USB HDD reads for 1 min before being available

  • Thread starter Thread starter jderudder
  • Start date Start date
J

jderudder

Hi,

Recently I have reformatted an external USB2 80GB 2.5" HDD (USB
powered) using XP's disktools. One partition FAT32 (for compatibility).
Since I have done this, every time I plug the drive in any of 3 PC's,
the READ/WRITE light is on (rapid flickering) for about 20 seconds
before the drive is recognised. I get the exact same behaviour with a
3.5" 250Gb Powered drive that I have similarly formatted in the same
way, except that with this one it takes about a minute.
I have read about bad cables and underpowered Hubs, but using two
different cables (for the 2 drives) and having tested going direct
without the HUB, it has to be something else.
Is this something to do with XP formatting, or a parameter of the
formatting process? Coudl it be a MBR issue?
 
Hi,

Recently I have reformatted an external USB2 80GB 2.5" HDD (USB
powered) using XP's disktools. One partition FAT32 (for compatibility).
Since I have done this, every time I plug the drive in any of 3 PC's,
the READ/WRITE light is on (rapid flickering) for about 20 seconds
before the drive is recognised. I get the exact same behaviour with a
3.5" 250Gb Powered drive that I have similarly formatted in the same
way, except that with this one it takes about a minute.
I have read about bad cables and underpowered Hubs, but using two
different cables (for the 2 drives) and having tested going direct
without the HUB, it has to be something else.
Is this something to do with XP formatting, or a parameter of the
formatting process? Coudl it be a MBR issue?
Click to expand...

it could be windows "indexing" the files on the drive.
 
No virus checker enabled...
and it does this without having any files on the disk.

It does feel like it's reading some stuff like Partition info or MBR

Saying that, I have noticed that in the last few days, at least one of
the drive seems to loose its connectivity, with a "Delayed writing
failed" or something to that effect... Could it be the cables after
all?
 
I would do a full check disk on the drives, have it check the system files sounds like there may be
something wrong the drive.
 
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