USB2.0 to IDE Drive - frequently corrupts drive. EVent ID 55, Source:

[trmbr]

Hi,

I have a "USB2.0 to IDE" external case and a 120GB Seagate drive (ST312002
2A drive) - which I connect to my laptop and desktop system - and
periodically gets corrupted. The external case has its own power source,
USB2.0 to IDE cable which is connected to a USB2 PCI adapter.

I have had to FDISK and FORMAT the drive repeatedly and am now frustrated as
there must be a reason for the corruption.
Has anyone experienced this before ort have a resolution?

I format the 120gb drive using a Windows 98SE bootable floppy. The system
the drive is connected to only permits a Primary Partition of 48.9GB.
However I can format the full 120GB (111GB actually due to the drive
overhead) in NTFS format, successfully on my Win2000 laptop.
I have been able to successfully backup my 40GB laptop to the 120GB drive a
few times however it intermittently corrupts, indicated by a repeated entry
in the Application log of
Source NTFS
Event Id 55,
Category isk and a
description of "The file system structure on the disk E: is currupt and
unusable. Please ruin the chkdsk utility on the volume E"

Any assistance will be appreciated
Thanks
trmbr

 

[micker377]

What is a "USB2.0 to IDE" cable? Every external box I've seen uses a regular USB (or firewire) cable, and conversion is done through a circuit board inside the external box. I just went through a "repeated corruption" problem with a 60gig Maxtor drive. The only cure for my problem was to format it as NTFS ( I use XP SP-2).

 

[trmbr]

Thanks for responding - much appreciated.

The cable is USB to USB with the IDE conversion performed by the circuit board inside the external case - you are correct.

I have formatted it both thru XP and Windows 2000 - with both resulting eventually in corruption. I was wondering if the power to the external case might fluctuate therefore resulting in corruption, as the problem occurs when connected to any PC's USB port. The common factor is the USB cable, the power and the curcuit board.

Any ideas?

Regards
trmbr

 

[micker377]

Are you turning off the power to the USB enclosure before shutting down the computer? The computer may be still writing to the USB drive when turned off (write behind). If you shut down the computer first, it won't shut down before the USB drive is "done".

 

[trmbr]

Im not turning off the power at all.
I was able to perform a "quick NTFS format" in XP only when the XP system boots with the USB Drive connected. The BOOT sequence does recognised the ST312002 (120GB drive) but states its unformatted - the quick NTFS format renders it available, however a full NTFS format in XP failed, repeatedly.
I know the drive isnt faulty as I can format it (internally) and run checks which do not report any faulty tracks or sectors. REally has me stumped.
Any ideas?

 

[micker377]

Can you place the hard drive in the desktop, format and use it there for awhile? If it works there OK (for a time), you can start looking for problems in the USB setup. You have to eliminate possibilities one-by- one. First the desktop, then the USB setup, and then the laptop. Have you noticed when (what you are hooked up to at the time) the "corruption" occurs?

 

[garebo]

Just off the top, it sounds to me like your usb box might be faulty.
However, you do have to do the testing as described by micker377.

I just had a 60 gig western digital hard drive and a firewire box die on me, the hard drive with the click of death and the firewire box is just dead. And it wasnt a main power from the house problem as i have all my stuff hookeup up to UPS's. I think the box went bad and took the hard drive with it. I tried with a different firewire cable as well, so i know the firewire box is dead. And all this can happen to a usb box just the same as firewire.

You DO have to turn the usb box off before you turn the computer off. There should be a little green arrow in your system tray over on the right, you left click on it and click on the drive number. Then a sign pops up and says its ok to turn the drive off. YOu must use that or stand the chance of corrupted data on your drive!! Dont feel bad, I only learned that some time ago. Sometimes when you go to do that and you click on the green arrow you get a signal telling you the drive is in use. YOu should wait til the green arrow click tells you its ok, or you can go to task mgr and stop any service that might be using your usb drive and then do the trick with the little green arrow over again til you get the ok. It could even be your antivirus that is checking that drive if you have it set to do so. Could be one of many programs so you have to find out and change settings so that doesnt hold you up all the time.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=885688

This info is for server 2003 but often it can apply to win xp. However, it seems to me to relate to what micker377 said about the "write behind" issue.

I have the feeling that some program has been set to write to this usb drive and you may not be aware of it and this could be your problem, along with the fact that you dont use the little green arrow as mentioned above. Together, the two are causing your problems.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[trmbr]

Hi Micker377 and Garebo,
Thanks for responding guys, your suggestions and advise is very much appreciated.

I always "unplug" the USB-Drive before shutting down my desktop/laptop.

Following the NTFS quick format performed earlier (but NOT FULL NTFS format), I have had the USB2.0-drive connected to my desktop for a two days now, and have been able to successfully backup my C: (17GB) and D: (37.9gb) drives to the USB2.0-Drive. The Drive appears as a "Local Disk" which is expected.

I have been able to "Unplug" the drive (via the USB 2.0 Unplug or Eject Hardware" utility - which is the way Ive always removed the drive) and reconnect the drive, successfully - so far.

