Hard drive keeps being ejected and connected again?

[l Thomas l]

It wasnt dropped..it's about 6 months old I believe. the usb connection looks a little loose, I'm trying the other plug right now. It's the only other I can use, otherwise it caused USB dropouts with other devices
I ran chkdsk on it and it had no bad sectors and didnt look like it fixed anything cuz it didnt find anything to fix. I might try the Western Digital Diagnostic
edit: ok it failed again in the middle of using it with the other port..i hope its not the drive. i have another one but i wanna have 2

 

[l Thomas l]

Well now it wont even show up on the computer, not in Safely Eject or in My Computer. I don't see why it would have died though. Maybe it was due to shutting down without ejecting it first? I doubt it tho, it was on "quick removal" and that doesn't usually cause problems.

What's weird it it still works.. I mean just last night I copied some files, and the chkdsk ran with no problems. I don't have another computer to try it on right now, but I'll try it this weekend on another computer, and I'll definitely back it up so I don't lose anything.

 

[Elixer]

HDs can die at any time. This is why backups are so important.
Anyway, it could be the HD, or the controller on the external case. You could take the drive out of the case, and stick it in your main box, and see if it still works.

Also, you can't depend on what the utilities report, since those are just a rough indicator. If they report a 'pass' the drive could still fail at any time.

 

[l Thomas l]

Damn, I actually only have the most important stuff backed up, but there's still a lot more I would like to keep. I'll try moving it to another case, but my last Western Digital drive that died just took a while before it started working again, even after I switched the case.
Any suggestions on external drives? This is my 2nd Western Digital that failed, but almost all brands I can think of fail.
Doesnt Western Digital have some sort of warranty? I can't find it right now but I coulda sworn they guarantee not failing with in a year.

It's weird, unlike the other one that died, this one does not make any strange noises (as if it's trying to read the drive and it cant) and the lights seem fine. It doesn't spin loudly or anything.

Edit: i think it might be the case this time because I just kinda moved it around, didnt even tap it, and works now. I'm backing it up right now.