External hard drive

[jcsings]

I have had 3 external hard drives fail, this last one took out my entire library of songs. 3 years of work gone. I'm sick and so very upset. Does anyone out there know why I would lose hard drives?

[ddouglass]

Hard drives fail. That is just a fact of life and it isn't just external ones that die. Because they are a mechanical device then just like your car parts wear-out. Icouldn't tell you how many drives I have had fail over my 20+ years of working on personal computers, but it has been many.
The lesson here is to have more than one copy of your library. Either get two identical drives and copy the files to both or have another copy on another computer. If all else fails then you should have your CDs to be able to reload them.
Many of the MTU users even have a backup computer that they can use if their primary show computer decides to quit on them.
The question is how did it fail? Did it stop spinning up (silence), or is it just failing to read the data, or the power won't turn on (power lite)? What exactly did it do? Have you taken it to a computer repair shop to see if it can be fix/data recovered?

[marklwood]

I'm jus fishing here, but do you use these for gigs? What I am getting at is do you take them from outside, possibly cold, to inside and fire them up? I can't tell you how many electronics I have seen fail from this. Think of your glasses fogging up, and now add electricity.

[jcsings]

I never bumped or dropped or tipped over the external. I used it one night the next morning it shorted out. Like I said this is the 3rd one to go out. The first 2 I didn't even get to use. I understand things quit, but I should have been able to use them for a little while. I just don't know why I would lose 3. I am seriously wondering if my computer isn't causing the problem. It is always taken down and put away, never left anywhere it's cold or damp. I have a show 5 nights a week, and it is in a very protected area.

[Roy Dennis]

Originally Posted by jcsings

Like I said this is the 3rd one to go out. The first 2 I didn't even get to use. .

What sort of time scale are we talking about losing 3 ? Is it over a number of years or recently ?
If they have all gone recently I should think you have a problem with your computer, or did you buy all 3 from the same supplier at the same time which might indicate a supplier problem like a batch of faulty drives.

I would expect to get a couple of years before failure, unless you accidentally drop one

Roy.

[billyo]

what brand of hhd did you have, if it's a WD i've had problems with those, i've return 4 or 5 of them in a month, do you reformat the hhd before using them ? some manufactures recomends it.. the usb cable might be bad , does your ext. hhd shows up on " hardware tab "

[jcsings]

Originally Posted by Roy Dennis

What sort of time scale are we talking about losing 3 ? Is it over a number of years or recently ?
If they have all gone recently I should think you have a problem with your computer, or did you buy all 3 from the same supplier at the same time which might indicate a supplier problem like a batch of faulty drives.

I would expect to get a couple of years before failure, unless you accidentally drop one

Roy.

I bought the original one when I bought my ruggidized laptop, I was able to get about 250 songs on it, and I don't remember the brand, then it quit. The second was a replacement from the manufacturer, same brand, I was able to load about 5000 songs, and it quit, I was able to take that one to my local IT guy and he was able to save my work, and we loaded it onto a seagate, "Maxtor" 500. I got all 24000 songs loaded to that, using different computers, and it was fine, I started to use my computer and external and within 3 weeks it quit too. How can I tell if it is the computer I bought?

[jcsings]

Originally Posted by billyo

what brand of hhd did you have, if it's a WD i've had problems with those, i've return 4 or 5 of them in a month, do you reformat the hhd before using them ? some manufactures recomends it.. the usb cable might be bad , does your ext. hhd shows up on " hardware tab "

I haven't reformatted anything and I use a hub for my usb. As far as I know it doesn't have a hardware tab.

[billyo]

Originally Posted by jcsings

I haven't reformatted anything and I use a hub for my usb. As far as I know it doesn't have a hardware tab.

try plugging in your ext. hhd. to your int. usb port, does your comp. see the ext. hhd at all...sometimes hubs will give you problems...click on my comp. click on syst. info on the top left right corner, click on hardware tab, see if your ext. hhd is listed, or see if theres any yellow ? mark..

[jcsings]

Originally Posted by billyo

try plugging in your ext. hhd. to your int. usb port, does your comp. see the ext. hhd at all...sometimes hubs will give you problems...click on my comp. click on syst. info on the top left right corner, click on hardware tab, see if your ext. hhd is listed, or see if theres any yellow ? mark..

It didn't see it, the hhd quit. I tried plugging it in directly, there was nothing, the light on the external just flashed, and then started smoking. It melted the motherboard.

[billyo]

it's probably time to get a new comp, if your motherboard smoked, the fan probably went out and overheated..

[Musicman51]

I use those little pocket sized western digital hard drives. I keep two in my computer case. It only has karaoke songs on it, and nothing else. I also Have a big Western Digital harddrive that has the meter light on the front, which is my main hard drive that i cloned my other two from. It's a pain to update 3 hard drives every month, but it's part of the art i guess. But i haven't had one go bad on me yet. The oldest one is going on 3 years old, and it has indeed been dropped. Last winter while unloading the van, it somehow dropped out of my computer case. Didn't miss it for a couple days. It was laying under about 2 feet of snow. I walked very very carefully till i took the shovel and retraced my steps. Dried it up for a couple days, got brave, plugged it into my lappy, still using it for my shows today. They are tough little buggers really.

