I think I killed my external hard drive.

I tripped over the cord while it was running and it fell off the shelf. Now the computer does not seem to recognize it. I imagine that since it was running at the time it is cratered.



Fay

I think so, Fay. You don't want to drop your hard drive. I hope it was only a backup drive.

Yes, it was a backup drive. I should have been more careful.
Not anyone else I can blame - can't even blame it on my dog, she wan't in here. When it fell I feared there would be problems.



Fay

Hmmm, ok now what do I do with the "dead" drive. Eventhough I can't even see it on my computer I don't feel safe in just discarding it and I don't know how to get rid of the data on it. Do I just need to stick it away someplace and hold onto it forever?

Fay

Data can be recovered from a dead drive with special equipment and applications, so you don't want to just throw it in the trash. You can put it in a drawer and keep it or take it apart and smash the disk with a hammer into pieces and then dispose of the pieces separately. The magnets in the hard drive are very strong if you are interested in keeping them.

Repa,

I guess I'll just put it away someplace for now. I don't know how to get it apart. Maybe someday I'll get it out and give it a try.

Fay

I just got my new external hard drive that I ordered. It is an IOMEGa eGo portable hard diver - 250 G. It is small - a little smaller than the external floppy drive that I have.

Kind of late to ask - but has any one here had any experience with that drive. I did a little research before I ordered and what I found sounded pretty good. But I looked at info on several others and just finally chose one.

I guess only time will tell how it will work for me, one thing on the negative is that the USB cord is very short. But it is a small light weight drive and I suppose I can just keep it in my desk drawer and get it and and set on my desk when I need it.

There is supposedly some backup software you can download for free - but I haven't done that yet.

Fay

Don't know anything about that drive, Fay, sorry. My external drive is a Maxtor, and my internal hard drives are Maxtor and Western Digital.

ugghh, I downloaded and tried to install the IOMEGA backup software. Had big problems. I couldn't get into much of anything on my computer. I could open the drive C drive, the backup drive and others. I could open the folders, but I couldn't open any of the files. I couldn't do e-mail etc. I couldn't do anything in control panel. It was telling me I didn't have access. It even told me I did not have access to shut down the computer. I had to turn it off. Couldn't really do anything.

I was finally able to get into safe mode and do a system restore. So now I am back up and running. I have no idea what happened. I hesitate to install COMODO or the IOMEGA backup software again. I don't know if there was something on the backup install software or what. I downloaded from IOMEGA site so should not have been, but I had a headache when I was doing it, was in a hurry and didn't scan it. I can backup stuff myself, so I may just forget their backup software and stick with Windows firewall for now.

Anyone had any experience with IOMEGA and their backup software?

Fay

I was trying to run the backup program (one I created for myself) and backup to my new external drive. It worked ok on my previous drive. I started getting errors - can't remember exactly what it was but had to do something with delayed write failed. It happened on a number of files and was different each time I tried.

At first I thought it might be a problem with my new drive. But, I googled the error and found a number of people had gotten the same error on different usb/firewire drives. There were several solutions mentioned. I decided to go with what seemed like the simplest - disabling caching on that drive. I did that and it fixed the problem. But I have a question.

On the window there are 2 radio buttons
Optimize for quick removal
Optimize for Performance

The one that was selected was the Optimize for performance - which says it enables write caching. I selected the other radio button Optimize for quick removal - which disables write caching - and as I said I no longer get the errors.

MY QUESION
If you select the Optimize for performance, there is a check box you can select or leave unselected: Enable write caching on the disk.
If you select Optimize for performance - what is the difference between selecting or not selecting enable write caching on the disk? It sounds like when you select the radio button it enables write caching - so I am confused as to the purpose of the check box.

Fay

Just wondered if anyone could answer my question in my above post. Did my question just get "lost" or does no one have the answer?.

Thanks,
Fay

Rpea,

Thanks for trying to check this out for me. I am sorry it causes you problems.


Thanks for the link, I took a brief look but will come back and look at it more later. I am getting ready to get away from the computer for a while.

I never had ot mess with this on my other external usb hard drive. One of the differences might be that my current one is powered by the USB port and the other I had to plug in.

I have no idea why changing the option one have caused you to lose you USB devices or why the other checkbox was gone when you got things back. I thought a kind of understood the difference in the 2 radio buttons but don't understand the check box. Selecting optimize for quick removal did get rid of the errors I was getting having to do = with delayed write failed (not sure the exact message)

Again, I 'll come back and check out you link later.

This is all about to drive me nuts - between this and the problems with my backup.

Thanks
Fay

I just discovered something curious about all this - it is only on my Maxtor External HD (USB connection with its own plugin power cord) that I don't have that extra box. I'll keep looking at this as I have time - maybe I'll stumble across an answer.

Repa,

Thanks for the link you posted. I think I understand the difference in the 2 radio buttons - optimize for quick removal and optimize for performance, but I am totally conufused by the check box under optimize for performance. I guess I don't know what to search on because I have not been able to find an explanation.

Here is something I don't understand. I now have the Optimize for quick removal button selected for my usb external hard drive. With that. supposedly I do not need to click on the safely remove hardware icon. But I have done it a few times just to see what happens and at times it tells me it can not stop the drive, other times it tells me it can be removed safely. I am not sure why it sometimes tells me me it can't stop.

So much I don't understand.


Fay