External Hard Drive Failure!

[scouser75]

Hi Guys,

I need a bit of help with the following.

I have a 1TB GTech GRaid external hard drive, which seems to have gone on the blink.

When I start it up it spins into action but then following a small clicking sound winds back down again. It then spins up again, and then with a click winds back down again. This goes on and on and on...

What is the best way of hooking up the internals of this drive directly to the Mac Pro?

Or is there a better option to start the drive as it stands, without having to open it up?

 

[flatfoot]

Sounds like the HDDs don't get enough power to power up properly.

This happened to me twice with MacPower Taurus FW800 RAID-enclosures (similar to yours).
I'm pretty sure it's the crappy external PSU dying in your case, too. Try replacing that.

EDIT: To answer your question: The drives inside the enclosure are simple SATA drives. Just get them out and stuff them in two of your internal bays – or any external enclosure, for that matter. Note: This will only work when you're not using the enclosure's RAID functionality! If you're using it, you have to figure out what the problem is with the enclosure. As stated above, I'm pretty sure it's the power supply.

 

[Dr. Stealth]

"Click of Death"

It's possible that one of the Hard Drives itself has failed. The "Click of Death" has long been associated with a failed or failing drive. Pop the drives in your Mac and test thoroughly.

 

[flatfoot]

It's possible that one of the Hard Drives itself has failed. The "Click of Death" has long been associated with a failed or failing drive. Pop the drives in your Mac and test thoroughly.

He can't do that if the drives were configured as RAID by the enclosure. At least he must be careful he doesn't initialize them.

 

[scouser75]

The drives aren't configured as Raid. I just formatted as normal and used it for some FCP work and as a back-up of some old videos.

So, I should then be able to connect them directly to the Mac, right?

 

[flatfoot]

The drives aren't configured as Raid. I just formatted as normal and used it for some FCP work and as a back-up of some old videos.

So, I should then be able to connect them directly to the Mac, right?

Yes, that should work.

 

[micrors4racer]

You said you have a G-Raid. That means it is in JBOD mode or RAID 1. Unless theres a way of configuring a G-Raid as 2 individual drives that I don't know about.

 

[sternla]

The name of your external drive seems to indicate that it is a raid. Many external setups have 2 smaller drives in a raid 0, which makes 2 smaller drives appear as one big drive to your system. So, pulling the drives out and putting them in the mac would require reformatting and losing whatever data is on the disk. My bet is the 1 TB version has 2 x 500 GB drives. One of those may be failing. Not having seen one, they may also be using smaller laptop sized 2.5" drives which makes it a little harder to plug internally in your mac. You would need the proper carrier if that's the case. You may want a simple drop in usb carrier to test all this. You can get those for like $25.

 

[flatfoot]

You said you have a G-Raid. That means it is in JBOD mode or RAID 1. Unless theres a way of configuring a G-Raid as 2 individual drives that I don't know about.

@OP: Are the two drives in the enclosure displayed as two separate volumes on your Mac or as one? If the latter is the case, putting the drives directly into your Mac Pro won't work.

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The name of your external drive seems to indicate that it is a raid. Many external setups have 2 smaller drives in a raid 0, which makes 2 smaller drives appear as one big drive to your system. So, pulling the drives out and putting them in the mac would require reformatting and losing whatever data is on the disk. My bet is the 1 TB version has 2 x 500 GB drives. One of those may be failing. Not having seen one, they may also be using smaller laptop sized 2.5" drives which makes it a little harder to plug internally in your mac. You would need the proper carrier if that's the case. You may want a simple drop in usb carrier to test all this. You can get those for like $25.

If the drive are 2.5", you don't need a carrier for testing purposes, neither is it necessary to get a USB enclosure.

 

[scouser75]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Unfortunately, when the drive was working, when mounted it only showed up as 1 drive on my desktop

I may have to write off this drive and all its content.

A lesson learned that one back-up is not enough.

 

[flatfoot]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Unfortunately, when the drive was working, when mounted it only showed up as 1 drive on my desktop

I may have to write off this drive and all its content.

A lesson learned that one back-up is not enough.

Remember what I suggested above. Test the drive with a new power supply.

As I said, I had the exact same problem with a similar enclosure and it turned out that it was a faulty PSU.

 

[scouser75]

Remember what I suggested above. Test the drive with a new power supply.

As I said, I had the exact same problem with a similar enclosure and it turned out that it was a faulty PSU.

Thanks flatfoot. I have that as my first step of action