Alex Scoble writes about a friend who is using an array of external drives to manage a large media collection. It sounds like he’s having some of the same problems Thomas Hawk has reported:
Additionally, iTunes would stop playing after a while for no apparent reason. Only fix for the problem that I could find was to go into Device Manager and disallow XP from turning off the USB hub subsystems, which it does to save power. So far it sounds like that has worked.
Personally, I think the decision to use SATA drives and then connect them via a USB connection was ill-advised. External USB drives are acceptable for some applications, but I’ve seen and heard of enough problems in demanding digital media applications that I recommend strongly against using them. External SATA is the only way to go.
Alex also throws in an aside:
Trust me when I say that his system definitely requires the use of high quality MP3 or lossless audio files. The crappy 128kbit MP3s you get off of Napster or the Apple iTunes store definitely won’t cut it.
Amen.
Ed Bott 
A question here: What about IEEE 1394/Firewire/iLink (I’m never sure what I should call them) external hard drives? Do they have the same sorts of problems?
I’m using an external 1394 DVD burner that I move between PC’s to image them and have had no problems. And I’m considering making up an external 1394 hard drive and using it for the same purpose (of course it would probably be just one drive and not an array).
Frank, I don’t have any firsthand experience with Firewire drives, so I can’t answer definitively. But my guess is that Firewire will work better than USB for demanding storage needs, because it was specifically designed as a high-throughput I/O channel. The one caveat is there still has to be a conversion between the drive’s native controller interface (typically IDE) and the I/O bus, and that’s an opportunity for bad things to happen. That’s why I prefer external SATA drives, which can connect a drive’s electronics directly to the drive controller.
What is the best solution for storing your collection of burned CD’s? Which manufacturers make the best drives and how long do they last? Will I be able to get my data off in the future when standards may have changed? Thanks!
I sorta think the “The woes of external USB hard disks” headline might scare some computer users off. I’ve used USB ever since the old Pockey Drives and USB1 years ago. My two USB2 drives are great for many things…including backing up data with no problems.
Perhaps those with the large media collections might have problems…but most of us USB users should be Ok I would think.
I have been using a Maxtor 80GB External 5000LE USB2 hard drive for about 2 years or so and the only problems I experienced were write errors when I divided the drive into 2 partitions. So I reformated into a single partition and the drive has been performing flawlessly ever since.
I have downloaded Plus! Digital Media. At a certain stage I was asked to click the link showned to fill product key. The URL was not found. What should I do?
F,
You’ll need to contact the Plus support group for this. They should have an email alias or phone number.
My current woe with external USB hard disks is that I can’t figure out how to get the disk to spin down when not in use. It is currently getting hot and I would prefer it to be off most of the time without physically switching it off. Windows XP power management doesn’t seem to have any effect. I also can’t seem to enable Advanced Power Management. Not sure if that would help.
Any ideas?
Danger,
Same here, I’ve found a utility specifically for spindown/standby of ext Western Digital HD’s but can’t find a generic drive-wide utility anywhere? Any help much appreciated, will post solution here if I find one!
I know the last post here was last year but if anybody can help…
My woes of external USB hard disks are this:
I had one HDD plugged into my laptop (HDD80). Suspended my laptop to go home and unplugged all external devices. Next morning re-attached all devices but accidentally plugged different HDD into the laptop (HDD160). Windows XP reported that the HDD160 contained all the files and folders of HDD80. When I saw this I disconnected HDD160 and plugged HDD80 in. This looked ok but when I then later removed HDD80 and plugged in HDD160 it contained no files, no folder, no nothing. XP reports it as a healthy HDD but 100% free space not formatted. Various recovery Apps (NTFS and FAT) report that there are “LOST” files on HDD160 but if I look at them they are all files that are in fact on HDD80. It looks like XP re-wrote the FAT or something!! Can anyone help.
I also would like to know how to enable some power management for my external “Dynex” enclosure with Maxtor 300GB UDMA133 IDE hard drive. It is also USB, just assembled and installed it this month. Aside from just switching the power switch off when I shut down the desktop, can I enable power saving in Win XP (SP2)?