Working laptop Hard Drive Fails in USB Enclosure

[rangdaa]

I was so pleased with the performance of my 80Gb Hitachi Travelstar hard drive in my laptop that when it filled up I purchased a 500GB version. I put the 500 GB drive into a USB enclosure and copied the image from the 80GB drive to the 500GB drive. I then swopped drives.

The 500GB drive worked perfectly in the laptop but the 80Gb drive was not recognised by My Computer - it was however recognised under Disk Management.

I am running W7. W7 advised that the 80 Gb drive had to be initialised but whether I selected MBR or GUID I received the same error message - Data Error - Cyclic Redundancy Check. I put the 80 Gb drive back in the laptop and it worked perfectly. However, when placed in the USB external enclosure, I got the same CRC error message.

I have formatted the 80Gb drive, deleted and created a new partiton. I have run Chkdsk, and Hitachi's Drive Fitness Tool but the drive passed both tests.

I have tried two different enclosures and three different cables but the same CRC error message persists.

The 80Gb drive was an original install in a Dell Latitude D630. Hitachi Support suggests that Dell may have installed firmware on it which would prevent it working properly.

There is no data on it but it seems a shame to waste 80Gb of space.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[kjv1611]

Have you tried connecting it internally to a desktop to see if it works fine that way? Also, have you tried USB ports on a different machine, or at least different USB ports on the same machine?

Sometimes, a hard drive could begin failing, and only show itself connected over USB but not over direct SATA/IDE connection. For instance, I've seen hard drives that were going bad, and I couldn't get the data off of them over USB, but when directly connected to a motherboard, it seemed to work fine - or well enough at least.

 

[vacunita]

did the enclosures offer enough power to the drive? Some drives require more power than provided by the usb cable. If you have an enclosure with its own power brick it may be an interesting test.



I must say however, I have encountered this before. I had a PC 120Gb drive that worked fine attached to the PC as either a slave or a master, but the second I put it in an enclosure it would just spin and click. It just did not like being inside any enclosure. I tried 5 different ones (different brands) and it would not work.





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[rangdaa]

Thanks for the answers.

I have tried the enclosure with drive in another laptop with the same result. I will not be able to test it in a desktop for some time. I have tried it in all 4 ports without success.

The enclosure has two power leads but even with both connected the drive is not recognised.

Looks like I may have to admit defeat...

 

[BadBigBen]

I would suggest the following:

1. Download DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke) ISO
2. place the 80GB drive back into the laptop
3. boot with the newly created DBAN CD/DVD
4. wipe drive with DBAN (this will take quite a while)...
5. place 80GB back into the USB enclosure and retest...

good luck...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[rangdaa]

Badbigben,

Thanks for the suggestion but "autonuking" it did not solve the problem...........

 

[cdogg]

I recommend running Hitachi's Drive Fitness test just to verify you're not having an actual hardware issue:

http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

I know you said after getting the CRC error, you placed it back in the laptop and it booted up fine. That alone, however, doesn't necessarily mean the drive is fine, especially with all the handling and movement that the drive has been subjected to recently.

Carl

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test
a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln
[tab][navy]For this site's posting policies, click [/navy]here.

 

[rangdaa]

Carl,

Thank you. I ran it and it passed - I recall the result was 0X00 (or similar).

 

[FredWagner]

Is there a jumper array on the drives where you can select Master, Slave, and Cable Select ? If so, I'd guess from what you tell us that the old 80GB drive is set as Master, and and the new 500GB drive is set as 'Cable Select' since it works both places. Try setting the old drive as 'Cable Select' and see if it works in the enclosure....

Fred Wagner

 

[rangdaa]

Fred,

The hard drive is a laptop drive and there are no jumpers to be seen.

Yesterday, I did reinstall it in the laptop, deleted the partition, created a new one, formatted it and successfully reinstalled W XP so I assume that the drive is OK at least.

 

[kjv1611]

rangdaa,

Don't assume it's okay just b/c XP will install. At least, not if you want a stable system. I'd run some scans to be sure. You can download

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com

that has several, or you can find the mfg diagnostics for your hard drive, and run them. It'll be worth verifying, I think. You could leave the test running overnight while you sleep.

 

[rangdaa]

Thanks KJV - I will try it out.

 

[DrB0b]

Sounds like you dont have this solved just yet so I will toss these out there....

kjv1611 above recommended you download and burn Ultimate Boot CD. If you would please plug the drive back into the laptop and boot this CD running the Maxtor Powermax program(yes Im aware the drive isnt a Maxtor). You will have to hit "F8" twice and then please run the Advanced test and tell us if it passes all tests or fails any, could take a couple hours to run.

If it passes that, run the "Burn in test" option on the same program for 10 passes, let it sit all night and run these cause it will take some time. If it passes those two test then without a doubt that drive is good.

As for the enclosure, are all your USB cords the same size? Oversized USB cords can cause power issues. Somewhere on the Hard drive should be a power rating, something like "12V,5V". Are they the same on the 500GB and 80GB? If it is expecting a higher voltage output from the USB enclosure which it can get from the motherboard, there is your issue.

"Silence is golden, duct tape is silver...

 

[rangdaa]

Thanks DrB0b,

Re the last paragraph, I tried all the USB cords I had but all produced the same result. Both drives required 5V, 800mA.

I will have a go with the boot disk when I return from holiday.

 

[BadBigBen]

does the drive work when you directly attach it to a PC (non DELL)?

you have pretty much concluded that the enclosure is busted, next test would be to use a TOTALLY different enclosure.



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[rangdaa]

BadBigBen,

I have not had the opportunity to try the drive in another laptop and having read Vacunita's posting above I am reluctant to throw good money after bad.......

 

[rclarke250]

If this is a sata drive, you can hook it up inside a PC,the ports are the same size, just make the cable connection as you would a 3.5" drive, and run the tests that way. If it checks OK, then I would look at a better make of USB enclosure, possibly one with an external power supply, because it's possible that the laptop USB ports are just not producing the current needed to run the drive, and drive the chips from the external enclosure.

 

[G0AOZ]

I think rclarke250 is on the right lines here. It's possible even dual ports on that laptop cannot provide enough current (mA) so voltage drop occurs, and your attached device then fails to work as envisaged.

Try plugging the two USB cables into a Desktop machine's USB ports, or try plugging them into an external powered USB hub.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[kjv1611]

What rclarke250 is specifically mentioning there, I think, is to connect the hard drive directly to the SATA connections of a desktop first as test one on the drive (different computer, taking USB out of equation). Then if the drive holds up there, put back in the enclosure and test with the USB connections on the desktop. Though, I suppose it'd be easier to test WITH USB first rather than afterwards - just depends upon where the drive is at the moment.

 

[rclarke250]

Yep, I was saying to test the drive sans enclosure in the desktop, directly connected to the SATA ports, as the desktop data and power cables will fit on the smaller drive just fine. But a powered HUB or the desktop should produce the desired results also.