Hi,

I am using the UltraPak with the external USB hard drive. Lately Win7 pro has not been detecting the drive consistently. Maybe 1 in (5 to 10 times) it does not find it.

After inspecting the HDDscan 4.0 (Hard Disk Drive Scan) website http://hddscan.com/ which has some help I am currently running the available tests on the drive. This utility was recommended by my computer service person. The first read test looked good. I am running the RD-read test and watching the details. So far no sectors are bad. There is 1 more test I can run. The smart test is unavailable for external USB drives.

Currently I am reading this guide found through google. I need to find some time to read it slower.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/external-drive-not-recognized-this-is-how-to-fix-it-in-windows/
Unfortunately the issue is intermittent. The article suggests one problem might be the USB port itself. However when the problem first started I was using a port at the back of the computer and I decided to start using a different port at the front so I can unplug the drive when not in use. I get the same intermittent problem with the front port.

I have backups of the external USB hard drive in two places. I am thinking of buying another external USB hard drive and copying everything to it but I am not sure if that is necessary.

I was wondering if anyone has any similar experience and any thoughts on this issue.

Thanks,
John

Hi John,

Are you using a USB3 port on your computer?

Regards,
Noel

First thing that comes to mind; are you changing which physical port it is plugged into sometimes?

The operating system may remember this external drive as being plugged in to one certain slot, and changing this may cause the issue.
Usually whenever I have drive recognition issues (not just with BiaB) it's because I've moved things around.

If it's a drive 'power' problem, that's another possibility. Does the drive appear to turn on?
Any indication of activity from the drive when this happens?
Does it make any noise at all, or lights, or bells or sirens?

When it does fail, take a second to see if the drive itself is alive.
Then we can move on to connection and OS possibilities.

If you have 2 backups copies, you are likely fine there.
Plus in your PGMusic account you should have links to re-download everything you need anyway.

Hi Noel,

good question. I don't actually know. I attached the list showing in the device manager. Not sure how to read it (I am more of a programmer than a hardware guy).

I am wondering how I would know which port it is currently using.

I do know it was running maybe 2 years without problems on the back port and this issue started maybe 2 months ago.

John

John,

USB3 ports have blue inside the socket.

In addition to rharv's comments, does this problem arise after the computer has gone to sleep and it reactivated?

Regards,
Noel

It just passed the RD-read test. I just started the butterfly test (the last one).

To answer each question;
I am trying to remember what I did when it first occurred in the back port.
I think the first thing I did was unplug it and plug it in a different computer and it found it.
Next just after doing that I plugged it back in the same computer and it found it.
So after that each time it happened again I just unplugged it and plugged it back in and it found it.
Eventually I decided to unplug it and plug it in the front port to save me work. It found it.
Of course if I unplugged it and it was visible I used the utility to shut it down before I unplugged it but if it was not recognized I just unplugged it.
As mentioned above it does it about the same amount in the front port as the back port.
To finish that question I never change the port unless it does not recognize it.

I do not remember if I checked the drive before I unplugged it each time. I do not think so. I will have to remember to check that from now on if Win7 can not find the drive.

Since I started unplugging it when not in use I have had to plug it in each time I want to use it. Only once has it not recognized it when I plugged it in while the machine is already on (tonight actually). So tonight BIAB actually locked up and I thought maybe it was because the drive became unrecognizable during operation. I could not kill BIAB with the task manager so I shut the machine down. At the moment it is recognizing it but I decided to plug it into the 2nd port on the front.

Thanks for letting me know about this "Plus in your PGMusic account you should have links to re-download everything" Where is my account...lol. I am looking right now to see if I have a log in...lol. All I ever log into is the forum :-) Found it. it worked. Amazing...lol. Thanks Rharv :-)

The ports have blue inside the socket so they are USB3 then.

I have the computer set so it does not go to sleep. It is the machine I trade on and it can't be allowed to go to sleep or it screws up my datafeed processing. I do the same on the notebook where I run BIAB for the jams to give count in and to use as backing tracks when players are missing. The other desktop does not have BIAB installed. That ones goes to sleep.

Download USBdeview, and remove all USB drivers not in use any more. !!! DON'T remove your eventual keyboard and mouse drivers BTW !!!!

