How to eliminate potential problems on USB Powered Drives and keep them healthy.

[MISH104]

VERY GOOD THANK YOU

[wdhdisfubar]

bladestall,
My BAAA5000ABK-00, like yours,  is going to **bleep** in the same way.   All of a sudden during a data transfer while running in on a Windows XP, the drive said F-it and I've been frantically looking for solutions, carefully following the instructions on this thread.   The HDD regenerater program nor the HD tuner program showed  **bleep** worth of a trace of the external hard drive, neither did the right clicking "my computer" >"properties" ------->device manager"  --------> hard drive.   Swabbing the the usb connections with rubbing alcohol didn't seem to work either, but this "force mount" in Ubuntu LInux helps:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Passport-for-PC/Running-My-Passport-Essential-on-Linux-Ubuntu/m-p/527...

sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdX1 /mnt/ -o force

, but the drive is still running very slowly.

[QUOTE]

bladestall,

Re: How to eliminate potential problems on USB Powered Drives and keep them healthy.

3 weeks ago

My Passport Essential USB 2.0 500GB External Drive:

Alright. No joy. I have downloaded HDD Regenerator but it still cannot see my external drive in order to run the repair scan. This occurs on both my computers. I get the message ("one of the USB devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned, and windows does not recognize it"). The drive is receiveing the neccessary power requirements via the 6 USB ports on 2 different computers that I have tried. It was doing this intermittently for about 2 weeks prior to it being completely inaccessible. I don't care about the warranty or getting an RMA to replace it. I will not be getting another WD drive. I experienced a similar fate about 4 years ago. I just need some ideas on how to get to my folders that I dropped and dragged to the drive before it decided not to cooperate. It is spinning quietly. The light is illuminated. Just not visible under "my computer" or "device manager - disc drives". Any other ideas?  " [/QUOTE]

[Mabkay]

I my reply to “bladestall” I had mentioned “If your USB port on drive is broken, or USB>SATA interface gone bad, you have no other option but to get the drive replaced”.

Since you've tried most of the fixing methods which didn't work, and if you still need to use your drive with Windows OS, you shall contact WD support for drive replacement. WD also have approved "Data Recovery Agents" and they should be able to recover your data.

If Linux works, you can use it to  copy your data out of the drive and avoid data recovery hassle. (I am a Windows user and don't know anything about Ubantu)

[Joe_S]

You can find a Linux version that runs off a CD or this  http://www.ubcd4win.com/ It's pretty intuitive to look around with. Just be careful not to mess up system files.

Joe

[Mabkay]

Thanks Joe. I'll give it a try...

I have used Linux Red Hat & Mandrake long time ago. But I didn't use it for long as they were lacking drivers. New Linux must be much improved and this time I'll try to study little more.

[wdhdisfubar]

Rather than install Linux on a hard drive, get  a live CD of many of the popular distros:

Ubuntu,  Deban,  Knoppix, and many others)

http://distrowatch.com/

[wdhdisfubar]

http://store.westerndigital.com

http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayCategoryProductListPage/ThemeID.21986300/par...

I'm not finding a Y drive that specifies it's for a WDBAAA5000ABK - 00 and I am not sure it's a good idea to test even if there is such a cable.  I guess a replacement of the one I have is something I need to do.

[QUOTE]Newer drives are capable of running under 500mA power drain but most of them needs 460mA or 480mA of current. Technically these newer drives fit for USB only power source. But some PC’s are unable to provide adequate power to the drive due to above mentioned fuse tolerance. Fuse may be disconnecting intermittently for a brief period causing drive/file system errors. Drive tends to drain peek power while writing larger files for longer period. Writing smaller files in to disk drive may not exhibit this issue. [/QUOTE]

As a remedy, you can purchase USB Y connector that would occupy two USB ports. Please note that WD Passport supplied with USB micro connector and it is not proprietary. But length of WD micro USB male connector is somewhat long and standard micro USB connector won’t connect to WD drive properly. If this is the case, you can either buy Y connector cable with USB A Female connector on drive side or modify micro USB side jack (on the Y connector) by cutting off 1.2mm portion from the plastic jacket making male jack part lengthier. (Please do not modify WD supplied cable. If you have an old WD cable which has loose connection issue; request a new improved one from WD) But still you may need third party Y connector, if you experience power starvation issue as I mentioned previously. [/QUOTE]

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wdhdisfubar wrote:

Rather than install Linux on a hard drive, get  a live CD of many of the popular distros:

Ubuntu,  Deban,  Knoppix, and many others)

http://distrowatch.com/

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[Mabkay]

Y cable is not available on WD store. Most of My Passport users in US received Y cable (Booster Cable as per WD) free of charge when they contacted WD support and explain their situation. I don't use Y cable on my laptop or on my desktop. They are capable of providing adequate power to My Passport. But some motherboards need Y cable as they provide little low DC power on USB ports.

Constant 500mA power source on USB is not sufficient to spin up My Passport drive. It takes around 800mA for half second until spin up completes. Then it goes down to 420mA.

[wdhdisfubar]

I have an eerie feeling the USB-micro connector (both male and female ends) is desgined way too fragile.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#USB_Mini_and_Micro_connectors

Why can't  they make them a little more durable like the standards?

[deepesh]

i have a wd my passport se 1tb usb 3.0 hdd.i ran hdd tune and it detected 98%bad sectors.i ran hdd regenerator but it run extremely slow l,about 100mb in 1 hr.Also it frequently says that connection to the hard drive has been lost.what should i do?please help.