External HD issue - it disconnects itself when working hard

[ahoegh]

Hi,

I hope you guys can help me. I've bought an iMac 2-3 weeks ago and used my 250 gb WD Elements external USB HD with it. When I am doing some kind of hard work with the HD, it disconnects. Actually it looks like it shuts down and restarts, since the LED indicator goes off too.

For example, I have a 1.7 gb DV file that I want to edit in iMovie. The file is an export from EyeTV. Each time I try to import the file from the external HD, it crashes with the same error message and OS X tells me, that im not supposed to "remove hardware without pushing it out first".

Any suggestions? The drive seems to be acting odd, but using Tech Tools Pro, I seem to have established, that there is nothing wrong with it.

Best regards,

 

[sal]

I hate the WD mybook drives because of that problem you described.

I bought a western digital 500gb mybook drive a while back and I was experiencing the same problem. The drive would "shut off" when I didn't use it for two or three minutes. This proved to be problematic for video editing. I think these drives are intended for back up purposes only because of the shut off feature. It won't turn off while in use but if you don't use it for a minute or two, it'll turn off and your computer will lose access to it.

I had to take my drive back because after a week it stopped working. I did some searches on the WD mybook drive and apparently this was a common problem. My guess is that constant shutting off and on must of corrupted the drive. It wouldn't be detected by any of my computers. (macs or pcs)

Another friend experienced the same problem with his. His computers refused to detect it. He couldn't take it back because he had it for a few months so we ended up taking it out of the enclosure and installing it on a new one. It's worked flawlessly ever since.

The drive is good but the enclosure is really bad.

If you think it's too late for you to take it back. I would suggest you buy an external enclosure. Take the drive out of your WD enclosure and put it in a new enclosure. It's a pain to get out. Only do it if you can't get your money back because you are going to ruin the case.

I like the nextstar enclosures for usb drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145167

If you are going to be doing video editing, I'd recomend a firewire enclosure. Just make sure it has a sata interface because the drive inside the WD enclosure is sata.