Widows updates screws this up every time: So again switch off Power Management here for all USB drivers called hub:

John,

To access download files, log-in into your Sales account and you'll find them under "My Products". If they are not appearing, it means that you haven't registered your latest version of the software. If this is the case, simply register the software and the files will appear.

Regards,
Noel

Thanks Noel. I found them and left myself a reminder in my database reminder system they are there.

Thanks Fiddler2007. I installed USBDview and also turned off the power management checkbox. Great utility.

So am I correct in assuming you are saying?

Any USB port in the USBDview display list that says "No" under the connected column can be highlighted and I can click the "Uninstall Selected Devices" button.

The assumption being that when I plug the device in again it will reappear in the list as in use.

In the Windows Control Panel, Power Options, make sure USB Selective Suspend is NOT checked.

Thanks Matt, The attached image shows the change I made and where others can find it in Win7.

Yep, and you can delete the white ones, the green ones are in use ...

Thanks fiddler2007. I will do that.

So here are the results of my 3 HDDScan tests. http://hddscan.com/
1/ Verify - read data without transfer (no bad sectors).
2/ Read - read data to the host (no bad sectors).
3/ Butterfly - read data to the host with seeks (there was a mass of bad sectors at the very end).

So after seeing such a large number of bad sectors in the 3rd test which seemed out of place compared to the other two tests I checked the drive and Rharv's suggestion appeared (the drive light was off). So I guess the drive shut down during the Butterfly test. I plugged the drive in again and it is fine at the moment.

So I guess I buy a new drive today :-) Well I have a bit of a happy emotional problem so it should be :-(

I think what I will do is I will keep the new one unplugged except when in use. Hopefully that will make it last longer than 2.5 years (I registered it July 27th 2016).

Thanks guys, I learned a lot of new useful things and probably a few others did too so they know how to deal with this. If anyone has a similar problem but finding the solution is more complex maybe this link will help.
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/external-drive-not-recognized-this-is-how-to-fix-it-in-windows/

Regards,
John

P.S. I am wondering which way I should load the new drive (downloads, copy from old drive, copy from one of my backups). I guess it makes sense to copy from one of my backups for three reasons. 1/ it will be the fastest, 2/ it might be most likely to be good and 3/ since that way I can test my backup. I will leave myself a reminder as to where I loaded it from. Another option might be to use this drive until it stops completely then do one of those choices.

If it's f.i. your BIAB audiophile drive, type WD My Passport USB 3.0, you might still have warranty. I found them very reliable sofar. You could run a checkdisk routine from Windows, and mark 'fix bad sectors' doing that. Takes some time, but might repair your drive.

Important: Usually USB drives themselves are not the cause, but misuse. You cannot unplug them un-punished, with out using a proper eject routine from within windows.

For copying files i'd prefer FastCopy (freeware) or Teracopy, has some verifying options. -F

Thanks Fiddle2007, I will check into the warranty.

I suspect the problem is not sectors since the first two tests did not have bad sectors. I will run the 3rd test again to see if it completes without bad sectors. I think it just shut off much like it shut off when I was running BIAB before I decided to create this thread. The thing is the 3rd test takes longer so it is more likely to shut off.

The only time I unplug it without the correct procedure is if I cannot find it in the "Safely Remove Hardware" list (no choice).

Sometimes, if you have multiple USB devices plugged in, you can use too much power and the drive does not perform properly. Also, on some systems, some USB ports have more oomph than others. I have had luck by using powered USB hubs.

Very true, and why i invested in a Freslogic 4 controller USB 3.0 card in my desktop. In my case especially for an external audio interface. Usually a laptop has only one or two contoller chips for USB.

As I suspected my repeat try of the butterfly test on the USB drive showed no bad sectors. So it appears the drive is shutting down intermittently.

Along the line of power, the power supply wears out over time. I had one computer not consistently power up and replacing the power supply resolved it. Maybe it could effect USB ports initially.

I do hear an intermittent noise from this computer. I checked the two internal drives and they past the smart test. The solid state drive is a year old. The other internal drive is a terabyte drive where I have one backup of the UltraPak. It passes the smert test. I am thinking it is likely a fan making the noise. Maybe I should run the "temperature monitor" which I noticed is available in this HDDscan program found at http://hddscan.com/ with the ctrl+f search. Not sure how I would use it :-) I tried it on the terabyte drive and it shows 26 degrees on both readings???? The temperature monitor is not available for the USB drive. For now I am unplugging it when not in use.

