External 1394 Drive corrupts occassionally on XP restart

[cameronch]

Hi, I have a 1394/USB hard drive formatted NTSC that corrupts on restart in XP SP2. I have to use a scan utility to recover the data. Currently, the drive shows up as "RAW" formatting when i am able to get windows to recognize the drive after several time of turning the enclosure switch off and then on.

The case is generic (could this be the problem), and the hard drive is made by Hitachi and it is 250 GB.( As far as i can tell, the drive is set to SLAVE mode. I say that because there is a graph for 16 and a graph for 32 for setting the pins.)

Initially I thought it was becaus i had the drive formatted as FAT32 so i formatted it over to NTSC but the drive corrupted itself again.

Any advice? What could be causing the problem? The pin configuration on the back? I've checked the manual, i am pretty sure it is set to SLAVE. The drive is new and in good working order. I scan it monthly.

Thanks....
Cameron

 

[cameronch]

The model of the drive is a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250

 

[stduc]

If you have a generic USB drive case that permits you to change the drive similar to this one:-

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=112589

Then I would expect the drive to require to be set as Master, not slave.

 

[kjv1611]

Have you tried connecting the drive directly, as an internal drive? That would help you at least narrow down whether it is likely the drive, or the case. Another idea is to try connecting to a different PC, and see if you get the same results.

Also, I would tend to agree with stduc. Basically, there should never be a reason with one IDE disk to set it up as a "slave", in relation to jumper settings. You may have different "master" options as well. If only one disk, look to be sure that it is set to something like "master, with no slave attached", or maybe even just "CS - Cable Select."

Try some of these ideas, and post back to let us know your progress.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[cameronch]

Thanks... i will try these suggestions and repost after i recover the data.

 

[cameronch]

Okay, so i've recovered all of the data, reformatted using NTFS and copied all of the data back, and set the external drive to MASTER.

It still seems like it is giving me problems. I should mention that i have two seperate external hard-drives at this point. I have one connected to a 1394 connection and the other through a USB connection. They are both set to MASTER.

I can get the drive to show up if i shut down and turn back on the device although it doesn't seem to be consistant. It usually works the second time i turn it off then on. If i try to restart with the drive on it usually shows up as a drive but cannot be accessed. At this point i usually try the technique listed above (turning off/on a couple times to get to work)

When i run a disk check it fails and the drive 'goes away'

I can't figure this out. One thing of note on the Hitachi drive is that it has four seperate sets of jumper configs. I have it set to MASTER using the default chart implied by the installation guide.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/t7k250/t7k250_ov.htm

 

[stduc]

I have a USB drive that I have to connect after bootup or the PC doesn't boot. I also have firewire and anything connected to that often has to be connected at power up or it isn't detected!

Sounds like you have similar (ish) issues.

I have yet to find a solution - bar always safely disconnect the USB drive before re-booting or powering off and always power-cycling if I want to capture film from my video camera.

 

[kjv1611]

I'm thinking that it is more than likely one of the following causing your problems:

1. The case for the hard drive
or
2. The Firewire controller on your motherboard, or PCI firewire card - whichever it connects to.

Have you tried checking online for any firmware/driver updates for the drive case, motherboard, and/or firewire pci card?

Also, if you go into "Device Manager", are there any question marks or exclamation marks next to any hardware?

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me