Fjool Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Hmm... so I have a pretty new external Hitachi 2TB USB drive which used to work nicely, but since installing a new motherboard is now failing to read files at anything above about 1k per second. Retrieving 16Gb from this is going to take weeks, and even then it fails to copy files. It seems to work fine for a couple of minutes after booting, but starts to falter soon after. Tried updating drivers (nothing needed), enabling/disabling BIOS plug-and-play, reinstalling the USB drivers, enabled performance mode. Nothing has made any difference. It just sits there clattering and hanging processes that try to interact with it Anyone have any suggestions? Or is it just that the drive is broken? I hope not because it has all my photos and music on it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabiaTerra Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Just the obvious: Try it on a different computer. Also, try some different USB storage devices on your new motherboard as it could be that which is faulty. Is it USB 2 or 3? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Para Handy Posted February 26, 2011 Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 "since installing a new motherboard" Is the motherboard have usb 2 or is it just 1.1Is it XP or Vista or you now windows 7 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjool Posted February 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2011 Thanks for the responses. Mobo is USB 2. The problems are not because of USB speed - even USB 1 is faster than 1k per second. It's Win7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooks Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Do you have anything plugged in to the usb next to the drive? Try shifting to a separate usb port and if the usb ports are on a flylead/case mounted then check that the cable is sitting snugly in the mobo. I would also check to see if there are any BIOS updates available. It might be a known issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArabiaTerra Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Something else occurred to me. Could it be the power supply to the drive? If it's 2TB then it must be a standard full-size HDD. If the power supply is duff, but it's still managing to get power through the USB port, then it might have just enough power to spin, but not enough to get up to proper operating speed. Worth a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roachmill Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Any joy trying it on another PC (preferably one with the exact same OS i.e. 32 or 64 Win7)? If it works fine on other PCs then it may be a jumper on the external drive that your mobo doesn't like. I've seen similar with Win 7 and Firewire discs that like to go to sleep a lot. PITA! As a last gasp attempt - back it up on another machine (one that likes it) and try formatting it on your Win7 PC with whatever it recommends as defaults by the OS. Then play with it some more. Certainly hang on to your backup until you're happy it's working! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjool Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Any joy trying it on another PC...Nope; my XP laptop cannot access it at all. I'll need a Win7 machine to borrow to test this further. As a last gasp attempt - back it up on another machine (one that likes it) and try formatting it on your Win7 PC with whatever it recommends as defaults by the OS.This is exactly what I was originally trying to do when I discovered that I couldn't read the files to back them up... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivlins Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Fjool - Does the drive have its own power supply or is it powered through the USB port? Because if it's the latter, that can sometimes cause probs like youd escribed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Para Handy Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 My Buffalo 2TB USB drive is doing 33/Mb per second with W7.So I was wonder what length of USB cable are you usingThe quality of the cable will make a difference.My printer cable which is over 2 meters long but of more substantial cable isfaster than the short cable that came with my driveOr is the type that can connect through a router Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjool Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 Thanks once again, folks. I appreciate all the suggestions. The drive has an external power source and a short USB cable. It used to work just fine and still does from time to time. I suspect that it has corrupt sectors since it seems to be particular files that are causing problems. I've set a scandisk running and it's gradually picking through the files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twerto Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 I suggest the use of a hammer myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fjool Posted February 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 ^ You've no idea how tempted.... (>_ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twerto Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 ahh yeah if only our memories cells worked better ;P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marooned in Maywick Posted March 1, 2011 Report Share Posted March 1, 2011 By the thread title I thought you meant trying to get in ower fae hitting da tap o da Soond Brae at 8:45 on a weet schoolday morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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