My wretched HDD

[johnscott]

OK, as some of you may know, I transferred all my music from my computer to my external HDD to get space. All was fine, I was listening to my music through iTunes using my external HDD for about a month until just now when it won't play, saying it can't locate the file. I went to My Computer, and my external HDD was not there! So I thought it must have been a funny usb connection. I proceeded to turn my external HDD off, unplug it. Then turn my computer off. I replugged it all, and turned on everything again (into a different usb port), although I still can't find it on My Computer, and hence I can't play my music! Crap! I can't live without my music... Please someone help!

Thank you!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

my external drive does this sort of thing fairly often. although my external is simply a drive enclosure i bought and put a regular hard drive in. then i have to wiggle the cable and stuff. it's the cable on mine and not the drive per say.

do you know the make (brand) and model of the external drive you have? we can maybe look to see if this is a known issue with it. do the lights come on or anything when you plug it in to an electric outlet (i'm assuming it has a power on light somewhere)? also can you try it in another computer to see if it works there? can you plug in another USB device to your computer and see if it works?

 

[johnscott]

I've wiggled the wires and plugged it into different sockets, but still it will not work. The outer casing has "Athena" written across it. When I plug the HDD into the power outlet and then plug it into the computer via usb, and turn it on, I can hear the HDD power up and make that high 'whoosh' noise. And the blue 'on' light turns on, but when it doesn't arrive on My Computer, it starts flashing - 6 quick, pause, 1, pause, 6 quick - and it doesn't stop. I have many other usb devices connected to my computer right now, all of which work. It just seems to be this one... I don't know what to do?!

 

[mike_n_herrin]

i've googled for "athena" and "external hard drive" but i'm not getting any hits for it. i'm getting hits for a removalable hard drive kit, but it doesn't appear to be the drive, just the kit and you can put any drive in it. i'm pretty sure this is not what you have, plus its a SATA drive and not a USB one.

is there a serial number or something somewhere? the flashing blue light might indicate a fault, and the number of flashes and their pattern might indicate what the fault is, but since i didn't get any hits in google with the athena name, i can't look it up. i'm sorry. are there any other identifying marks on the drive?

 

[provenlogic]

You might try running the new hardware wizard, sometimes it will find the hardware even if windows misses it on startup, happens with my Bluetooth mouse all the time.

START > SETTINGS > CONTROL PANEL > ADD HARDWARE

 

[johnscott]

I have good news! I fell asleep trying to fix it at 4:45am and unplugged it. I woke up this morning at 10:30am and turned on my computer and then when everything was settled, replugged all the HDD wires and turned it on, and it worked! So, I guess this was an overheating problem... Is this normal and should I expect this often?

Thanks!

 

[johnscott]

I lied. It's still not working. Damn.

As I said, I replugged it in when I woke up using a different usb wire (one from my printer) and I plugged it in. Then turned my HDD and after the blue light turned on and the 'whoosh' sounded, finally an Autoplay appeared, seemingly going through all the files on that HDD very quickly. It stopped everysooften to have a breather apparantly. Eventually it finished, and it went back to my desktop. I then opened up iTunes and tried to play a song, and all was well until 2:40 seconds into it when it stopped for a bit, then suddenly the 'whoosh' sounded again and the song continued playing. I had never had this stuttering problem with my music through the HDD before... It then stopped again at 3:30 and froze. Eventually I Ctl+Alt-Dlted the application and it went back to my desktop. The HDD had now disappeared from My Computer again! So I turned the HDD and replugged it again, but to no avail; the whoosh sounded but then after a while, the blue light began flashing. However, when I plug the device in, I do hear that sound that indicates a usb device attached. I went to Windows troubleshooting and it told me to go to Device Manager, right click on the usb device and 'Uninstall' it. I did this. I then unplugged everything again and replugged and then the 'Found new Hardware' appeared, which I was quite happy about. Then another bubble, saying 'Found Cypress AT2LP' appeared (which I'm pretty sure didn't last time) and eventually after a minute or two another bubble popped up saying 'There was a problem when installing your device. It may not work properly'. Which is weird because it wasn't working last night, but did briefly this morning, now it's doing what it has always done now... I found this (it doesn't help me, but might others) on the internet: http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/476679-external-hd-problem-cypress-at2lp.html

Edit: The HDD uses a usb wire attaching itself to the computer and a seperate power cable from the device to the wall socket. On the seperate power cable, a blue light is on, indicating that the cable is receiving power...

