On 23/2/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Brian Steere) said:
>Hi Joe >What are the signs of imminent demise? Hi. Erratic performance, sometimes not reading data for a while when expected, sometimes not at all but just repeating a regular loud click that prompts me to jump up and turn the drive off after several seconds of that rather than leaving it clicking endlessly. But turn it on again and it usually works normally again. Also, not mounting for some time- there are six partitions on this external drive and they sometimes don't mount, don't all mount, or mount gradually over a couple of minutes or so. I use Disk Warrior on them every so often anyway. It's the clicking that worries me- every drive I had that died did some loud clicking first. I didn't mention that the first two _internal_ drives in my first Mac (a G4) ALSO died prematurely- the first within a couple of weeks, its replacement after just over a year. Now the third internal drive in that machine after admittedly three years use is also starting to become unpredictable and pauses and clicks loudly sometimes. This can't be typical surely- almost all of the five drives used with a G4 seeming to expire early. Sometimes I wonder if I'm one of those people who generate electricity and make mechanical devices malfunction! >Whether good advice or not I read somewhere that having HD spin down when >idle (energy savings settings) was not good for drives. Now that you say that I think I read that somewhere too. It was a while ago- it's hard to know what is current best practice. >On a Powerbook this may be offset by drawing less power and extending >battery operating time but otherwise it involves spinning up and down >frequently. I also found that I would have delays while the disk spun up >again. So I turned that option off. > >Firewire can be flaky in some respects and drives that no longer mount can >be perfectly OK - but the firewire bus needs resetting. Turn off mac and >disconnect from power socket for 5-10m - whilst also disconnecting FW >device. I'll give it a try. I'm wondering if this is in essence any different from just shutting the whole thing down and leaving it overnight? It may be so I'll do it. -- Joe B. -- Mac UK is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Mac UK list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/mac-uk.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:mac-uk@mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-uk%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
