Question on external hard disks

[deserter85]

Hi, just wondering... Are external hard disks designed to be turned on 24/7? I think I fried one of my 500 Gig external hard disk because I turned it on for way too long? Is it possible?

What happens now is that while it still can still be recognised by my MacBook, whatever content that I write into it won't be retained the next time I boot up and I constantly have to re-format the hard disk anyway because it frequently gets screwed up (especially after I put stuff into it).

I know what I had described isn't exactly very "technical" or specific... But any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Noels]

deserter85,

I don't think it got fried because you left it on 24/7... I think the hard drive has a problem that indicates it may be ready to fail. Stop writing to it and get a new one.

If there are any files on the external that you want back on your Mac, put them back there now while it is still able to do that, before you get a new one.

I only use my backup hard drives every day or two to update my backups, but leaving one on all the time shouldn't be a problem.

Noel

 

[deserter85]

Yeah... I got a new hard drive (Western Digital 500 Gigs)... I got it because it was quite cheap (about $150 Singapore dollars)... Plus I think Western Digital's a reputable brand when it comes to hard drives... Am I mistaken?

 

[Noels]

deserter85,

No, WD is a great brand, but it is mechanical and they do go belly up from time to time. What you describe is an odd set of circumstances, and I've never heard of one acting the way you describe.

I wouldn't discard it just yet, it may be recoverable.

Have you tried to repair it using Disk Utility? Go there and select it on the left side, then click on the Verify Disc button. It will analyze the drive and let you know if it needs a repair by showing you a Repair Disc button next. Perhaps it will help...

Noel

 

[deserter85]

Yes, I tried to use the disk utility to try to salvage it.

However, the same problem keeps repeating.

Basically it seems fine whenever there's no information written in it. However, once information gets written on it, the whole disk becomes "unreadable" in a sense because of some "tree root information" thing (it's been quite a while since I last attempted to salvage it so I can't remember exactly). After multiple attempts at recovery, reformatting, partitioning etc. but it still has the same problem. So I assumed that there must be something fundamentally wrong with the hard drive and proceeded to get a new one.

Another thing is that it runs VERY hot VERY quickly. I'd estimate probably close to 80 degrees Celsius (it's really really burning hot when I touch it). Which was why I thought I had "fried" it (in a literal manner).

BTW: When I press the repair disk button it gave me the "bad tree root information" thing and said that it was unrecoverable. So I had to re-format it.

I understand that anything that's mechanical is prone to breaking down. But a complete meltdown within 4 months is unacceptable (to me, at least).

 

[dgortze380]

External hard drives are simply that, hard drives, that are not inside your computer. All drives have a lifespan. Will leaving a drive on 24/7 kill it? Yes. But so will only turning it on while you use it. It's all about the number of read/writes you do and the operating conditions of the drive.

 

[deserter85]

Hi... Thanks for the reply... So I guess my first 500 Gig HD can be trashed into the trashcan? Or is it salvageable?

 

[Noels]

deserter85,

You can call Western Digital and tell them about your woes and they will send you a new hard drive in return for the old one. They are warrantied for 3 years - don't throw it away!!

Noel

 

[celtics1217]

So I am new to the whole 'mac lifestyle' and I was wondering if there is a external hard drive brand or specific hard drive that would be good to purchase with my new macbook? I don't want the next biggest thing in hard drives, though I would like to make sure my school work is safe from harm. Can someone please help?

 

[deserter85]

deserter85,

You can call Western Digital and tell them about your woes and they will send you a new hard drive in return for the old one. They are warrantied for 3 years - don't throw it away!!

Noel

Well, my first hard drive was by Samsung, but yeah... I am covered by the 3 yr warranty that's available. But somehow my confidence in Samsung HDs have dipped significantly (hence my second purchase was from WD).

 

[dgortze380]

So I am new to the whole 'mac lifestyle' and I was wondering if there is a external hard drive brand or specific hard drive that would be good to purchase with my new macbook? I don't want the next biggest thing in hard drives, though I would like to make sure my school work is safe from harm. Can someone please help?

Any external with the correct connection (USB, Firewire... whatever you have on your machine) should work. You'll probably have to use disk utility to reformat to HFS+ as most externals are shipped NTFS.

Personally I've had a Seagate and a Maxtor external and a WesternDigital internal. The Seagate was trash, never mounted correctly, constantly ended up with a corrupt file system and had to reformat. Maxtor and WD haven't given me any trouble at all.

Always keep two backups. No matter what brand you pick up, don't rely on the external thinking you'll never have a problem with it.

