Ext. HD turns off intermittently.

[bryant]

I have two 500 GB seagate ext. hard Drives.

They are about 8 months old.

What happens is intermittently they just seem to shut themselves off. However, they easily turn back on,but may do it again afterwards.

During an afternoon wedding yesterday, one of the HD's just turned off while I was using another DJ program for dance music, got a bunch of errors, then managed to get the HD back on. This happened three times, and the third time it took a while to get the HD back on.

What gets me is that it happens on both HD's and they are using two different power cords, too?

Anyone have any idea what's going on.

When they're on, they work fine as retrieving songs and data, etc.

[ddouglass]

Probably heat related. If they have their own power supply you could replace the case they are in and see if that is the problem.

[bryant]

What do you recommend for a case. Or are you saying to remove the case and see if that is the problem?

[bobcox- with the Lord]

Seagate HDs Stop spinning when not in use.
this is supposed to prolong the life of the drive??.
dont know if you can turn this off or not.
i switched to samsung and maxtor.
seem to be better with large HDs. Bob

Pretty cheap at newegg.com

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by bobcox

Seagate HDs Stop spinning when not in use.
this is supposed to prolong the life of the drive??.
dont know if you can turn this off or not.
i switched to samsung and maxtor.
seem to be better with large HDs. Bob

Pretty cheap at newegg.com

But Bob even if they shutdown they are supposed to spin up when accessed.

Bryant the drives are inside a case that plugs in to a power outlet? If so the drive can be removed from that case and put into a new one. But check your warranty first and see if Seagate will fix them.

[bryant]

What happens is the light goes out completely,
even after a few minutes. I don't think heat could build up that fast? Tonight, there was no shutdown at all, but I was really careful not to move the unit at all.

[bryant]

I've got a feeling it's a loose wire where the power supply plugs into. But how would I "tighten" that up?
Can that little plug inlet be replaced on the HD?

[ddouglass]

Bryant, given your level of "Expertese" with the hardware (judging from your questions) I would recommend you get some local help with this. If we tell you open the case and do something and it doesn't work or you make it worse then you'll be mad at us. Better to have someone who can actually see the problem and who knows how to fix it over somebody 1500 miles away trying to tell you what to do on this. With the programs we can try to duplicate your problem and come up with a solution or recommendation to fix it, but with the hardware part we would be shooting in the dark.

[mindonstrike]

Do both HD's go down at the same time? Did your HD's start doing this at the same time? Does your DJ program access all songs from 1 drive or both drives or all drives including the internal?

Here's a long shot but check your power settings, maybe they got set to turn off the drives after X# of minutes.

Also try hooking up the HD's to a desktop and try to replicate the problem.

Sam

[bryant]

Brought one of the HD's upstairs to the desktop and it took a while to get it started and get the light to stay on so I could work with it. Again, I'm guessing a loose wire?

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by bryant

Brought one of the HD's upstairs to the desktop and it took a while to get it started and get the light to stay on so I could work with it. Again, I'm guessing a loose wire?

Bryant are these USB connected? Does the power come from the USB or a separate power cord?

[bryant]

They come from a separate power cord. They are connected to the computer by USB.

I've tried both power cords (one rarely used, practically still new) on both HD's, and both HD's had that flickering on and off, and I would have to restart them .

Once again, one HD stayed on all fourhours tonight.

However, my g/f said she tried to bring one into her PC computer and it kept going on and off at first, but after a while of trying, she finally got it to stay on.

[ddouglass]

Sounds like a loose connection in the power supply , probably a bad solder joint. If they are still under warranty I would contact Seagate to get it fixed.

[bryant]

Thanx, but it's just kinda weid that both HD's are doing it from TWO different power supplies, ans they both act the same way on either one.

[richaz]

Your problem is overheating, more so with 2 HD's in the same case,

Remedy: make sure you have a insulated heat abzorber between HD's and install a fan ( motherboard fans are perfect minor alteration needed)

Worked perfect for me for over 3 years, make sure your Hd's are secure they don't like rough handling.

[bryant]

Sheesh, I was saying that I have two SEPARATE HD's in separate cases. One is used a bit, but the other is barely used. Sometimes they will turn off after 5 or 10 seconds (Cmon, hardly enough time to heat up). Even after that, they will come right back on and run the whole night.

What I was saying that coincidently BOTH of them are acting up in the same manner, at different times, and when on different computers, too.

[richaz]

If your ext Hd is under your laptop with no heat resistant material between, plus the heat off the power transformer, plus in a confined space ( case ) and with no fan to cool it your HD will not work;

take it or leave it, I run three systems with 2 x 500's in each case and don't have any problems'

[bobcox- with the Lord]

I run 4 ext HDs 500 gb, no fans in ext cases and never had a heat problem.
4 yrs of this. they run perfect.
started out as 250 gb and now are 500 gb.
so i believe your problem is not heat related. Bob

[bryant]

Originally Posted by richaz

If your ext Hd is under your laptop with no heat resistant material between, plus the heat off the power transformer, plus in a confined space ( case ) and with no fan to cool it your HD will not work;

take it or leave it, I run three systems with 2 x 500's in each case and don't have any problems'

I see. my HD is away from any heat source, in an air conditioned room. When I first noticed this, it was outdoors in the morning, no sun, in the shade, windy day (wind will remove heat), and away fro any other heat source, and it was less than a minute before it blinked off.

Bobcox, thanks for realizing it may not be heat related.

[richaz]

No problem just an thought