It further appears he is determined to ignore all of the common sense advice being offered and continue to use a drive that is clicking and failing intermittently. That's his perogative; as are the consequences.

He seems hellbent on using this drive despite all the advice to the contrary... I say let him do it.. He comes here for advice and keeps ignoring it.. He's not going to listen to anyone...

Well, I certainly don't know who you are, but let me explain. This is a forum, an internet forum, where we discuss problems. This is NOT a worship forum where we worship whatever you say. You are not God, and you definitely are not always right, at all. So please, stop acting so annoyingly overbearing.

Thankfully, my first experience with the forum has already taught me that I should not trust users like a blind man. Nobody here, it was like 90% actually, wanted me to fix a device that stopped working. Some of them had this egocentric attitude that they are way, way, way more experienced than me and I should forget about fixing the device, because they say so. Thanks God, I didn't give up and successfully fixed the device.

So, if you tell me it's broken, fine, I'll read your comment and think about it. But hey, let me do some scans and stuff without you attacking me, saying that I'm ignoring your precious advice or I'm not listening to anyone. That's just not true, I've read every single comment here.

Now... I've run Crystal Disk and these are the results, everything seems totally fine:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 6.5.2 (C) 2008-2015 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

OS : Windows 8.1 [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)
Date : 2015/11/24 22:07:35

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
+ Intel(R) 8 Series SATA AHCI Controller - 8C03 [ATA]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(3) Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00 : 120.0 GB [2/0/0, sa1]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enclosure : Toshiba External USB HDD USB Device (V=0480, P=A001, sa1)
Model : Hitachi HTS541612J9SA00
Firmware : SBDOC7KP
Serial Number : SB2EDBH7JTW3WN
Disk Size : 120.0 GB (8.4/120.0/120.0/120.0)
Buffer Size : 7516 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 234441648
Rotation Rate : Unknown
Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
Major Version : ATA/ATAPI-7
Minor Version : ATA/ATAPI-7 T13 1532D version 1
Transfer Mode : ---- | SATA/150
Power On Hours : 3269 hours
Power On Count : 4571 count
Temperature : 23 C (73 F)
Health Status : Good
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 4080h [ON]
AAM Level : 80FEh [ON]

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 _62 000000000000 Read Error Rate
02 107 107 __0 000000001197 Throughput Performance
03 253 253 _33 000F00000001 Spin-Up Time
04 _97 _97 __0 0000000013F6 Start/Stop Count
05 100 100 __5 000000000000 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 100 100 __0 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
08 140 140 __0 00000000001E Seek Time Performance
09 _93 _93 __0 000000000CC5 Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 __0 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C _98 _98 __0 0000000011DB Power Cycle Count
BF 100 100 __0 000000000000 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 00000000008B Power-off Retract Count
C1 _95 _95 __0 00000000D22E Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 239 239 __0 003300090017 Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 000000000007 Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 253 __0 000000000001 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
DF 100 100 __0 000000000000 Load/Unload Retry Count
E1 _95 _95 __0 00000000D22E Load/Unload Cycle Count

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
000: 045A 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 2020 2020 2020 5342 3245 4442 4837 4A54 5733 574E
020: 0003 3AB8 0004 5342 444F 4337 4B50 4869 7461 6368
030: 6920 4854 5335 3431 3631 324A 3953 4130 3020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 0000 0F00
050: 4000 0200 0200 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0100
060: 4BB0 0DF9 0000 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 0502 0000 005E 0040
080: 00FC 001A 746B 7F69 4163 7469 3E49 4163 203F 0024
090: 0000 4080 FFFE 0000 80FE 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: 4BB0 0DF9 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 8848 5000 CCA5
110: 43E7 7DBD 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 4000
120: 4000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 000B
130: 0095 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
140: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
150: 8000 0000 3344 0000 0000 2541 0051 0000 0000 0000
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
210: 0000 0000 8000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 11A5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 0B 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 04
010: 00 6B 6B 97 11 00 00 00 00 00 03 07 00 FD FD 01
020: 00 00 00 0F 00 00 04 12 00 61 61 F6 13 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 33 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 0A
040: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 04 00 8C 8C 1E
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 12 00 5D 5D C5 0C 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 12 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 32
070: 00 62 62 DB 11 00 00 00 00 00 BF 0A 00 64 64 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 32 00 64 64 8B 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C1 12 00 5F 5F 2E D2 00 00 00 00 00 C2 02
0A0: 00 EF EF 17 00 09 00 33 00 00 C4 32 00 64 64 07
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 22 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C6 08 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 0A
0D0: 00 C8 FD 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 DF 0A 00 64 64 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 E1 12 00 5F 5F 2E D2 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 82 00 85 02 01 5B
170: 03 00 01 00 02 49 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FD

