external hard drive resetting

[mwalk48]

In my event viewer I am getting a warning that \device\harddisk0\DR0 has predicted it will fail backup data immediately. I have an external hard drive on this server but I am new to the systems administration position at my office so I am not sure if this device is the correct one but the lights on the external drive aren't lit so I would like to try unplugging the drive and resetting it however i'm not sure if this will help but I wanted to know if it will disrupt anything or if I will have to restart the server. It only contains some personal files and a few non-critical programs.

thanks,

 

[MoobyCow]

It depends on the type of external drive, if it's SCSI you'll have to reboot the whole system, if it's a USB or Firewire you can 'unplug or eject' it and turn then reset the drive and re-attach it without a problem.

I'm guessing because it's on a server (and because it has programs on it) that it's SCSI and you'll have to shut the system down to try and reset the drive.

 

[MoobyCow]

It's most likely a SCSI external drive because it's on a server and because it has some programs on it. If it is you have to shut down the system before doing anything to that drive, otherwise you'll porbably cause the system to lock up.

If it's a USB or Firewire drive you can 'unplug or eject' the drive and reset it it then plug it back in with no problems.