Delayed Write Failed with external HDD, in need of help

[archcommus]

I have an 80 GB Maxtor 3.5" HDD enclosed in a Quick-Serv PENR-35U2 USB external enclosure. VERY often when I am transferring files to the drive the drive stops responding, the activity light locks on orange, and a message in the tray pops up saying "Delayed Write Failed." Then the drive is no longer visible in My Computer and is no longer accessible. To restore access, the drive must be unplugged and plugged back in a few minutes later. The error usually doesn't happen with very small transfers, but with a LARGE COLLECTION of small files, say 700 MB of lots of small files, or with big, multi-GB files, the error ALWAYS occurs.

I know it's not my system, as my system is brand new and I've experienced this problem with my external drive with two different motherboards. I've tried replacing the USB cable. I've tried repartitioning the drive as Logical. I've tried disabling write caching. I've tried an MS registry workaround for this kind of issue. IT STILL DOES IT. Furthermore, if you Google this issue, you'll see it's extremely common, and seemingly there is NO SINGLE KNOWN SOLUTION. Various people have stopped this problem, but all by doing different things, and no one seems to know one definitive cause.

I can't think of what else to do besides trying a PCI USB card instead of using the onboard ports, or getting another enclosure, which, to note, I'm leary to do, because it might not even fix the problem.

Any help at all?

 

[Fardringle]

Is the USB hard drive enclosure self-powered? If not, it might not be getting enough power from the onboard USB port on your computer and you will probably need to use a powered USB hub.

It may also be worthwhile to disable delayed writes on that drive, but the fact that the drive disappears completely from My Computer, I'd say that it either is not getting enough power, or the drive enclosure is defective.

 

[archcommus]

It is self-powered.

I've already disable delayed writes (write caching).

I am leary to replace the enclosure because many many people experience this issue. It is very common and there is no single known source of the problem. There is a good chance I would experience it with another enclosure, as well.

 

[archcommus]

I FIXED IT.

Installed a PCI USB2 card I had with a NEC chipset. No hiccups. So awesome.

Now, can anyone give an explanation?

 

[archcommus]

If anyone can speculate as to why this is, that would be cool.

 

[corkyg]

There is a lot written about that by Microsoft. The best thing for external drives or any removable media is to disable write caching. You can do that in Device Manager, select the drive in question, right click for Properties. Then go to the Policies tab, and select "Optimize for Quick Removal." That turns off write caching. End of problem.

KB

 

[archcommus]

Originally posted by: corkyg
There is a lot written about that by Microsoft. The best thing for external drives or any removable media is to disable write caching. You can do that in Device Manager, select the drive in question, right click for Properties. Then go to the Policies tab, and select "Optimize for Quick Removal." That turns off write caching. End of problem.

KB

You are quite ignorant, my friend. This problem is much more involved than that and can have MANY possible causes. I did mention in my OP that I had already tried disabling write caching.

Google it, you'll see what a common problem it is.

For me, using a PCI USB2 card with a NEC chipset fixed it, thankfully.

 

[corkyg]

Name calling is not really nice - but I just solved a similar problem. I got an external SATA enclosure and put in an 80 GB SATA drive. The mobo has two SATA connectors, and they are activated in BIOS as SATA/RAID Enabled. The next thing was a SATA connector adapter for the backplane. It was connected to one of the mobo SATA ports. Then the external SATA drive was connected to the SATA backplane connector, and also a separate power brick.

This worked fine most of the time, but on occasion, it would fight back with a Delayed Write Failure msg relating to the drive's $MFT file.

I finally found that the problem was that the drive was losing contact.

After a couple of months of these annoyances, I decided to put the drive back inside the main case and directly connect it to the mobo. In so doing, I discovered a wekness in the drive's SATA data connector. The pins were exposed and there was no outer housing to allow the cable connector to be firmly seated. And, it thus was able to damge or bend the pins slightly should anything touch or put pressure on that cable.

So, I made the connection outside ofthe case and securely taped the connector in place. Then I put the drive back in the system, and it has been perfect ever since.

Therefore, having spent at least several days in the past month Googling that problem, I can agree with all you say. In my case the problem was basically a faulty connection. There are many things that can cause the loss or delay of contact with the drive.

I also believe that part of the problem is because on the Asus P4PE mobo, SATA and RAID are linked - you can't have SATA w/o RAID, and RAID for a single drive has only one option. And, that condition GRAYS OUT the ability to disable write caching.

Your PCI USB card solution is good. I have three external drives for imagery - but all are Firewire - and they never cause this problem. All have write caching diabled to facilitate hot plugging as needed.

As for the SATA external problem, I suspect that disabling the mobo ports in BIOS and using a PCI SATA card with an external data port might allow SATA w/o RAID and provide a better connection as well.

Cheers!

 

[makken]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885464

having a similar problem. I called microsoft and asked for access to the hotfix for that, but it didn't solve anything.

I'm using the drive over firewire, with a Prolific PL3507 chipset. still haven't been able to solve the problem for a year.