Western Digital external HD & Adaptec enclosure problem

[Ken from Chicago]

I've had WD usb 160G external HD usb 2.0 for a week and it's running okay
but when I added an Adaptec enclosure for an old 80g hard drive that crashed
(the one the HP pavillion laptop shipped with), it takes forever for the 80g
to read / scan / access, do something, but it slowed down my system to a
crawl. Unplug the Adaptec and the system runs normally. I finally left it on
overnight woke in the middle of the night after about 3-4 hours and the
system had stopped accessing the Adaptec enclosed drive (which I determined
by a lack of noise and the led light which had been switching from green to
orange staying a solid green).

However when I rebooted it started all over again access the Adaptec and
slowing the system to a crawl.

I tried unplugging the Western Digital and plug in the Adaptec and the
system still slowed to a crawl while the Adaptec was being accessed (the led
light kept switching from green to orange, and I could hear and feel the
difference). When I plugged the WD back in, the system said "usb device not
recognized". I unplugged and replugged the usb cord but it wasn't
recognized, even when I unplugged the Adaptec the WD wasn't recognized. I
tried to power it down with the power button but it stayed on. I finally
shut down the laptop and unplugged the power cord from the WD, replugged the
power cord and booted up the laptop and it recognized the WD.

Is there any to get these two to work together without a 3-hour lag? Also I
looked online and saw something about jumpers but not sure how to set those.
I thought the harddrive in the laptop is by default the master and the rest
are slaves.

-- Ken from Chicago

 

[Jonny]

Are both using USB for power? That may be the problem. If so, only one at
a time max.

If you're refering to the jumpers on a hard drive in an external enclosure,
should always be set as master.

 

[Pegasus]

I've had WD usb 160G external HD usb 2.0 for a week and it's running okay
but when I added an Adaptec enclosure for an old 80g hard drive that crashed
(the one the HP pavillion laptop shipped with), it takes forever for the 80g
to read / scan / access, do something, but it slowed down my system to a
crawl. Unplug the Adaptec and the system runs normally. I finally left it on
overnight woke in the middle of the night after about 3-4 hours and the
system had stopped accessing the Adaptec enclosed drive (which I determined
by a lack of noise and the led light which had been switching from green to
orange staying a solid green).

However when I rebooted it started all over again access the Adaptec and
slowing the system to a crawl.

I tried unplugging the Western Digital and plug in the Adaptec and the
system still slowed to a crawl while the Adaptec was being accessed (the led
light kept switching from green to orange, and I could hear and feel the
difference). When I plugged the WD back in, the system said "usb device not
recognized". I unplugged and replugged the usb cord but it wasn't
recognized, even when I unplugged the Adaptec the WD wasn't recognized. I
tried to power it down with the power button but it stayed on. I finally
shut down the laptop and unplugged the power cord from the WD, replugged the
power cord and booted up the laptop and it recognized the WD.

Is there any to get these two to work together without a 3-hour lag? Also I
looked online and saw something about jumpers but not sure how to set those.
I thought the harddrive in the laptop is by default the master and the rest
are slaves.

-- Ken from Chicago

Check your event logger for error messages.

 

[Guest]

Ken,

You said that the drive you are using in the Adaptec enclosure had been an
internal hd that crashed. Why are you trying to use it?

 

[Timothy Daniels]

I've had WD usb 160G external HD usb 2.0 for a week and
it's running okay but when I added an Adaptec enclosure
for an old 80g hard drive that crashed (the one the HP
pavillion laptop shipped with), it takes forever for the 80g
to read / scan / access, do something,
[.....]
Is there any to get these two to work together without a 3-hour
lag? Also I looked online and saw something about jumpers
but not sure how to set those. I thought the harddrive in the
laptop is by default the master and the rest are slaves.

Master/Slave is an IDE controller concept, and its usual
significance is only to the IDE channel controller to
differentiate between 2 devices on the same channel
(i.e. same cable). But since many BIOS's use
Master/Slave and channel0/channel1 to set their
*default* hard drive boot order, it has taken on inflated
meaning in the public's mind, aided by the connotations
of the terms "Master" and "Slave". In truth, because the
BIOS's hard drive boot order can be changed by the user,
the significance of Master/Slave settings (or the use of
channel 0 versus channel 1) don't extend beyond the
IDE controller.

