[Caracal]

I currently used a Sharkoon eSATA Stage dock and I started having issues when I plugged in one of my Hitach e7k1000 TB drives.

The system would freeze and generally spaz out, and the event log would look something like this:



I assumed it was a driver issue, so I installed the latest nVIDIA drivers - only for the problem to persist.. but this time, the drive actually shut itself off!

That freaked me out, so I took a look round the back of the dock, and noticed that the eSATA cable was loose.

I've secured the cable now and the drive seems to be fine - but i'm a bit paranoid that I've done some damage to it now, especially paranoid as i'm about to put hundreds of GBs of data on it!

Could someone please put my mind at rest and assure me that the loose cable wouldn't have done any damage and was only confusing Windows?

Thanks

[Brian]

I would be more concerned if I were you had the power connector been the one that was loose, sending current that wasn't steady. The eSata connection is just the transport mechanism and doesn't actually control the drive. You're fine.

[dietcokefiend]

Yea if it was the power cable I think I would have to tell you to start searching for a new drive. Tons of start/stop cycles is not a good thing for hard drives.

If you are really worried about the file system it would be best to wipe the drive, reformat, and start fresh. Getting a new cable couldnt hurt either.

Also what external drive is this and what cable brand are you using?

[Caracal]

dietcokefiend, on 01 March 2010 - 08:23 PM, said:

Yea if it was the power cable I think I would have to tell you to start searching for a new drive. Tons of start/stop cycles is not a good thing for hard drives.

If you are really worried about the file system it would be best to wipe the drive, reformat, and start fresh. Getting a new cable couldnt hurt either.

Also what external drive is this and what cable brand are you using?

Heya, I'm just using the eSATA cable that came with the dock. The drive itself is a (decent IMO!) E7K1000 Hitachi 1TB drive

[Atamido]

I had similar symptoms with a Vantec SATA dock. I don't recall it happening initially, so I suspect it became flakey over time. As of now, I don't leave it on when not in use. The dock has a USB port too, so there is a controller chip internally which I would guess is just really cheap.

I'd prefer a SATA dock that is essentially a pass through with power, so that no controller chip comes in to play. I haven't been able to find one, so if anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.