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 3E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 21 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 00
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BF 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C4 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DF 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 E1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 77

 

The HDD is a Hitachi, 120GB, SATA1.0, USB2.0, 5400rpm, no extra power (which means USB powered), 5V and 700mA. May be a wonderful user was right and the only problem is that it's being under-powered?

 

Dropping is a reason to replace

There MIGHT be something else going on here. Does the drive case have external power? If it does you probably need 1.5 to 2 Amps. Check the drive for the 5V power requirement.

When a lot of these drives came out, they came with "Y-cables" These try to double the Standard USB output.

When you mentioned "ALL", not enough power available from USB came to mind. It take more power to start a drive than to keep it rotating.

And I think you, my friend, has spotted the issue. The power requirements of this Hitachi are 5V and 700mA. Look here:

"Some devices, such as high-speed external disk drives, require more than 500 mA of current[91] and therefore may have power issues if powered from just one USB 2.0 port: erratic function, failure to function, or overloading/damaging the port. Such devices may come with an external power source or a Y-shaped cable that has two USB connectors (one for power and data, the other for power only) to plug into a computer. With such a cable, a device can draw power from two USB ports simultaneously.[92] However, USB compliance specification states that "use of a 'Y' cable (a cable with two A-plugs) is prohibited on any USB peripheral", meaning that "if a USB peripheral requires more power than allowed by the USB specification to which it is designed, then it must be self-powered."[93]"

Neeeevertheless, I've plugged in the HDD to my USB3.0 port of my laptop, and it has the same issue. May be USB3.0 ports can only give 900mA through the extra pins, and therefore, my USB2.0 cable can only "suck" 500mA from the USB3.0?

I guess the final test is to use an Y cable, but I don't have any of those.

 

Well, I certainly don't know who you are, but let me explain. This is a forum, an internet forum, where we discuss problems. This is NOT a worship forum where we worship whatever you say. You are not God, and you definitely are not always right, at all. So please, stop acting so annoyingly overbearing.

Thankfully, my first experience with the forum has already taught me that I should not trust users like a blind man. Nobody here, it was like 90% actually, wanted me to fix a device that stopped working. Some of them had this egocentric attitude that they are way, way, way more experienced than me and I should forget about fixing the device, because they say so. Thanks God, I didn't give up and successfully fixed the device.

So, if you tell me it's broken, fine, I'll read your comment and think about it. But hey, let me do some scans and stuff without you attacking me, saying that I'm ignoring your precious advice or I'm not listening to anyone. That's just not true, I've read every single comment here.
7

Years ago I got most of my drives by skip raiding - you can check the board for dry joints etc, or you can swap one from an identical drive with a wrecked mechanical bit - they're assembled under the strictest clean room conditions, so once you open the mechanical part - the battle is pretty much lost.

I've already told you that I have a drive that passes every diagnostic - until I put files on it.

Its your data - and its up to you where you put it.

 

Those who ask for advice, then ignore it, and drag the conversation out for days, sometimes lasting for over 100 posts, when it all could have been solved in less than one page, have been discovered and named.

 

Years ago I got most of my drives by skip raiding - you can check the board for dry joints etc, or you can swap one from an identical drive with a wrecked mechanical bit - they're assembled under the strictest clean room conditions, so once you open the mechanical part - the battle is pretty much lost.

I've already told you that I have a drive that passes every diagnostic - until I put files on it.

Its your data - and its up to you where you put it.

Yeah, yeah, I know, but I'm first assuming the HDD is OK and something else mustn't be working properly. A user said the 700mA is may be the reason, I don't know, I have to test it.

