Dead hard drive ?

Patrick · #1 30-05-12

As one or two have read on the forum I have just fitted a SSD in my MacBook so I put the old H/D in an enclosure for use as an external storage. After it was fitted I plugged in to the MacBook and heard the dreaded click click. I tried it in another enclosure and it was the same click click.
Unplugged tried it in the iMac same again, I thought that's dead. Next day I tried again and it worked, great I thought untill next time and click click.
Tried it again yesterday and it works again and again this morning, anyone got an idea what's happening. It's obvioce not to put anything important on it as it could go click click gain.

Patrick

Ian · #2 30-05-12

Very strange. Things like this are there to torture us!

Is the contents of the drive exactly as it was when you swapped it out for the SSD?

Ian

Patrick · #3 30-05-12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

Very strange. Things like this are there to torture us!

Is the contents of the drive exactly as it was when you swapped it out for the SSD?

Ian

Yes Ian didn't want to format untill entirely happy with the new setup.
I have removed a few item I know I shouldn't want. It was connecting and disconnecting itself just now, very strange.

Patrick

JSR · #4 30-05-12

It's not a power issue, is it? Like the enclosure's not providing enough power for the drive on start up or something?

I only ask because I have an external Iomega HDD here which always makes an odd "click-click" noise when first powering-up. Once it's spun-up to speed, it's as good as gold - but the start up click-click terrifies me every time (the words "Iomega" and "click" in the same sentence means something special to many of us - and not in a good way..!

).

Ian · #5 30-05-12

I, too, wondered about power. It's a 2.5 inch drive isn't it? So it's powered entirely from the USB port?

Ian

Patrick · #6 30-05-12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

I, too, wondered about power. It's a 2.5 inch drive isn't it? So it's powered entirely from the USB port?

Ian

Hi both

Yes it's powered through the USB. The cable is one of those with double male USB plugs. When it won't work it simply won't work.

See how thinks go over the next few days.

Patrick

JSR · #7 30-05-12

I have a USB DVD drive that Freecom say can be powered by a USB port but it requires a certain special kind of USB port that they seem unable to define.

Although everything else works fine from my netbook's USB ports, this Freecom DVD drive doesn't. Even buying one of those double "Y" cables so that it can draw power from two USB ports made no difference. The drive will light up and make some noises like it's looking for a disc but then fail to find it. If I plug the drive in to the mains, then no problem. (A USB-powered Liteon DVD burner works just fine off those same USB ports.)

I also have two 2.5" Freecom XXS mobile hard drives and they work fine off the USB ports, too. So it does seem that some devices are more picky than others when it comes to power requirements.

Ian · #8 31-05-12

Some USB cables are wired to deliver more current. Patrick - was there a cable supplied with your external drive case? Are you using that cable or another one?

Ian

Patrick · #9 31-05-12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

Some USB cables are wired to deliver more current. Patrick - was there a cable supplied with your external drive case? Are you using that cable or another one?

Ian

It's the supplied cable, Ian.
It's working this Morning OK. Trouble is I don't have confidence to use it for anything important, I had ideas of using it as the time machine H/D for the MacBook but if it's flaky that's not a good idea.

Patrick

Ian · #10 31-05-12

If you have retrieved any data you wanted from it I would reformat it and use it for non-essential (maybe secondary backups) and see if it's reliable. As the drive originally had an OS on it, I was wondering if it was conflicting with the computer it was attached to?

Ian

Patrick · #11 31-05-12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian

If you have retrieved any data you wanted from it I would reformat it and use it for non-essential (maybe secondary backups) and see if it's reliable. As the drive originally had an OS on it, I was wondering if it was conflicting with the computer it was attached to?

Ian

Looks like a power problem.

Just attached the H/D to a powered hub I have on the iMac which I normally use un-powered and click click, retried with the power on and the H/D worked.

So hopefully that's a problem solved.

Patrick