 

[Noels]

Always keep two backups. No matter what brand you pick up, don't rely on the external thinking you'll never have a problem with it.

dgortze,

I agree with you on that - I use a WD Passport with SuperDuper as one backup and my old Macbook hard drive (in a Bytecc enclosure) with Time Machine for the second. I upgraded my internal Macbook with a WD 320GB Scorpio drive and so far it has performed flawlessly...

I make a backup every 2 or 3 days with each external and feel that way I'm covered.

Noel

 

[canzy]

Help!!!!

Hi I am a total noob and need some help setting up my External hard drive so i can watch movies on my TV.

I just bought a Maxtor one touch 4 500gig hard drive
A Highlander dvx-5850 DVD player

I have plugged my hard drive into the DVD player and it recognizes it fine. The only problem is that the dvd player says the card is empty even though i have put 3 movies (in mpeg4 format as per user manual) on there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and thankyou for your time in advance.

 

[Noels]

canzy,

If you're talking about commercial movies, they are copy protected and can't be copied to your external.

Talking about copying protected movies (or CDs/DVDs, etc.) is against forum rules and can't be discussed here...

If they are non-commercial, you should let us know that in your posts.

Noel

 

[canzy]

Hi Noels,
Sorry im a noob. No they are not copyright protected.... They are home videos and podcasts from itunes. Can anyone help?

 

[emmonsh@charter]

i am new to mac since just this week. i bought the wd my book studio edition hd. 320 g. already with the mac software. plugged it in and was ready to go. never used a mac[which i love] or a external hd.

 

[quadna71]

Similar Issue

I'm having a "similar" issue with my WD 500Gb external drive. I used it for a back-up to iPhoto for about 6 months and all was well. Then, while in the process of returning my Macbook to it's original state I ended up with the only copy of my photos on the external hard drive. Then, yeah I know, after I had restored the Macbook I hadn't finished transferring the iPhoto library back to the Macbook's HDD when my Mother stopped in to visit from the other side of the country. While I was at work that day she decided to try to check her email on my computer and somehow jacked my external hard drive. Not sure how she did it since I wasn't home, but all she could tell me was that my "PC" looked a lot different than hers and she kept hitting buttons until my wife caught her and took the mouse away!

Anyways, here I am with my iPhoto library possibly lost forever on this external hard drive. When I plug it into my Macbook it tells me that the drive is unreadable and asks me if I'd like to format, ignore, or cancel. Nothing else. I know that when it's plugged in the info on the drives says that all that data is still on there (only 410 of 500Gb remaining - yes, it was a large photo library) but I can't seem to access it.

I'm afraid that they are lost forever and don't have the necessary skill set to try and recover them. Is there a program that I can use to try to recover the photos? I'm not concerned about the actual library file so long as I can grab the photos themselves and insert them into a new library.

Thanks for any guidance or direction you can send my way - love my Macbook but not when my "PC" Mother gets a hold of it!!!!!

 

[Australianne]

I feel so stupid!

I have had a MacBook for 3 years. Use PC at work all day. I wanted to get an external HD last year and got sucked into getting a Time Machine, which I'm sure I don't use to it's full capacity.
Basically all I need to do is save stuff to an external hard drive and delete stuff off my MacBook because it's nearly full. I want to be able to plug in my HD and see the files and be able to open whatever I want to on the HD. I don't want to restore it to my MacBook, because then it would be full again. I can't even download my latest pics on my iPhone to iPhoto because it's too full. Anyway, I bought a WD 2T HDD yesterday and got it home, and discovered it just wants to back up. The only way I can see stuff is to RESTORE it. I don't want to restore it! I want to keep it on the external HD and view it from there. Have I wasted more $$ buying something that doesn't do what I want? I know, I'm thick, and I'm sure it's a wonderful wiz-bang device and all, but I just want it to do the simple stuff!
And sorry for replying to a post, that I'm not answering, but I can't for the life of me find where I can actually post a new question...now I'm feeling doubly stupid!
Help....(please don't laugh!)

 

[chscag]

I'm afraid that they are lost forever and don't have the necessary skill set to try and recover them. Is there a program that I can use to try to recover the photos? I'm not concerned about the actual library file so long as I can grab the photos themselves and insert them into a new library.

There are several things you can try...

One is to try and rebuild the files and file table on the drive. The best program to do that is Disk Warrior. LINK

Another is to perhaps be able to recover the photo files themselves from the drive in question. Data Rescue 3 is best at doing that. LINK

Take note that both of the above programs are pricey. It might be a good idea to download their respective trial versions first to see if they will be able to work.

The first program to try is Disk Warrior because if it can rebuild the files and folders on the drive, you won't need to do recovery. On a very large hard drive both programs are going to run for a long long time, so be patient.

 

[quadna71]

Thank you very much. I'll get cracking with the first one and come back to let you know how it goes.