Nevertheless, I've put in that very same enclosure, same IC a HDD of 5V and 1.0A and it works fine. So now I'm confused again. How can the HDD of 1.0A run in a USB2.0 enclosure?
Supposedly, USB2.0 can only give 500mA.

 

Those who ask for advice, then ignore it, and drag the conversation out for days, sometimes lasting for over 100 posts, when it all could have been solved in less than one page, have been discovered and named.

Who are you talking to?
And who are you calling a troll?

 

I think most of us are of the opinion, that IF the drive was dropped scrap it. End of Story.

I know I was burnt by that issue and I don't want to be burnt again. The drive also turned out to unrecoverable the expensive way when they remove the platter in a cleanroom environment. If it was recoverable it would have cost > $1000.00 USD. Not startig up properly has been referred to as "sticktion"

I now have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) with three 3 TB drives in a RAID configuration for 5 TB of RAID. The drive will support 2 more bays.

The "server class" drives are more robustly designed. I had a SCSI drive that was in an old Macintosh that was still runn

I had a Macintosh system that used SCSI drives that was still running 17 years later. That machine was definitely on 8 hours a day, 5 day a week and likely longer. The only issues were dust and a bad floppy drive.

There was a $1000 worth of power protection for that computer, but not a UPS, on a $1000 computer. The power protection was worth it too.



I know I was burnt by that issue and I don't want to be burnt again. I now have a NAS with three 3 TB Rning after 17 years

I probably should have spare drive handy. If I really cared, I'd have a second RAID array system that would mirror each other.

That would be quite expensive.

One trick that's sometimes used when a drive won;t start up is to put it in the freezer for while.

 

Thankfully, my first experience with the forum has already taught me that I should not trust users like a blind man. Nobody here, it was like 90% actually, wanted me to fix a device that stopped working. Some of them had this egocentric attitude that they are way, way, way more experienced than me and I should forget about fixing the device, because they say so. Thanks God, I didn't give up and successfully fixed the device.

So, if you tell me it's broken, fine, I'll read your comment and think about it. But hey, let me do some scans and stuff without you attacking me, saying that I'm ignoring your precious advice or I'm not listening to anyone. That's just not true, I've read every single comment here.

Speaking for myself, I feel your postmortem/attempted diagnosis of the drive is both educational and interesting Beyond that - it would be irresponsible of me (or, IMO, anyone having experience with such equipment) to encourage reliance upon an HDD that has exhibited any sign of malfunction -OR- suffered abuse of any sort --- Clearly there is no risk so long as you don't entrust it with valuable data - that said; it is (too) easy to 'drift' into complacency where asymptomatic (albeit highly suspicious) conditions are manifest -- But to move on: Again - please be advised that detection of malfunction related to the described difficulty via diagnostic scans is rather unlikely -- Scans examine the device for errors related to faulty tracking, magnetic media faults and onboard controller issues -- FWIW my advice is that you attempt to provide the unit with a more robust power supply (as suggested in other posts) -- should such accommodation result in consistently uneventful starts, you will have probably located and corrected the difficulty - even so - the drive's history of abuse warrants caution and, IMO rejection!

Best regards and good luck
HP

 

FWIW my advice is that you attempt to provide the unit with a more robust power supply (as suggested in other posts) -- should such accommodation result in consistently uneventful starts, you will have probably located and corrected the difficulty - even so - the drive's history of abuse warrants caution and, IMO rejection!

Best regards and good luck
HP

Elegantly said.
1. History of abuse [check]
2. Power supply is inadequate based on specs[check]

Conclusion based on #1 alone: Don;t trust drive with anything valuable
Conclusion based on #2 alone: Y cable or external PS if drive case will support it.

Conclusion based on #1 and #2: Anyone want to play craps?

If a beefier power supply is used and there's improvement, so what? Use it to stream a video or something
Don't trust it. I know first hand not to trust it.

You have data that says it needs > 500 mA and a single USB port won't provide it. USB 3 is USB 2 compatible which means it should supply 500 mA

Charging ports and Y cables could complicate things even more.

 

But what about the HDD of mine that runs in that exact enclosure and is 5V and 1.0A? It shouldn't work at all, nevertheless it works perfectly. That gives me reasons to think it's not the power supply... I don't understand any of this.

