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PC hardware guru's, please help!

adam
polycounter lvl 19
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adam polycounter lvl 19
My external HDD keep's restarting on its own. (its usb, if that helps). Basically it'll load up, work for a few minutes, then reboot itself (and get stuck in a loop). Any thoughts? Someone suggested it might not be getting enough power. This problem just started recently.
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  • notman
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    notman polycounter lvl 18
    Are you booting from this drive? Or are you saying the device is just reseting itself. It may be a power issue. Did you add anything to the drive lately? Try it on a different computer?
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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    No, not booting from this drive. It's an external 250gb USB HDD. I either use it at work or at home as it has all my reference images, music, etc. on it. The device is just resetting itself. There's been nothing added to it recently thats any different than normal. It's about 8 months old now.
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  • ScoobyDoofus
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    ScoobyDoofus polycounter lvl 19
    Try getting a replacement PSU for it from RadioShack or something. Also, does it do this when not connected to the computer?
    ** This is the one you brought to my place right?
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  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    Yeah, it might be a problem with the PSU for the unit, or possibly the USB interface of the drive itself. If everything else fails, you can buy another external encolsure for the drive. Crack yours open and remove the hdd. Then place it inside the new enclosure. See if that helps.
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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    Scoobs, yah its the one I brought to your place. I've disconnected the USB line and it seems to be holding up fine. I'll keep it on for a bit more and see what's wh-.. nevermind, it just restarted on its own.

    So a PSU eh? Hmm, never tinkered with an HDD before so I don't know wtf the next step is besides buying a PSU (how would I even know what kind of PSU to get?).

    Thanks fella's
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  • sledgy
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    sledgy polycounter lvl 18
    What do you mean by restarting on its own? Is it powering down then up again?
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  • Lee3dee
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    Lee3dee polycounter lvl 18
    it may also be the HD. I had some terrible problems with IBM & maxtor drives. I only buy western Digital HDs now.
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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    It's powering down then booting back up again. (re: restarting!) haha
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  • sledgy
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    sledgy polycounter lvl 18
    It's not likely the HD, it's more of a power issue. Try wiggling all the connectors (wall, PSU itself, connector at drive enclosure) to see if something's broke. What kind of drive is it? Is it a Branded Product like a Seagate/Maxtor/WD etc or is it a drive in a 3rd-party enclosure? Since it's only 8 months old you don't want to crack the case before checking out your warranty options. Most mfrs. have at least 1 yr. warranties on external products. If you don't have the data backed up you might not have a choice but better to know.
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  • poopinmymouth
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    poopinmymouth polycounter lvl 19
    SNORE.gif

    poop.gif
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  • ScoobyDoofus
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    ScoobyDoofus polycounter lvl 19
    Lee: Every WD drive I've ever owned has crapped out within 6 months. I pretty much ONLY buy Maxtor now. Even though I've had 2 Maxtor's fail, thats 2 out of like, 20 drives I've owned in my lifetime, as opposed to 100% of the Western Digital.

    Good luck Adam! Hope you backed your stuff up recently!
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  • notman
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    notman polycounter lvl 18
    I would guess powersupply or connections, as it's been mentioned earlier. The reasons for my questioning was to see if something external could be causing it. If it's reseting on it's own (with nothing but power), then the power could be dropping out. Doe the enclosure have any sort of fan? Maybe there is a cooling system for the power system, and it's overheating.
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  • sledgy
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    sledgy polycounter lvl 18
    -edited by sledgy for politeness.
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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    sledgy, notman, homo (Ryan): Thanks for the ideas guys. I tried doing a checkdisk on the entire drive aswell. I had leave for th enight while it did that process at work so I am hoping that my HDD is still alive in the morning. I'll take some pictures of the HDD. There's no marking on it what-so-ever besides "250gb". A coworker has the exact same model and I think he had to take his in (dropped it). I'll find out what he had to do to do that. I'll also try out these power ideas. Thanks a load!
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  • Lee3dee
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    Lee3dee polycounter lvl 18
    did you call 1-800-Geek Squad?
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  • Robert Headley
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    Robert Headley polycounter lvl 18
    My hard drive was doing that right before it was failing.. you could always take the HD out.. and plug it into the IDE cable setup of your PC
    see if it does the same thing.


    Also, is it USB powered? I dont know if they do that now a days or not, if so, your PC might not be able to handle htat much power over USB, or your PSU could be crapping out on you, your PC PSU, so many options..

    take out the drive, install it in your PC like an internal.. if it still does it.. probably the drive.. mine did that too, cause it was dying.
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  • adam
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    adam polycounter lvl 19
    No, not USB powered. I ran checkdisk on it over night and so far this morning it's doing great. I'm going to try and return it before I crack the case open.
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  • Downsizer
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    Downsizer polycounter lvl 18
    a chkdsk wont help you unless you add a /f or /R as the switch. I'm a systems engineer, sounds like the HD case/circutry is shot, open the HD case up and put the drive in the system as a slave or whatnot on the IDE bus, test the drive for failure. Run a chkdsk.exe /R and it will check for error/bad sectors and auto repair.

    If it does'nt fail, it's the Ext. HD case PSU, or HDD enclosure board.

    If you guys want, I can offer free tech support for the boards. I'll even let you gander my resume if you'd like..
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