External HD Issues (maxtors)

Discussion in 'Storage Devices' started by prole, Oct 20, 2005.

  1. prole

    prole Geek Trainee

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    Greetings Everyone,

    I have experienced problems with data going missing in my external hd's.
    I am using KINGWIN 3.5" USB MS-350U-BK: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146312

    And Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 (both are I believe, but am doing a recovery scan on one atm, have several hours to go, so will let finish rather than start over) 200gb 7200rpm, 8mb cache. Formatted into 200gb (19+? after format NTFS 513kb cluster size , partions.

    They are connected to a powered usb switching hub, connected to the following comps:

    1) XP Home SP2, AMD 2000+ thunderbird, 512mb, Gigabyte GA-7VTXE mb

    2) XP Home SP1 AMD 2800+ Barton, 1gb ram, Chaintech Zenith CT-7NJS mb

    Settings on both comps for the externals are optimized for performance, and the stop device setting, which is religiously practiced b4 switching the hub and connected external hd's between comps.

    HD 1) a different ext. when issue occurred hd totally corrupted, showed as 800gb etc..data successfully recovered have yet to zero and start fresh.

    HD 2) in the above Kingwin enclosure... was functioning fine, but while connected to comp 2, after using several times, discovered it would not show in explorer. Did the safely remove thing prior to each of the following; power down, power up, unplug usb/replug, change usb ports on hub, ysb ports oon comp... the usb device was recognized but did not show in explorer.

    Went into disk management showed as unallocated, same result in Partition Magic 8, tried the recover lost partition option w/o success.

    In short the partion went missing along with 80+gb of data (running recovery, it appears all data is there, and 100% recoverable, upon abort scan partway in and checking found files and status.

    I am at a loss as to why this is happening, it also occured on a WD 200gb Sata drive 200gb formatted NTFS single partion, when connected to the Chaintech MB's onboard Sata controled via promise fastrack in single drive array. Am using a pci sata controller card now..so far no issues, this drive is formatted fat 32 now and being used as the destination drive for recovery, the app requires a fat32 recovery destination drive.

    Any advice as to what is going awry and how to remedy? It seems pretty mucked up not being able to depend on external hardrives because data goes missing when they corrupt or the the partion reverts to unallocated space as described above.

    Is this a LBA issue? Is Maxtors Maxtor's Big Drive Enabler http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/m...age/DiamondMax Family/Utilities&downloadID=11

    or the Hotfix in the referenced MS bulletin the solution? The problems all occurred on the SP1 comp or Comp 2 above. This machine is not actively connected to the net, and is tweaked for gaming and for music and video use.
    SP2 causes issues with the Morrowind Install I gathered from that forum. So do not wish to use it, and as the comp connects to the net for driver updates and desired MS updates, am not worried about the security flaws, and the security enhancements in SP2.

    I have not checked if the Atapi.sys is 5.1.2600.1135 or above (is 2600.2160 on the SP2 rig as I recall)

    The SP1 comp in question sees the entire drive not just 137gb.
    I have not had problems with the SP2 comp and the externals yet, but is a recent addition from spare parts, so may of not had enough time to mess with the external drives.

    Any counsel for this semi-noob will be most appreciated: prole
     

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