posting this thread, it started to behave in very alienic ways. On some PCs sometimes it shows "USB Device not Recognized", sometimes it runs quite well whereas sometimes alongwith this, one more RAW drive appeared of 0 Bytes. I was amazed what was infront of me. Now, I beg any HDD expert to please read the following questions:

QUESTIONS:
1. Is 750GB too much to make it portable?
2. Are WD drives incompatible with TAG SATA-USB casing?
3. Did I waste my money: Rs.6700(HDD) + Rs.650(Casing)?
4. Is this the ultimate fate of such a converted HDD?
5. Are there some special precations which I must had obeyed?

Further, the shopkeeper has no clue of what might be happening, the problem is that I'm not able to show his my problems, so he is in safe-zone.

The first 3 phases of Scan disk complete succesfully, but the Phase 4 of Scan Disk (Windows XP SP2) never goes to completion. Further sometimes due to electricity problems it went under some voltage-variations and sometimes closed without safely removing. Can this be the root cause to the problem?

DECLARATIONS:
1. I live in Mumbai(India), if any expert can at least diagnose my HDD I can come to him.
2. Are there any other forums/websites from where I can get help?
3. Please post your experiences if you are also using the external HDD converted from Internal HDD.
4. I'm also ready to pay some amount for any expert help, which will really solve my problems.
5. Any other help or posted experience will be gratefully accepted.

 

[Rob!]

Portability (assuming you mean an external that runs off only USB port power) is not a function of the size of the drive, but the type of drive. Portable ones are typically 2.5" (laptop) drives due to their lower power requirements, versus 3.5" (desktop) hard drives like your 750. I've yet to see a 3.5" portable drive.

Compatibility also should be not be a function of the brand. Could just be the drive is dying. It happens. I had made an external using an internal + enclosure and after a few months or periodic use it decided to stop turning on once in a while, other times it would work.

 

[95Viper]

I believe this is your post @ thinkdigit forums:http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95490.

From what I gather reading the post there and here. You are still having problems, since December 2008, with your drive and external enclosure. Your last post there says you thought it was the usb cable. Must not be that since you are still having trouble.

Let's see, heat could be a factor, poor power problem (electric adapter could be failing), could also be the hard drive.

To eliminate, the hard drive as the problem, you need to remove the hard drive from the enclosure and connect it to the motherboard sata connector and the pc power supply.

Go here and get Western Digital's Diagnostic program for your appropriate OS:http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3&lang=en. Run the diagnostics and see if it fails or passes. If it fails and is under warranty, RMA the drive and get a replacement. If it passes, then I would suspect the enclosure or you can try this, since you are, also, getting drive not recognized sometimes and I really do not know what pc or laptop you are using it on, could be a incompatibility problem:

SATA II hard drives use autospeed negotiation. This enables our SATA II drives to automatically detect the motherboard data transfer rate, making it backward compatible with SATA I data transfer rates. However, some older SATA I controllers are unable to support autospeed negotiation and cannot recognize the drive. This “drive not detected” condition occurs when a chipset is incapable of correctly negotiating the data transfer speed with a SATA II hard drive.

To lock the drive at 150 MB/s data transfer rate, install a jumper shunt on pins OPT1, shown in the picture below.

OPT1 Enabled: