External Hard Drive: Delayed Write Failure

[bobbert]

Have had a Comstar 320 GB USB 2.0 Hard drive for the past few months.

In the past week or so, when ever trying to transfer files to or from it, the transfer stops in a few seconds in, everything on the computer slows down and I get "Delayed Write Failure" messages.

Have done the usual: restarted computer, left hard drive off for a day, tried different USB ports, no avail.

Help!

 

[amdskip]

Try it on another computer. It could be the enclosure or the drive itself.

 

[RebateMonger]

Hopefully any data on that drive is also on a second drive somewhere.

It could either be the drive failing or, possibly, the housing.
Normally, I'd pull the drive, put in directly into a PC, and run the drive manufacturer's diagnostics tests, downloadable from drive maker's web site. The hard drive itself could still be under warranty.

If the Comstar unit itself is under warranty, you may want to contact the maker for instructions.

 

[corkyg]

Turn off write caching for the external drive. Optimize for quick removal as opposed to performance.

 

[bobbert]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Turn off write caching for the external drive. Optimize for quick removal as opposed to performance.

Already done that, no changes.

Tried on 2 seperate computers at school - worked completely fine there, no problems!

Tried again at home tonight - same problems. Trying to transfer to/from different primary drives to the external hard drive - all cause problems.

I can use files off the external hard drive from home no problem (playing music etc.) - just transferring to/from.

 

[bobbert]

bump, still having this problem

 

[RKS]

It is a know issue with some external HDD chipsets. It will usually hang with larger file transfers. I had trouble with anything over 1GB or so. I gave up and got a newer enclosure and gave the old one to the 'rents.

 

[GeezerMan]

I was getting delayed write errors when transferring files with an external hard drive, and even some BSOD too, on a Biostar AMD Nforce4 ultra board a few months ago. Turned out to be the Nvidia IDE driver. I deleted it, and went with the generic windows driver. Had no more problems after that.

 

[Alopez777]

bobbert,

If drive was working fine previously and works fine on other pc's then issue is YOUR machine. Something on your machine has changed. You may have done a Windows update recently (think back to when this problem started, did u perform a windows update?)

If you did a Windows update then go to Add/Remove Programs and back out the last update you did, reboot machine, do a file transfer test (small file) then incrementally go UP in file size.

>> You may also want to take a look at Event Viewer> System for Error message that may pertain to this problem.

>> You may also want to take a look at Device Manager>

IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
USB Controllers

Verify the status on the above (Properties)

good luck.

alan

 

[bobbert]

I tried everything here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174/en-us

I tried scanning for updated IDE drivers in device manager - couldn't find any. Also couldn't find anything on motherboard manufacturer website (I have an ASUS P4P800 motherboard).

As for windows update, the only update was around feb 10, yet these errors started popping up earlier in march. I didn't want to remove it as it warned me that several programs may not function correctly if removed.

I noticed while in "computer management" under Storage -> removable storage, there is ipod (usb device) and 2 dvd rom drives, but no external usb hard drive (even though it's available in my computer/explorer)


Event viewer only goes 1 week back, here are the 3 different errors I found related to the external USB hard drive:


Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 51
Date: 29/03/2007
Time: 10:30:04 AM
User: N/A
Computer: NATHAN
Description:
An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\D during a paging operation.

For more information, see

Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 04 04 68 00 01 00 b6 00 ..h...¶.
0008: 00 00 00 00 33 00 04 80 ....3..?
0010: 2d 01 00 00 b5 00 00 c0 -...µ..À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: 00 fc da 01 00 00 00 00 .üÚ.....
0030: ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 ÿÿÿÿ....
0038: 40 00 00 49 00 00 00 00 @..I....
0040: ff 20 0c 12 8c 02 20 40 ÿ ..?. @
0048: 00 10 00 00 0a 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 00 00 00 b0 62 b6 86 ....°b¶?
0058: 00 00 00 00 28 4e b3 85 ....(N³?
0060: 00 00 00 00 ef 9c e9 13 ....ï?é.
0068: 2a 00 13 e9 9c ef 00 00 *..é?ï..
0070: 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0078: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0088: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........




Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 29/03/2007
Time: 10:30:05 AM
User: N/A
Computer: NATHAN
Description:
Application popup: Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file

I:\El Punto St John Ambulance OMFI MediaFiles.rar. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a

failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

For

more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.




Event Type: Warning
Event Source: Ntfs
Event Category: None
Event ID: 50
Date: 29/03/2007
Time: 10:30:05 AM
User: N/A
Computer: NATHAN
Description:
{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file . The data has been lost. This

error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this

file elsewhere.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 04 00 04 00 02 00 52 00 ......R.
0008: 00 00 00 00 32 00 04 80 ....2..?
0010: 00 00 00 00 b5 00 00 c0 ....µ..À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: b5 00 00 c0 µ..À

 

[Alopez777]

bobbert,


take a look at this web page:

http://bermangraphics.com/problems/delayedwritefailure.htm

First 2 comments are pretty interesting. I suggest trying first comment (ie. taking HDD out of external case & connect it internally).

I didn't read all the comments so u might run through them all.

please update your thread with resoultion.


good luck.

al

 

[bobbert]

After too much time troubleshooting, the solution ended up being very simple...

I was using the front USB ports on my computer for both my USB hard drive and my 60 GB video iPod.

Switched iPod to a USB input on back of computer instead, solved problem.

Ran some tests and it seems that definitely fixes it.

Damn apple!

 

[RebateMonger]

That's interesting. Too bad there seems to be no diagnostics program to test USB links

 

[PascalT]

I just got a Lacie 250gb D2 drive and facing the same issues. I'll try other USB ports and see if that fixes it.

edit: Nope it doesn't, after about 3gb transferred it starts again, plus it says the recycle bin on the drive is corrupted?

 

[PascalT]

bump, anyone with a clue on how to solve this?

 

[Rogodin2]

Pascal

Does it do it with the firewire too?

Rogo

 

[PascalT]

I can't try it with Firewire since there is no Firewire cable that came with it

 

[Rogodin2]

Go buy one Pascal

Rogo

 

[PascalT]

Well it doesn't solve my problem for now. I bought something I'd assume would work with what was sent with it. Maybe the drive is just faulty?

 

[PascalT]

I think I fixed the issue by putting my Virtual Memory levels higher (paging file), so far I am at 20% progress (about 30gb) and no errors yet.