In connection with USB/IDE adapters, though, nothing is
officially specified regarding Master/Slave settings, and
my read from probably the same postings that you have
read is that the Adaptec adapter itself wants to see the
hard drive that it's attached to it set as Master. But that is
the only reason to set it as *anything* - that the perverse
Adaptec USB/IDE adapter requires it - not that it has any
significance in the official IDE/ATA/ATAPI specifications.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Rod Speed]

I've had WD usb 160G external HD usb 2.0 for a week and it's running
okay but when I added an Adaptec enclosure for an old 80g hard drive
that crashed (the one the HP pavillion laptop shipped with), it takes
forever for the 80g to read / scan / access, do something, but it
slowed down my system to a crawl. Unplug the Adaptec and the system
runs normally. I finally left it on overnight woke in the middle of
the night after about 3-4 hours and the system had stopped accessing
the Adaptec enclosed drive (which I determined by a lack of noise and
the led light which had been switching from green to orange staying a
solid green).

However when I rebooted it started all over again access the Adaptec and
slowing the system to a crawl.

I tried unplugging the Western Digital and plug in the Adaptec and the system
still slowed to a crawl while the Adaptec was being accessed (the led light
kept switching from green to orange, and I could hear and feel the
difference).

That is the config you should be concentrating
on, what that is doing and why its doing that.

It may well be a dying drive and its having a hell of a job
reading the drive, lots of retrys and eventually succeeding.

It might just be a defective USB bridge etc but that looks unlikely.

When I plugged the WD back in, the system said "usb device not recognized". I
unplugged and replugged the usb cord but it wasn't recognized, even when I
unplugged the Adaptec the
WD wasn't recognized. I tried to power it down with the power button but it
stayed on. I finally shut down the laptop and unplugged the power cord from
the WD, replugged the power cord and booted up the laptop and it recognized
the WD.

Not likely to be very relevant.

Is there any to get these two to work together without a 3-hour lag?

Work out what the problem is with the adaptec.

Also I looked online and saw something about jumpers but not sure how to set
those.

They need to be set how the USB bridge wants them set.

That is usually with the drive jumpered as master but you could
try cable select if the external case documentation doesnt say.

If the old 80g drive is a WD drive, ut would be worth trying
the single setting, WD drives are unusual on that and it may
be what is confusing the bridge and causing the problem.
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...3RleHQ9anVtcGVyIHNldHRpbmdz&p_li=&p_topview=1

I thought the harddrive in the laptop is by default the master and the rest
are slaves.

Nope, master and slave just applys to the drives on
a single ribbon cable, not to the system as a whole.

 

[Ghostrider]

I've had WD usb 160G external HD usb 2.0 for a week and it's running okay
but when I added an Adaptec enclosure for an old 80g hard drive that crashed
(the one the HP pavillion laptop shipped with), it takes forever for the 80g
to read / scan / access, do something, but it slowed down my system to a
crawl. Unplug the Adaptec and the system runs normally. I finally left it on
overnight woke in the middle of the night after about 3-4 hours and the
system had stopped accessing the Adaptec enclosed drive (which I determined
by a lack of noise and the led light which had been switching from green to
orange staying a solid green).

However when I rebooted it started all over again access the Adaptec and
slowing the system to a crawl.

I tried unplugging the Western Digital and plug in the Adaptec and the
system still slowed to a crawl while the Adaptec was being accessed (the led
light kept switching from green to orange, and I could hear and feel the
difference). When I plugged the WD back in, the system said "usb device not
recognized". I unplugged and replugged the usb cord but it wasn't
recognized, even when I unplugged the Adaptec the WD wasn't recognized. I
tried to power it down with the power button but it stayed on. I finally
shut down the laptop and unplugged the power cord from the WD, replugged the
power cord and booted up the laptop and it recognized the WD.

Is there any to get these two to work together without a 3-hour lag? Also I
looked online and saw something about jumpers but not sure how to set those.
I thought the harddrive in the laptop is by default the master and the rest
are slaves.

-- Ken from Chicago

Keep the jumper settings on the Western Digital hard drive.
"Master" and "single" are not synonomous as with other makes
of HD's. For the USB enclosure, remove all jumpers from the
WD HD, to make it a "single".

 

[Ken from Chicago]

Ken,

You said that the drive you are using in the Adaptec enclosure had been an
internal hd that crashed. Why are you trying to use it?

To get the data from it. I thought it would be okay since I wouldn't be
trying to boot from it.

-- Ken from Chicago

 

[Guest]

To get the data from it. I thought it would be okay since I wouldn't be
trying to boot from it.

-- Ken from Chicago

Ok, I wasn't sure what you were trying to accomplish. Thought maybe you
were just trying to use it.

What I would do is download the drive testing software from the HD Mfg
website and create a bootable floppy with it. Then attach the drive to an
IDE adaptor and install it in PC as master, boot from floppy and run the
drive testing software. Make sure your new HD is disconnected - power and
IDE cable.