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I appreciate the information. I've got to believe, though, that some USB drives are drawing more current than others -- and that finding one that draws on the low side would help me out here. I've got a couple of USB drives, for example, that will (almost) never mount without being connected to two USB ports. On the other hand, the little drive PG supplied when it shipped Windows BIAB 2009 (not 2009.5) on USB (almost) always mounts. I'd just ahead go ahead and copy BIAB 2010 onto it and use it (that was my original plan) but I discovered it's a bit too small for BIAB 2010 with all its additional RealTracks.



The reason the smaller drive draws less current should be obvious.

Less platter count means less mass to turn which means less motor torque which means less current.

But you've already discovered the hitch to that one. The drive's too small for the program to fit.

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It might be a bit off, off-topic, but I'm starting to think there's some kind of voodoo to whether a USB drive mounts, and I've occasionally seen the same flakiness with Firewire drives -- both the portables that are powered by a FW or USB port, and the larger drives that are connected to AC. I don't think it's my computer -- in fact, I routinely use several of the same USB (and FW) drives with three different computers, both PCS and Macs -- and with a couple of different USB and FW hubs, and connected directly. Sometimes a drive just won't mount, but it will when I reconnect it in the same way a minute later, and won't the next time. I don't know why, and quite clearly, neither does anybody at the manufacturer's tech support numbers.



I'm an Electrical Engineer, not a Witch Doctor, so there isn't any Voodoo in my world.

There are other reasons for a drive not mounting besides the amount of current available. The OS and the associated drivers on the computer side may have a problem that is intermittant in nature, or the drive itself could be a bit flakey, exhibiting intermittant problems. The intermittant electrical hardware fault is impossible to diagnose from outside the box and without proper schematics, knowledge of the circuits and test equipments suitable for the purpose. I really doubt it is an electrical/electronic fault, though, from experience. More than likely it is a software glitch when your drives don't mount. On the other hand, the many USB and FireWire drives I use both here in the studio and at work on the day job do not exhibit these problems with any sort of regularity. I have one USB drive out of many that sometimes fails to mount. I don't trust that specific drive, either. All the rest mount when they are called upon to do so. I trust that you are performing proper DISmounts of these drives, just yanking the plug may be the reason for your intermittant problems, sometimes that can leave the drive in a rather confused state and you would be asking for the luck of the draw for a second try to get it to mount again every time. Could end in disk disaster someday if that is the case.

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I had a couple of bad Seagate drives a few years ago, but I've had better luck lately (with respect to the mounting issue) with Seagate's FreeAgent desktop drives than with WD's comparable MyBook externals. And since a couple of people have suggested Seagate here, I think I'll pick up a Seagate FreeAgent portable and give it a try. And cross my fingers...



I've seen examples of both brands last forever and some die on the first day. Or later. Not voodod, not luck, just the nature of the beast. Shipping can sometimes do a drive in before it even gets to you, although much has been learned about handling G forces over the years, it still can happen. Then there are the G forces that can happen to external drives when they should just be sitting in the aberage home. If you have kids like mine were, now its my grandkids, you have a house full of animated inanimate objects, too. "it fell" -- Which could indeed make an otherwise sane adult start thinking that maybe there really is such power as voodoo to contend with <G>.

We had field problem reports of manpack stuff where the external hard drives were failing. Forensic testing showed every one of them to have sustained high G force from likely falling and hitting something hard, like the concrete floor or the like...

OF course, the soldiers were, to a man, exactly like my kids used to be in their responses. They didn't do it. Those drives just leaped out of their packs and onto the floor when they weren't looking, you see.


--Mac

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