After completing the test on the external USB drive successfully (no bad sectors) I tried to use the "remove hardware safely" process and it could not find it. So the USB drive appears to have turned off just after the test.

Yes a power supply affects USB power. It *may* be the cause.

If the drive is turning itself off intermittently:
One thing to check is the drive's 'auto ability' to sense power.
It may be shutting off during use because it senses it isn't getting enough power.
It could be a power supply issue -
Some PGMusic hard drives come with a USB cable that has one drive side connection and two computer USB connections.
This boosts the power to the external drive.

Did you get one of these with your hard drive?
If not this may not be applicable, but if you did -
Have you tried connecting both USB connections on the supply side?
One connection handles power and data like a normal USB cable, the second connection supplies only power, from what I understand.

As mentioned, sometimes system settings actually tell a USB port to shut down after X amount of time too.
Intermittent (unexpected) shut downs aren't often mentioned here, so I suspect something other than the drive itself as the root cause. Course I been wrong many times before.

Thanks rharv. I do have two USB plugs on one end (the computer end). I have never used the 2nd one. I have two free USB ports on the front of the computer. So I should plug both of these in rather than just the one. I will give that a try and see if it solves it. I guess I will leave it plugged in a while to give it a bigger test so I can find out.

Tomorrow morning I am going to dig into an web page I found regarding noisy fans. First thing is a dust cleaning with a blower. If that does not solve it I am a bit reluctant to stop the fan while the noise is occurring to determine which one it is. Maybe there is a trick here. Maybe just blowing on it will change the dynamic and tell me.

I have one of those 'Y" Cables that you can have. It came with my PG Drive but, in my case, the drive ran fine with the one connection as stated in the instructions.

Apparently, they had a batch of hard-starting drives. Current drives start fine.

PM me with your address and I'll drop it in the mail.

Thanks Don. I actually have one too. Testing it now.

I like your dancing - chicken I guess it is :-) I should start doing exercises like that...lol.
Actually later it reminded me of this video you might find amusing. Great song behind it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q04x83EAe-o

John

I always try to run audio-related USB devices off the ports built into the motherboard (on the back panel of a desktop PC). Other stuff can share the hub.

I actually was running it off the back ports and only moved it to the front after the problem started so I could more easily unplug and plug it back in to get it working.

Another tip if using USB ports on a laptop. Try to use a port that is located as close as possible to the power entry chord. The circuit board is likely to have the minimum track length between the power supply and the USB port (for powering the USB port), and therefore minimum voltage drop.

In my case I use the internal hard drive on the notebook. I suppose I could use the 2nd hard drive inside the desktop (my backup) rather than the external USB drive (a bit of work however to set it up again and I would loose an install count I suspect). Unplugging the external USB drive when not in use might be just as effective.

Some more info. Having the y chord with both computer ends plugged into the computer does not help as the USB drive just vanished from Windows explorer and windows gave a message saying either the drive has malfunctioned or can not be recognized. There is a light on the drive at the back which is on. So as usual I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it now recognizes it.

For now I have decided to continue with my strategy of having it unplugged when not in use. If the drive completely dies and can not be recognized in other computers I will replace the drive. I suppose I could put the drive in another computer and leave it there all day to see if it eventually fails to recognize it in that computer as well. In that case it is the drive for sure.

Might want to take a look at this link for more information.

Thanks John, that is the exact message. I will dig into it. John

At this point I would suggest replacing the hard drive enclosure, as that seems to be the most likely culprit. If you have another drive that we shipped you at some point, just swap it into that one. Otherwise you could pick one up (just the enclosure I'm talking about, not a new hard disk) from your local electronics store.

Thanks Andrew, you sent me off on some very interesting Google and YouTube searches/watches I never would have thought of looking for. I even stumbled on a data recovery video which was quite interesting. I will dig farther into this. John.

String search "How to install a 2.5" Hard Drive into an Enclosure".

Stuff I found that others might want to watch.

How to transfer your hard drive to a new enclosure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNv8RMzfjo

How to transfer your hard drive to a new enclosure (Ebay purchase).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=716NQAdN0bE

How to recover data from a 2.5 inch hard drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Y7BniaRXg

Canada Computers hard drive enclosure. A lot cheaper than a new drive :-) Same screw positions.
https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=14_202&item_id=059147