It went Ca-put. Maxtor External HDD.

[hailsontherocks]

3 days ago I plugged in my external into a USB hub to connect it to my laptop and be able to use a USB mouse and keyboard at the same time.

I was running music off it (My iTunes library is on my external) when I heard it make the "disconnected noise" and iTunes crashed.

I unplugged the device and plugged it back in and it came up with the following message:
"cannot read device
must be formatted first"

It didn't recognise a size or name for the device but it could read that it was a Maxtor.

I restarted the computer and the same problem kept re-occurring.

I tried to rebuild the NTFS as I thought it might haved Cr*ped itself while reading. But it kept coming back that it couldn't read any of the sectors....

now it has been unplugged for a day, I just plugged it in and it reads fine. Im not sure what the problem was, just wondering if anyone could help me out on what it was. I know that Maxtors have a high fail rate, is it time to get a new external?

Cheers for anyhelp

[techsheaven]

Are you using a powered, or un-powered hub (does the hub have a power adapter)? An un-powered hub splits the amperage of one USB port among all the devices you plug into it. You may be under-powering the external hard drive. A powered hub will supply full amperage to your devices.

http://www.usb.org/developers/docs/usb_20_021411.zip

[Rik from RCE]

It was most likely the hub at fault. You may have exceedit it's bandwith or amperage capability!

[hailsontherocks]

Yes, I believe it was the hubs fault. it is powered but it has never been perfect since day one. One of the Ports will constantly drop out! Thank you for your help.