Is my Formac external DVD- W broken?

[ggallin]

I tried to back up some files up last night and I got a message saying that it was waiting for the DVD drive; and then it froze up with that colour wheel going for ages. I then realised that my file was too big for the dvd and thought that might have been the problem.

After quitting the program and getting the file to 4.6gb, I tried again. I pressed record and it still wouldn't go past the 'eject/cancel' option. I could hear the disc in the drive making a kind of clicking noise. Again, I had that colour wheel. I could not eject and had to quit again.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is my drive showing symptoms of being broken? It used to work fine, but I must admit that I haven't used it in a while.

Thank you for reading and any help!

[Kevriano]

Sadly it sounds like it's had it's day, yes.

[hughvane]

Hooray, another Formac enclosure owner! I agree with Kevriano - I think your optical drive has 'expired'. The clicking noise indicates hardware failure.

I had an experience similar to yours last year, except that the drive would not accept dvd's. The problem was an old Pioneer 105R inside the Formac (Devideon - Firewire), which I replaced with a Pioneer 112D. I can happily recommend the upgrade, but I suggest you go further and put in a Pioneer 115D or 116D (is there currently a 117D?). Optical drives are cheap, and it's a simple enough matter to install one in the enclosure.

[ggallin]

...that was of great help to me, recommending the Pioneer. I've found a cheap one on Amazon - £15.00!