"Delayed Write Failed" (500GB Freecom HDD)

[c00kie]

Hi all

I bought the 500GB Freecom external USB hard drive from eBuyer.com about a couple of months ago (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...uct_uid=123400). Copied about 150GB in one fell swoop when I first got it. No problems. In fact, love the silent running Samsung HD501LJ SpinPoint T Series drive.

However yesterday, I copied another 150GB but a pop-up message from Windows warned me of the following: "Delayed Write Failed - Windows was unable to save all the data for the file x. 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."

Google lead me to a Microsoft article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321733, but I already have XP SP2 so the fix was irrelevant. Another google search told me to change the HDD Policy from "Optimize for quick removal" to "Optimize for performance" (which enables write caching on the disk), so I did. But even after the reboot, the error reappeared on-screen after a while and littered the System Event Log. So a few more google searches found other victims of this error who have had to return the HDD because it's faulty.

If I turn the HDD on from a cold start, it's fine until after 30mins or so when it warms up, then the error occurs. I couldn't access any of the data until I turned it off and let it cool down for an hour! I am really concerned I may lose most, if not, all my data. I have another HD501LJ HDD in my main PC, so perhaps I may just be unlucky with a faulty drive. This error/fault doesn't appear to be uncommon among external hard drives. I have installed HDD Thermometer 1.3 (free download) but it only detects and monitors the temperature of my internal HDD, not my external HDD (!). Does anyone know of any programs that monitor the temperature of external HDDs please?

I am looking at buying another internal 500GB Samsung HD501LJ HDD (from Scan!) and copying across all data from the external Freecom HDD. At least I know the internal HDD is getting the required cooling.

In the meantime, have others experienced this problem? If so, what have you done about it? Should I return the drive to ebuyer? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Scott

[c00kie]

I have since discovered that to monitor a HDD's temperature, S.M.A.R.T. must be enabled. This is true for internal HDDs but not for external (USB) HDDs because S.M.A.R.T. is lost over USB (USB doesn't support it).

This would explain why HDD Thermometer 1.3 can monitor the temperature of my internal HDD but not even detect my external USB Freecom HDD.

Furthermore, no. 2 on the following article prompted me to change the 5' USB cable I was using for a much shorter (< 1M) USB cable:- http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/ti...041334,00.html

It was fine all last nite (so far so good).

Hope this helps others.

Scott

[Mossy]

Excellent I think the longer USB may have been part of the problem on larger data transfer :-)

[c00kie]

Agreed, Paul. Sometimes it's the simplest solution! ;o)