Help! External usb 2.5 HD crashes system

[phedre]

I have 2 laptop HD's in external enclosures. Until recently I could use them on my main computer, now it crashes instantly when I plug them in. It's impossible to restart the computer when they are plugged in. They work normally on all my other computers. My other usb devices work fine (ipod and printer). I'm virus and spyware free, running win xp pro. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[drizzt81]

are there any other USB devices connected? It could be that the disks draw too much current from the port.

[phedre]

The printer is the only device currently connected and its not powered on right now. These hard drives worked fine until recently. The only recent hardware change was a seagate 200gb pata drive that started clicking. Seagate sent me a 500gb sata drive as a replacement for free. Thanks seagate!

[drizzt81]

so they work fine on all but one PC?

[phedre]

Correct

[unhappy_mage]

Do you have another USB storage device that you could try? I've seen some strange things happen with usb pen drive support... Alternatively, is there a power supply option for the 2.5" drive?

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/150072.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=150072)http://www.hardfolding.com/utag1.php/mem/428/1.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=36&id=428&type=1)

[phedre]

The only other device I have is the ipod. It works fine. There is no option for external power. I believe the drives are good its my pc thats screwy.

[drizzt81]

could this be a PSU issue?

a 500GB drive is likely to draw more current than its 250GB equivalent. If your PSU was shakey before, this could be killing it?!

see current draw comparison here:
http://www.storagereview.com/php/benchmark/suite_v4.php?typeID=10&testbedID=4&osID=6&raidconfigID=1&numDrives=1&devID_0=313&devID_1=295&devCnt=2

[phedre]

I unplugged all of my other drives to decrease power draw, but it still rebooted.

[Thor]

what happens if you boot into safe mode and plug one in?

im thinking borked drivers

(try different controller channels as well, if you have internal mobo header try them instead of the backplane header.. see what that yealds)

thore

[drizzt81]

what happens if you shut down the PC, plug them in and try to start? Does it POST? Does it not even turn on?

[phedre]

I booted into safe mode plugged it in and nothing. No reboot but the disk isn't spinning up. The power led on the HD enclosure is on. The disk can't be found in the device manager and I can't find it through the add hardware wizard. I can now reboot w/o a crash or lockup but it still can't identify the disks.

[Thor]

I booted into safe mode plugged it in and nothing. No reboot but the disk isn't spinning up. The power led on the HD enclosure is on. The disk can't be found in the device manager and I can't find it through the add hardware wizard. I can now reboot w/o a crash or lockup but it still can't identify the disks.

check the controller/ ports with known working devices sounds like there getting power, but the data aint flowing...

i had a few usb devices dissappere off my system from a very light dust build up behind the mobo near the south bridge... if you cant get the ports working with good devices i would say to check that out...

however.. you say the disks work on other pc's I.E. they spin up... but they dont here... the power light is on, meaning there getting power, if they have power they should spin up regardless if there seen by the os or not... this leaves me to think it is infact a power issue, there getting juice but it isnt enought... if your mobo has jumpers/bios settings for +5vsb set it to that and see what happens (unless the ports are sending as S3 state ... but that would be really strange...)

thore

[phedre]

Sorry to take so long getting back to this thread. I unhooked all my regular hd's and reinstalled windows on a 20 gig HD. It still crashed on me. I then switched out power supplies and it finally worked. So, to all of you folks that thought this sounds like a psu issue, you were right! Thanks for all your help.