Re: USB hard drive lockup -- PCTECH

Thanks for the follow-up, Jeff.

After your solution I looked and while XP through 7 all use the same
version of NTFS, there are some things they do differently. For instance,
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/c1daf09e-12d1-4432-a488-8477f8006fd7/windows-7-ntfs-vs-windows-xp-ntfs?forum=w7itproinstallFrom
that it looks like an XP CHKDSK may have worked, but of course that's
something of a chicken & egg thing.

It also brings home something that applies to all computers: Test your
backup/restore processes & media occasionally. And if you have a PC that
isn't being backed up, understand the data that's at risk should the drive
die or become corrupted as happened this time.

On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 7:49 AM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

The issue is resolved.

After formatting the external USB drive, it now works on Win XP again.
Something must have gotten corrupt on that drive that Win 7 could handle,
but Win XP could not. And Win 7 CHKDSK couldn't fix it, only a reformat.

On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 4:15 PM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wrote:

That format has now been running 9 hours and is 62% done.

I think it will be done by morning. :)

On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 10:01 AM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:

Another update.

The CHKDSK completed without error. I attached the drive to a USB port
on the _back_ of my PC. It still locked up.

Now I am reformatting the drive, which will take a while. Then I'm

going

to try it on my PC again.

On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

wrote:

Just an update at this point.

I attached the offending drive to a laptop and am running chkdsk /F /R.
It's at stage 5 16% with no errors so far. This will probably still

be

running when I leave work today.

Tomorrow I'm going to try plugging it in to a USB port on the back of

my

desktop instead of the one on the front.

If that fails, I may just reformat the USB drive and try it.

My mouse is USB. I've got several USB-to-PS2 converters, but the mouse
stops working if I use a converter to get to the PS2 port. (Never had

that

on other boxes.) So removing all USB devices and such might be an

issue.

On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 3:49 PM, John Jones <chianime@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Assuming you're not using a USB keyboard & mouse, you can try going in
to
Device Manager and deleting all USB devices, controllers, and root

hubs.

Then do the hardware scan to let it add them back in. If it's a

device

config problem that might take care of it.

On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 10:36 AM, Gary Kuznitz <docfxit@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Did you try running chkdsk /r /f on it. You may need to run it more

than

once. Run it
until it show no errors.

Gary

On 9 Oct 2013 at 7:34, Jeff (Jeff Crosby <pctech@xxxxxxxxxxxx>)

commented

about
[PCTECH] USB hard drive lockup:

All,

My Win XP desktop has 2 hard drives. The 2nd is a 1TB drive

where I

store

a bunch of things. PDF manuals, copies of install CD and DVDs,

electronic

magazines, My Documents backup, Eclipse workspace backup, etc. If

I want

some install CD I don't have to go scrambling to find it.

None of it is irreplaceable, but about 18 months ago I decided it

would

be

a real pain to recreate it, so I bought an external USB drive and,

once a

month, I use Allway Sync to back up this hard drive to the

external

USB

drive.

Yesterday it wouldn't work. My PC just sorta locked up. Had an

hourglass

mouse cursor, but I could move it around. I could slowly get my

other

apps

closed but couldn't reboot or shut down. I had to press and hold

the

power

button for 4 seconds.

So I tried it again after reboot before starting anything else.

Same

result. Had to use the power button.

So I plugged the USB drive into a Win 7 laptop. Everything was

fine.

Checked to USB drive for disk errors, none found.

This morning I tried it again on my desktop with no joy. Same

result.

The

only thing I can think of since last month is that last week I

plugged

in a

number of USB thumb drives to select one for Firefox portable (to

get at

ASMI on a System i 520 if you remember that discussion). One of

the

thumb

drives appeared defective so I just pitched it, but that was

before

I

successfully set up Firefox, so at least that thumb drive worked

after

that.

Anybody seen this before? Ideas? Does Windows have some kind of

"cache"

or something for remembered USB drives that's been hosed? I'm

afraid to

plug in thumb drives at this point.

Thanks.

--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion

of my

company. Unless I say so.
--
This is the PC Technical Discussion for IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)

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--
John Jones, CISSP
No security, no privacy. Know security, know privacy.
--
This is the PC Technical Discussion for IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Users (PcTech) mailing list
To post a message email: PcTech@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
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--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.

--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.

--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.

--
Jeff Crosby
VP Information Systems
UniPro FoodService/Dilgard
P.O. Box 13369
Ft. Wayne, IN 46868-3369
260-422-7531
www.dilgardfoods.com

The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the opinion of my
company. Unless I say so.
--
This is the PC Technical Discussion for IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) Users
(PcTech) mailing list
To post a message email: PcTech@xxxxxxxxxxxx
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options,
visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/pctech
or email: PcTech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives
at http://archive.midrange.com/pctech.