External harddrive randomly disconnects

[sayre]

I own a few external harddrives, however one in particular (western digital 2tb) will randomly disconnect and a window will show about "device removal with the red little stop sign shape" then it will randomly connect again (and sometimes i have to physically unplug it and plug it back in), does anyone know what is going on here? None of the cables are being touched, it's really strange, the only thing i can think of, is maybe i have a loose usb cable and need to replace it? or maybe a faulty usb port?

 

[BlueRevolution]

I'd swap out the USB cable first. The ones that came with the other drives should be fine.

 

[techound1]

My guess is a problematic power supply. Or a short somewhere along the power-in line.

 

[sayre]

hmm interesting...i have another portable drive hooked up (another western digital passport 500gb) and it hasn't randomly disconnected...looks like i'll have to try another usb cable or something, do some testing

 

[sayre]

I've been doing further research, it seems Western Digital doesn't play well with intel mac computers or something...wow, this sucks, I had to return it once because the drive failed then got another one and now it's randomly disconnecting, looks like I will be finding me another brand, does anyone have any suggestions on which way I should go as far as acquiring external harddrives? I've had an 80gb & 320gb maxtor that has worked flawlessly with it's own power supply, although useless now because i need more room...i don't think i'm liking these "turn on and turn off with your computer drives" they seem to *** up when they go to sleep or something and no, i don't have that set-up under system preferences to put disk to sleep either...funny, this is the first time i tried WD and i'm not liking WD at all...what a waste of money.

Never tried external enclosures and a harddrive, how do those work? I want to know that the next external harddrive I buy (2TB preferably), will be stable enough and not wig out on me. Any suggestions as far as what to do is greatly appreciated, thanks.