 

But what about the HDD of mine that runs in that exact enclosure and is 5V and 1.0A? It shouldn't work at all, nevertheless it works perfectly. That gives me reasons to think it's not the power supply... I don't understand any of this.

The specifications represent the minimum PSU parameters at which proper operation is guaranteed - not necessarily the operating requirements of a specific unit -- Elimination of the power supply as a possible cause of difficulty requires meeting the drive's specified power specifications

Best regards
HP

 

I don't understand any of this.

Take baseball, for instance. If you swing the bat just a little, it takes very little power, but he ball won't go as far if you swing over a larger arc.

So, poor little HD has a couple of issues. To do a seek from one edge to the other, requires more power than just a seek to the next track.

Furthermore, static friction is always greater than running friction, so therefor the drive needs a bit of boost to start moving.

Getting one file off the disk where you might do a few seeks and then idle is a lot different than say defragmenting or formatting a hard drive. Random seeks is a particular drive test.

SMART data might help. http://www.howtogeek.com/134735/how-to-see-if-your-hard-drive-is-dying/
It's no guarantee. I have no idea if SMART data is available by usb.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

 

Your spin up time is crappy: 000F00000001 Spin-Up Time

Note the F. In decimal, that's 64424509441. It's average milliseconds which isn't good.

003300090017 hex (I think) Temperature looks weird too. It's 219043921943 decimal.
Noticed that temperature is reported as 23 degrees. Confused.

So, let's say that the drop damaged the bearing, It's a possibility. let's say it's because the power via is to low. That's a possibility too.

Eliminate the power supply issue.

 

I think you're all exaggerating about my "abuse" or drop. The laptop fell, but it was working again perfectly. I wouldn't call that "abuse". It's not like I took the HDD and slammed it to the ground. So... Is it possible that a HDD that requires 1.0A works, but another one of 700mA doesn't work because the power? How can a 1.0A HDD work but other with less power requirements don't work due to the power?

 

Eliminate the power supply issue.

I tried to say that 40 posts back but was told I was wrong

 

I think you're all exaggerating about my "abuse" or drop. The laptop fell, but it was working again perfectly. I wouldn't call that "abuse". It's not like I took the HDD and slammed it to the ground. So... Is it possible that a HDD that requires 1.0A works, but another one of 700mA doesn't work because the power? How can a 1.0A HDD work but other with less power requirements don't work due to the power?

Just because something out of spec works today doesn't mean it will work tomorrow and be reliable. Manufactures put specs on equipment for a reason.

 

I wouldn't call that "abuse".

If it makes you feel any better you may call it "TLC" -- Still, the sad fact remains... Excessive Δv = excessive mass 'force' = abuse...

How can a 1.0A HDD work but other with less power requirements don't work due to the power?

Once again...

The specifications represent the minimum PSU parameters at which proper operation is guaranteed - not necessarily the operating requirements of a specific unit

@rambomhtri Despite your Umm... 'secret fears' - we don't insist you "worship whatever we say" or "trust us like a blind man" --- Howbeit the courtesy of deigning to actually read responses with an eye to comprehension would be a 'welcome touch'!

Might I inquire as to where you are headed with this? I'm bound to say that, among other 'tell tales', the observation that you made a point of the HDD's 'traumatic history' only to contentiously dismiss consideration of same creates no little dubiety as to your sincerity...

Hopefully
HP

 

@rambomhtri Like you said, this is an internet forum where we discuss problems. You ask questions of people who KNOW what they're doing, and you listen to the answers. You are being very ignorant and are not listening to the answers. Disk-checking software cannot detect hardware problems. If your drive is clicking, most likely it means the head is beginning to stick. Software is designed to check the data on the disk, not the functionality of the actual hardware used to move the head and spin the disk.

What's the point in asking questions in the hopes of getting answers when you simply ignore the answers you receive? If you're such an expert, then don't bother asking the question. Especially when you ignore the responses from real experts.

 

I think you're all exaggerating about my "abuse" or drop. The laptop fell, but it was working again perfectly.

That's what happened to me. Dropped. Worked fine. then one day (maybe a month later)...unrecoverable.