[SGVLUG] Not-so-quick question 1

[Matt Campbell]

Thanks Mic, the link was educational.  I don't think most of this applies,
but upgrading the BIOS in the case may be the solution I was looking for.
This started when I upgraded the drive in the external enclosure from 128G
to 256G and 500G so this is likely the problem.

Yes, I was testing this on a racked desktop.  I have been having general
problems getting USB out to the desktop.  I have 14 systems with
keyboard/monitor extenders and have had nothing but intermittent trouble
with them over the last few years.  Generally they work for me, but other
users are reporting lots of trouble with keyboards/drive intermittently
being lost to the host computer.

I thought that plugging in one high speed USB device slowed down all devices
on that controller, which would make plugging into another port on the
machine no different, though it would take the hub and distance out of the
equation.  I'll give it a try on the front panel ports to see if there is
different behavior.

I don't like the article's solution of turning off the drive write cache,
that really has big performance implications.

As for using another bus the 'Maximum distance' of 4.5 meters between
Firewire devices had me dismiss it as a drive extension bus.  I have also
had a lot of compatibility and performance problems with Firewire devices
over the years so I tend to avoid it.  eSata's 2 meter limit is even shorter
though I like the bus in general.

I was hoping to use this drive as an external for a couple of rack mounted
Fedora machines, but the Windows errors were worrying me that there were
drive reliability issues at work that Linux wasn't catching.

Matt

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On
> Behalf Of Mic Chow
> Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 5:16 PM
> To: SGVLUG Discussion List.
> Subject: Re: [SGVLUG] Not-so-quick question 1
> 
> Hm...this is a racked desktop?  Somehow I got the impression that it was
> a laptop, ah well.  It seems that this is a known issue from Microsoft
> about XP.  Here is even a support article from Microsoft.
> 
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174
> 
> Can you not get to the other USB ports on the desktop?  Do you get the
> same result if you put the hard drive enclosure on a USB port by itself?
>  Is there no chance of switching to firewire or to a SATA drive?
> 
> As I said, I personally have not had this issue.
> 
> Mic
> North Hollywood, CA
> N34° 8'33.02"
> W118° 21'39.62"
> 
> Matt Campbell wrote:
> > Hi Mic,  see responses inline blow(sp).
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net [mailto:sgvlug-bounces at sgvlug.net] On
> >> Behalf Of Mic Chow
> >> Sent: Friday, May 01, 2009 12:39 PM
> >> To: SGVLUG Discussion List.
> >> Subject: Re: [SGVLUG] Not-so-quick question 1
> >>
> >> I have not personally experienced this error.  However, with some
> >> Google-fu I see this is a common error in Windows.  I am going to guess
> >> you are getting this error in Windows?  So this is on a laptop, right?
> > Windows - full points (see original post).
> > Laptop - Bzzzz
> >
> >> Is the USB port on the laptop a USB 1.1 or a USB 2.0 port?  What is BD?
> > The port is USB2 but it's running USB1 'cause there's a mouse.
> > BD is industryspeak for Sony Blu-Ray disc.
> >
> >>  I am guessing that you have a single USB port on your laptop and you
> >> are using a USB hub.  Is the USB hub powered or not?  Is the hard disk
> >> in the enclosure an IDE or a SATA drive?  Out of curiosity what all USB
> >> devices do you have attached on this single chain?  Have you tried
> >> putting the USB drive on a single USB port by itself to test?
> > I am using a single port as my desktop is mounted in a equipment rack 10
> feet from my desk.  There is a powered hub half way along the path and a
> passive hub in my keyboard going to the mouse and still camera.
> > The headphones, HD/DVD/BD drive, subject hard drive, web camera, and
> printer are plugged into the powered hub.
> > This is a IDE enclosure.  I've tried moving this drive to another
> computer and have seen the same issues.  I guess that makes this a problem
> across 2 computers, 2 drives and 3 cases which is why I'm perplexed.
> There must be more than one failure here.
> >
> > Matt
> >
> >> Mic
> >> North Hollywood, CA
> >> N34° 8'33.02"
> >> W118° 21'39.62"
> >>
> >> Matt Campbell wrote:
> >>> Hi Mic, thanks for responding.
> >>>
> >>> I replaced the physical disk drive which was inside the case.  I also
> >> tried the original drive in a couple other cases, always getting the
> >> same results.  I am worried I have a more general problem with my
> >> computer as I abuse its USB bus.  I currently have 8 USB devices hung
> >> off a 10' USB extension.  On the other hand my BD reader can plug away
> >> alongside the USB1 mouse with no problems....
> >>> The best test would be for me to mount the raw drive inside the
> >> enclosure, unfortunately all the computers are racked and it would be
> >> half a day to extract one to make this test.
> >>> Have you experienced the 'delayed write failure' before?  What is it
> >> indicating?
> >>> Matt
> >>>
> >
> >
> >