MX III 2GB - portable HDD issue

[Morfic]

Hi,


As the title implies, I have a 2GB MX III and I'm having some issues with external portable drives. Currently I'm on 110K4 but this happened also on 108K4 and now I'm planning to try out Finless' 2.1 but I wanted to know first if someone else had this problem as well.


I have 2 NTFS formatted & portable (aka without external power source) drives, a 1.5GB WD Passport and a 2Gb Toshiba Canvio, and in all the scenarios below I only use one at a time. If I try plugging any of them in the box, they'll constantly make a noise similar to the one when you power them down or unplug them from the USB on the go, and they won't be accessible. I figured that it might have not enough power, so I linked them to an externally powered USB hub and now they're accessible. However, from time to time I can hear a "clank" sound, like the reading arm would be reset, and XBMC crashes. Shortly after it becomes available again.


The next thing that came to mind was that maybe I had more apps accessing the HDD at the same time, such as a SMB server, torrent client, etc, so I turned them all off but the problem still occurs. Any ideas what may lead to this behaviour or how to bypass it?


Cheers

[gasdiver]

Best is to use an HD with external power supply. I wldnt try to drain more current than ur supposed to thru the MB

[no_spam_for_me]

... externally powered USB hub and now they're accessible. However, from time to time I can hear a "clank" sound, like the reading arm would be reset, and XBMC crashes. Shortly after it becomes available again...

active HUB is OK (I also have some external 2.5" HDD which needs to much power at spin-up)...
BUT if you have the "clank" sound also at e.g. PC then the end of these HDD's is near

EDIT:
Maybe you should have a look with 'CrystalDiskInfo' (Portable) at the s.m.a.r.t infos of these HDD's

[Ronin]

Gasdiver is right. the power adaptors on these units are so "hit and miss" quality wise that the advertised 2amp rating might not be able to provide enough juice. I strongly suggest using external power source for hard drives. you might end up damaging your hd or the power supply if you keep on trying to power via USB.

[Morfic]

Hi guys,

Thanks and sorry for my late reply, I've been out of the country for a little while. I thought as much myself, that the power drain may be over what it could output, but I thought the powered USB hub I used with my PI would hold it together.

However yesterday evening I was trying to turn my PI into a NAS and I accidentally used the power adapter that came with MX III to power up the USB hub which was plugged into the PI. Surprise surprise, the HDD started clanking. Once I used its original power cord, all went ok, so I now suspect that the MX III adapter might output less than 5V 2A that it should, but I have yet to test this theory.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers

[Morfic]

Well that was it. It's been a week since I bought a new one, and the HDD is working perfectly without clanking any more.