MyBook 500GB "goes to sleep"

[Shadow Conception]

This is a pretty unusual problem I've never come across. I have a 500GB Western Digital MyBook. It's worked fine for the past 2 months, but recently, it's been randomly "going to sleep".

If I leave it plugged in a while, it just simply doesn't work. XP can still detect the drive, I can go in and explore it and all, but none of the files work. It comes up with a "x cannot be found" error.

Now here's the unusual part. If I take out the power cord and the USB cord for a few seconds, then plug them back in, it gets detected and works fine. But it takes XP about 2 whole minutes to detect the drive.

I notice that this phenomena has been occurring ever since I was copying files over from my D: drive to this MyBook Drive, and XP froze on me; so I had to restart.

 

[Shadow Conception]

No one has any idea? I asked my dad, and he says it's probably something to do with XP rather than the drive itself.

I'm going to plug it into his computer and see if the same thing happens.

 

[sutahz]

My vote is a failing controller board (SATA->USB). Exernal hdds seem to have that problem a lot. Could also be the OS's fault... definatly an annoying glitch no matter the reason.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

I had the same thing happen with the 320gb MyBook. Worked fine for three months, then the problem as you exactly as you described them arose. I pulled the drive out of the MyBook enclosure & slapped it in a new enclosure. It's been working fine for about a year now. I put a different drive in the MyBook enclosure, & the same problems happened. If you have another enclosure & drive handy, try the MyBook drive in the other enclosure & try the other drive in the MyBook enclosure.

 

[Shadow Conception]

Like, what kind of enclosure? A regular SATA 3.5" HDD enclosure? Does this also imply that I can just take the drive out and use it as an internal HDD as well?

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Either an IDE or SATA enclosure, depending on the drive inside (some 500gb MyBooks have IDE drives in them, some have SATA drives in them). Yes, you can remove the drive from the enclosure & use it as an internal. I should've stated that explicitly - it might be easier for you to check the drive using it as an internal than putting it in another enclosure (like if you don't have another enclosure handy!).

 

[Shadow Conception]

I just ran a chkdsk on it and it returned no problems. I think you guys are right; the enclosure is crapping out.

So assuming I just take out the HDD, I can just stick it in my computer just like any other internal HDD?

 

[Foxery]

I have a similar WD drive - they are supposed to go to sleep after 10-15 minutes of inactivity, but mine spins back up immediately if I access it again. This is controlled by the enclosure as a power saving feature, since as far as I can tell, the drives themselves are the same model as normal Internal hard drives, and they normally run full time. See if WD's web site has anything about diagnosing or resetting the enclosure's controller.

edit: Yes, you can pull out the drive and use it anywhere you like without hurting it or your data. This will probably void your warranty, however, if you have any intention of getting it repaired/replaced.

 

[Shadow Conception]

Well, that's what I did haha. Took it out, and stuck it in my computer. I now have an internal 500GB hard drive, not limited by terrible USB 2.0 (non-HiSpeed) access times!

Also for reference, the drive was SATA. It was a MyBook 500GB Essential Edition.

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Good, glad it's working properly now.