[RIKKI TIKKI]

I also use the Western Digital externals, in various memory capabilities, ie. 160 gb, 250 gb, and my main backup is a 1 tb drive that I store everything, or backup all my programs to. I have not had a failure as yet, in the last couple of years with this particular brand of external hard drive, but did have an internal hardrive go out on my laptop once a couple of years back, and that was when I started usng the externals as main kma library, and backing up at least two more times for peace of mind! I also carry a backup computer now, for those unforseen problems... and I also have players, and cdg's if a total disaster were to happen!

Here in Arizona we don't have as much problems with the cold, as much as its the heat! Used to live in the Phoenix area, and you could melt jewel cases if you left them in direct contact with sun in a locked up vehicle, or trailer! Now I'm in an area classified as high desert and the temperatures are more moderate, but temperature swings of 50 degrees are not that uncommon. Very hard on any equipment when you operate them after being stored in extreme temperature environments...

[Beavis]

i would invest in cryptonite online back up. theres no limit to how much you can store on there server. the only thing you cant store is videos.

[billyo]

i never had luck with WD, i must have returned 4 or 5 of them in a month, use them to cloned my original drive, bought 250g, hhd to clone my 80g, when i got done, the WD shows up the same amount as my original drive, all 4/5 of them.. i now used 250g seagate int. on my show laptop ( no kma files stored just my dj tunes )and another 250g samsung for my back-up laptop ( still no kma files just dj tunes )and 4 slim design seagate 500g ext. hhd where i have all my kma files, 2 back-up hhd..& 1 for ea. of my laptop for my show.and 1 main 500g free agent ext.where i have all my kma files stored just incase something happens to all my show drive.. it's been quite sometime now and still has no problems with them..

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by jcsings

It didn't see it, the hhd quit. I tried plugging it in directly, there was nothing, the light on the external just flashed, and then started smoking. It melted the motherboard.

To get this back on track to helping you, are you saying the motherboard in the computer was smoking or the HHD case was smoking?
If this is the computer and it is the one you bought from MTU you need to contact them (Support Email) to see what they can do.
If the smoke was coming from the hdd case then take it to a reputable service place and see if the hard drive is damaged or if it is just the case controller board. If it is only the case you can get a replacement for that and will not have lost anything.

[jcsings]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

To get this back on track to helping you, are you saying the motherboard in the computer was smoking or the HHD case was smoking?
If this is the computer and it is the one you bought from MTU you need to contact them (Support Email) to see what they can do.
If the smoke was coming from the hdd case then take it to a reputable service place and see if the hard drive is damaged or if it is just the case controller board. If it is only the case you can get a replacement for that and will not have lost anything.

Thanks Dale,
My computer is fine. It is the motherboard to the external that melted. I am in the process of trying to get my library off of it, but it requires more computer experience than what I have. My biggest concern is that I haven't been able to operate my show for more that 3 weeks with this computer I bought almost 4 years ago. The external hard drives keep dying. I've been told that I should use the none charged drives, ie passbooks vs the hard drives you plug in. I am so confused and I don't know who to believe. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. This computer doesn't have enough hard drive to put all my songs on just the computer so I can use the online back up. What it is looking like to me is I need a bigger computer. Use the external for emergencies and have the computer do all the work. I just feel like giving up.

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by jcsings

Thanks Dale,
My computer is fine. It is the motherboard to the external that melted. I am in the process of trying to get my library off of it, but it requires more computer experience than what I have. My biggest concern is that I haven't been able to operate my show for more that 3 weeks with this computer I bought almost 4 years ago. The external hard drives keep dying. I've been told that I should use the none charged drives, ie passbooks vs the hard drives you plug in. I am so confused and I don't know who to believe. I just don't understand what I'm doing wrong. This computer doesn't have enough hard drive to put all my songs on just the computer so I can use the online back up. What it is looking like to me is I need a bigger computer. Use the external for emergencies and have the computer do all the work. I just feel like giving up.

First look for the screws to open up the case of the External drive and open it. Check to see what size the drive is (2 1/2 or 3 1/2") and get a replacement case for it. If you don't know what to get then as I said before go to a reputable computer service. They can tell you what you need and can check the drive itself to see if it is ok.
The reason you may keep losing drives is the power connection you are using may be bad. I have run into this myself with a floating ground that way causing speaker hum. The club could be getting either too low or too high voltage and this does cause problems with electronic equipment.
What they are talking about with a Non-powered unit is that the drives get power from the USB plug instead of the wall.

[jcsings]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

First look for the screws to open up the case of the External drive and open it. Check to see what size the drive is (2 1/2 or 3 1/2") and get a replacement case for it. If you don't know what to get then as I said before go to a reputable computer service. They can tell you what you need and can check the drive itself to see if it is ok.

I actually have had several people trying to help with the external drive. It's been taken apart and a new mother board put on it. It starts to scream, then quits.... I have one more hope for saving the data. Thanks for all the input! Nice to know I'm not the only one going through this. I still don't understand why my computer would go through 3. It didn't even operate the first 2.