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Thread ID: 118241 2011-05-25 22:53:00 Clicking HDD - what to do with it BBCmicro (15761) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1204872 2011-05-26 13:04:00 Clicking could have been caused by an problem in the data cable but a fault in the drive itself is more likely

If it's under warranty, send it back, if not, you could keep it for spare parts, OS testing, or something.

Even with a full backup I wouldn't bother using it for something critical because even if failure doesn't mean data loss, it will probably completely die just when you need it for some reason and give you a big headache instead.
Agent_24 (57)
1204873 2011-05-26 21:55:00 One of the side effects of freezing a Drive is it puts moisture inside, when the parts freeze,then thaw out theres moisture internally, and thats not good for any electronics. wainuitech (129)
1204874 2011-05-27 05:34:00 An update: The problem appears to be the connection to the computer rather than the HDD .

Thinking the problem was the HDD, I bought a new HDD today together with another NexStar dock, this time USB3 . When plugging the dock in, I noticed that the USB cable I mentioned in my original post was plugged into one of the USB3 ports . (This was my fault for feeling for sockets on the floor) .

The reason the HDD came right after taking it out of the fridge was because I changed the connection to an eSATA cable - not because the fridge did anything .

It seems that the connection to the USB3 port is not working properly because I cannot get the USB3 dock to stay up for more than about 2 seconds . When I connect the USB3 dock to a USB2 port it stays up for about 35 seconds (and it requires the power to be off for 20 seconds before attempting this . 10 secs is not enough . ) .

The probable reason the dock doesn't stay up on the USB2 port is because it is not compatible . The specs do mention USB2, but next to "interface" the specs just says USB3 .

And the reason for this (I'm guessing) is that the dock takes 5V power from the USB3 port . The dock is powered by a 12V plugback but the previous NexStar model (of which I have two) has an external power supply that provides both 12V and 5V . So Vantec is cost-cutting .

(I'm a little annoyed that Vantec didn't state "USB3-only" under "system requirements")

I don't know why the USB3 dock is incompatible with my USB3 ports:
- wrong BIOS setting?
- needs a BIOS update?
- MB too early relative to USB3 development? (GA-P55A-UD4 Rev1 . 0, April 2010)
- a Win7/64-bit incompatibility?
- Vantec didn't test properly?

USB3 is enabled in the BIOS but there's another spot in the BIOS with ambiguous instructions regarding auto-detection of USB3 . (ambiguous because mixed in with SATA III settings)

I have now fully updated Windows and that didn't solve the problem

It's very frustrating (But I'm pleased that WD appears to be in the clear
BBCmicro (15761)
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