I have connected the USB2.0 Drive to my laptop (vai the PCI USB2.0 adapter) and it appeared ok. I was again able to access the Drive, and "Unplug" it, successfully, a few times. I have performed a Backup of my Laptop C: (35gb) to the USB2.0-Drive which appeared successful...but I guess time will tell.

I did come across this link, which refers to frequent USBDrive corruption when backing up drives.
The recommendation is to use Firewire over USB.

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=65129

I'll keep you guys posted on my results.

Once again, thanks very much

 

[trmbr]

The Laptop backup failed - at the point of the drive exceeding 70GB (on the 120GB drive) - not sure if there is a connection.
I used "SyncBackup" for both the XP Desktop and Win2000Pro laptop.

 

[garebo]

Heres another possibility. I may take some flack for this but i dont care as i know i am right.
Power to homes goes from ok to very poor. For that reason i use nothing but UPS's now for all my computer hardware. Since then i have had NO issues of this sort. Before that i lost hard drives, mobos, vid cards, the works.
The reason is this: power at our home plugs is ok for a toaster or tv, not ok for a computer. Thats why they started making UPS's when computers came out, or not too long after anyway.
UPS's give good clean power which our systems need to operate. There are times when the power goes up or down to the point where our computer equipment suffers corrupted data, in the best of times, to destroyed hardware, in the worst of cases. This is due to power fluctuations, there are fancy words, brown-outs, surges, you name it. UPS's take care of a lot of that. Surge suppressors do NOT. They are a lot better than nothing but dont replace a UPS.
With UPS's being so cheap these days, i wouldnt consider running a puter without one. Then there are the power issues relating to storms. Ever see your house lights go dim for a split sec? Computers cant handle even that!
This could even possibly solve your problem.
You read here, quite often, and quite rightly, that out power supplies may be working but they may still be the cause of many of our computer hardware problems. Well, the same applies to the raw power we attach our computers to, hence the need for a UPS.

It wouldnt suprise me at all if you went out and got a UPS and connected all your hardware to it and never had any more probs with your usb case!
Course you do have to go to the little green icon and "safely remove hardware" no matter what.
I know that for me this has been a blessing and i just dont lose hardware any longer like i used to.
Because of this, i lay a lot of blame on power issues, be it power supplies in our computers to the raw power at the wall.
That said, sometimes the internals of the usb and firewire boxes that we buy can simply be not working properly and cause problems too. These things basically run off a cheap little pcb board. So they wear out, break, and some are just not that great to begin with. Thats why you hear about
the "oxford 911" as i guess its supposed to be a good one for these units, i forget offhand if thats for the usb or firewire, i think its the firewire, could even be for both, i dont know.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[trmbr]

Thanks for the info re the UPS....but the problem occurs both at the office and home. So if it is power related, it might be the USB/IDE case, not the power supply.

 

[Freestone]

By all means, garebo's post regarding a UPS is worth trying. Even if it doesn't fix your USB issue, you can rest assured that the other components of your system are safeguarded through brownouts, blackouts, and the other sundry power issues that arise.

The statement " the quick NTFS format renders it available, however a full NTFS format in XP failed, repeatedly" should raise a red flag I would think. Just how is the format failing? It sounds as if your desktop system isn't supporting the drive correctly. Can you do a full NTFS format from your laptop?

These statements confuse me too: "I format the 120gb drive using a Windows 98SE bootable floppy. The system the drive is connected to only permits a Primary Partition of 48.9GB."

Which system is that? What are you using to partition the drive that only permits 48.9GB?

What Service Pack levels are your XP and 2000 operating systems at?

And just to toss another idea around. Perhaps the drive is getting overheated when run inside the USB case? How is it's ventilation? A backup or restore operation is I/O intensive, so I imagine the drive must be getting warm...

 

[garebo]

I hadnt realized the problem exists at 2 different locations, which means what i was talking about isnt the answer.
Now if i said that about my home and my office, being on the same power substation, then my statement could again be true. In your case, i wouldnt know. May or may not be on the same power grid or subcation. However, i think these problems pretty much cover a wide area at a time anyway.

Could very well be that the electronics inside the usb box are faulty, hard to tell.
I do find that i dont really count on these boxes as a reliable backup. Even though they are meant to be, i feel that some of them just arent built very well in terms of their electronics.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

I guess another way of saying what i said is that you may very well never get to the bottom of this one, too many variables, too many unknowns, and not enough ways to test the variables?


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[trmbr]

I found the cause of my drive corruption to be the USBStor.sys driver. Since installing the USBSTOR.SYS (5.00.2196.6655) and the DISK.SYS (5.00.2196.6655) the problem has resolved.
Thanks to everyone for their assistance and efforts...much appreciated

 

[WindowsUser8558]

I am having the same exact problem; where did obtain USBSTOR.SYS and DISK.SYS from?

 

[trmbr]

It was included on my Windows 2000 Professional software CD. But you should be able to search for it thru Google and download.
If you can't find it, let me know and I can email the files to you.
Trevor

 

[WindowsUser8558]

I have my installation disk, but if I copy the files, they will be coming from an older service pack.

 

[trmbr]

I'd then suggest checking the supplier's website for updated drivers. Did you not receive the USB/IDE driver software from the supplier, and what brand is the unit?

Trevor