 

[johnscott]

It is connecting directly to the PC at the back of the computer. Given, all the USB ports are taken, meaning I have had to purchase a hub and am using that for other things, but in the HDD's case, the usb wire is connecting directly to the pc at the back beside the mouse and keyboard. I will try disconnecting all other USB devices and then restart...

 

[johnscott]

Noelie, I did what you said and nothing happened. Everything unplugged, left the HDD in, turned PC on, turned HDD on, a few 'whooshes' and then the flashing blue light... I plugged it into another computer, and the 'Found New Hardware' bubble popped up then the 'Found Cypress AT2LP' then eventually the 'Installation error, device may not work properly'.

 

[johnscott]

Just to let you know, when I uninstalled the driver from the Device Manager then replugged everything, when I double click on the USB Mass Storage Device, it says "No Drivers Are Installed For This Device", and then eventually it changes to "This Device Cannot Start (Code 10)" with an exclamation mark in a yellow circle next to it.

 

[johnscott]

Noelie, thank you for that (again). I can't do anything for a couple of days as I am in London until Saturday. I called Samsung (the HDD manufacturer) and they thought that it was the enclosure that was the problem. He told me to take it out and plug it into the back of my computer. I hung up and did so. I plugged it in and rebooted. The device was not shown in my computer. It was plugged in correctly, but didn't show up. I didn't know if I had to do anything once I was on the desktop. It did say (pre-startup) that "Secondary HDD not found, strike F1 to continue ot F2 for setup". I stroke (hit) F1 as I didn't want to fiddle. couldn't get hold of the guy again, but will try on Saturday, unless you have further advice? Thank you! This is the most annoying thing that has ever happened to me. I live for my music. Live for it. Please help. Thanks noelie! Legend.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

/\ ok so now i'm confused. is this a regular hard drive that you put in an enclosure? i thought the manufacturer was "athena" or something? i looked on samsung's web site and I don't see that they make enclosures for HDD. if you called samsung tech support it seems like you'd have to have given them the model number or something from the hard drive, can you tell us what you told him? otherwise i don't know how he would know what trouble shooting tips to try for your device, unless it was just generic USB stuff.

the error at boot up regarding "secondary HDD" shouldn't have been your USB external drive. it sounds like you have 2 internal hard drives? maybe one of them is causing a conflict with your USB drive's drive letter.

 

[johnscott]

Sorry, the enclosure was by 'Athena'; eventually, I was told to open it up and inside was a HDD Samsung SP2154N (or was it SP21514N?) Anywa, it seems that the seller on ebay express had put a Samsung in this Athena HDD (which is normal, he was just selling it already installed). After it stopped working, I was told to take it out of the enclosure and forget about the usb interface and plug it straight into the big fat wire at the back of the computer (the same type of wire that the CD-Rom takes) and I did this, and placed the HDD underneath the CD-Rom drive. Therefore, now I have the C: Drive which obviously came with the computer and the 250GB Samsung HDD which I have now plugged straight into the back of the computer but still is not recognised by the computer. The 'secondary HDD not recognsed' (or something similar) pops up after I turn it on. How does one make the HDD work. Technically yes, I do have two HDDs.

I use a Dell Dimension (I can't remember what model - I won't be at home until Saturday).
I use Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

/\ you will need to set the jumpers as noelie has said.

i found a samsung SP2514N drive at samsung's web site here: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/f...ies&model_nm=SP2514N&dType=D&mType=UM&vType=R

under the FAQ there is a picture of what your jumper settings should look like which i will post below. the jumpers are the little plastic tab like things on the back of your HDD (they are also on CD and DVD drives). i'll post a second picture of jumpers on the back of a HDD. your settings should be one of the ones in the group that says "SP models over 32 GB, no BIOS 32 barrier."