500 GB WD My Book external H/D suddenly not wanting to fire up

I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch, it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Anyone have experience with these drives? Any chance there's a power
supply inside the case that's causing the problem and can be swapped
with another from an identical drive? Would be a huge
Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!!! to lose the hundreds of gigs of files. Any
chance WD would do such a repair? I don't want another drive, I need
THIS drive to work.

Thanks for all assistance.

"muzician21" wrote in message
...
I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch, it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Anyone have experience with these drives? Any chance there's a power
supply inside the case that's causing the problem and can be swapped
with another from an identical drive? Would be a huge
Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!!! to lose the hundreds of gigs of files. Any
chance WD would do such a repair? I don't want another drive, I need
THIS drive to work.

Thanks for all assistance.


Q1. Can you connect it to another comp............I ask this because the
Firewire port on my laptop is iffy and only sees the drive when it wants to.

Tom E wrote:
"muzician21" wrote in message
...
I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch, it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be
an issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen.

Unless a drive has a decent volume of air moved across the PCB, it's doomed
to a short life.

USB caddies are death for any drive.
Unless the PCB has a fan on it, even a tower spells death - unless maybe the
drive sits on the floor of the tower rather than the confines of a 3.5" bay
.... and even then it'll struggle.
Best thing anyone can do for a caddied HDD, is give it it's freedom by
cutting the PCB side off the caddy box and attaching an 80mm fan (and
grille) - that or remove it from the caddy completely.


It doesn't get used that much.

Anyone have experience with these drives? Any chance there's a power
supply inside the case that's causing the problem and can be swapped
with another from an identical drive? Would be a huge
Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!!! to lose the hundreds of gigs of files. Any
chance WD would do such a repair? I don't want another drive, I need
THIS drive to work.

Thanks for all assistance.


Q1. Can you connect it to another comp............I ask this because
the Firewire port on my laptop is iffy and only sees the drive when
it wants to.

"muzician21" wrote in message
...
I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch, it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Anyone have experience with these drives? Any chance there's a power
supply inside the case that's causing the problem and can be swapped
with another from an identical drive? Would be a huge
Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!!! to lose the hundreds of gigs of files. Any
chance WD would do such a repair? I don't want another drive, I need
THIS drive to work.

Thanks for all assistance.




Is it this one?
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=351

3 possibilities

1 The AC adaptor has died, check with a voltmeter or subsitute adaptor.

2 The Firewire electronics have died in the MyBook or your PC.
Try the unit on another PC and if possible another firewire unit on your PC.
(check the cable too)

3 The drive itself has died.
Check this by opening the case and mounting the drive inside your PC as a
slave drive.
You may have to add a PCI adaptor if it's SATA and you don't have SATA
inside your PC.

If this last one doesn't work then it's off to the data recovery
specialists.
If the drive does show up as a slave drive then you can make the backups you
should have made in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!

Best
Paul.

"PeeCee" wrote in message
...
"muzician21" wrote in message
...
I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch, it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Anyone have experience with these drives? Any chance there's a power
supply inside the case that's causing the problem and can be swapped
with another from an identical drive? Would be a huge
Aaaaargggghhhhh!!!!!! to lose the hundreds of gigs of files. Any
chance WD would do such a repair? I don't want another drive, I need
THIS drive to work.

Thanks for all assistance.




Is it this one?
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=351


No, the OP stated it is a firewire drive, the link you posted is to a USB
drive...

"muzician21" wrote in message
...
I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch,

Yes it does, the switch is on the rear panel, but.....

it powers up when power is first applied, goes
dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

If as implied, you are powering it from the firewire connection
then you are very lucky it ever powered up.
Clarify: The WD 500gb firewire drive would have been supplied
with it's own dedicated AC power unit, do you use that or is it
drawing(draining) it's power supply via firewire?


Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Plenty of recent threads on externally connected HDD's, did you read
any of them?
The simple steps first:
Have you checked Device Manager to see if the drive is flagged as
problematic - exclaimation or questionmarks?
There is nothing in your post to indicate operating system, but your
google groups post indicates XP in headers, so...
Do you have the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on display in the
notification area or taskbar? If not:
RIGHT click in the area
A dialog appears "Customize Notifications"
Scroll and locate "Safely Remove Hardware"
Use the drop down to select "Always Show"
Click the OK buttons and close that dialog
The icon is now available and use it to remove the Firewire drive.
Then goto Device Manager and UNInstall the firewire drive.
Do NOT uninstall any associated software that came bundled
with the drive - leave all that installed.
Shut down your computer.
Disconnect the firewire drive.
Find, purchase, steal a dedicated power supply for your firewire drive.
Restart your PC without the firewire drive DISconnected
Download and install WD diagnostic tool (firwire version):
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...gnostics.shtml
Fully shut down your computer
Reconnect the WD 500gb firewire HDD with it powered from a dedicated
power supply.
Restart your PC.
Windows "Found new hardware" wizard will detect the connected
firewire HDD and will correctly reinstall it.
Check in "MyComputer" that it has beed assigned a drive letter.
Check in Device Manager that it is not flagged with an
Exclaimation or Questionmark.
Now run WD's diagnostic tool which will check it's health and
try to repair any problems found.

"Band" wrote in message
...

Whoops, please re-read for correction -


Plenty of recent threads on externally connected HDD's, did you read
any of them?
The simple steps first:
Have you checked Device Manager to see if the drive is flagged as
problematic - exclaimation or questionmarks?
There is nothing in your post to indicate operating system, but your
google groups post indicates XP in headers, so...
Do you have the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on display in the
notification area or taskbar? If not:
RIGHT click in the area
A dialog appears "Customize Notifications"
Scroll and locate "Safely Remove Hardware"
Use the drop down to select "Always Show"
Click the OK buttons and close that dialog
The icon is now available and use it to remove the Firewire drive.
Then goto Device Manager and UNInstall the firewire drive.
Do NOT uninstall any associated software that came bundled
with the drive - leave all that installed.
Shut down your computer.
Disconnect the firewire drive.
Find, purchase, steal a dedicated power supply for your firewire drive.

Restart your PC without the firewire drive DISconnected
(That of course should read to restart with the firewire drive fully
DISconnected)

Download and install WD diagnostic tool (firwire version):
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...gnostics.shtml
Fully shut down your computer
Reconnect the WD 500gb firewire HDD with it powered from a dedicated
power supply.
Restart your PC.
Windows "Found new hardware" wizard will detect the connected
firewire HDD and will correctly reinstall it.
Check in "MyComputer" that it has beed assigned a drive letter.
Check in Device Manager that it is not flagged with an
Exclaimation or Questionmark.
Now run WD's diagnostic tool which will check it's health and
try to repair any problems found.

On Apr 5, 6:48*am, "Band" wrote:
"muzician21" wrote in message

...

I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire *external My Book drive I've been
using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
have an on/off switch,

Yes it does, the switch is on the rear panel, but.....


Put it this way, there's not a switch I can turn to on/off. It's
internal and self actuated.


If as implied, you are powering it from the firewire connection


No, there's a separate external wall wart for power.

"Centre Parting" wrote in message
...
snip
Unless a drive has a decent volume of air moved across the PCB, it's
doomed to a short life.

snip

Google's research suggests otherwise:

From http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf
quote
Contrary to previously reported results, we found
very little correlation between failure rates and either
elevated temperature or activity levels.
/quote

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/18/m...resting-thing/
notes:
quote
there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates than
might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively actually
fail more often than those running a little hot
/quote


best
Paul.

PeeCee wrote:
"Centre Parting" wrote in message
...
snip
Unless a drive has a decent volume of air moved across the PCB, it's
doomed to a short life.

snip

Google's research suggests otherwise:

From http://research.google.com/archive/disk_failures.pdf
quote
Contrary to previously reported results, we found
very little correlation between failure rates and either
elevated temperature or activity levels.
/quote

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/18/m...resting-thing/
notes:
quote
there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates
than might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively
actually fail more often than those running a little hot
/quote


best
Paul.

Not my experience.

I used to run my drives fanless.
Had about 5 failures over 2 years.
Since then (about five years ago) I've been running another 5 or so with
fans .... and not a SINGLE failure.
All were and continue to be on high quality PSU's and mobo's.

Coincidence ?
Doubtful.