External hard drive

[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.