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I bought a 1 TB external hard drive (refurbished) from Newegg about a year ago during a big sale. I got a new computer so now I want to put it to use. I downloaded all my iTunes songs from the cloud to this external hard drive because I have over 500g in songs and my current HD is only 300g. Since downloading my songs, most of them when played sound like a cd is skipping, and some of them don't play at all. I downloaded some movies to the external hard drive as well and they are all pixelated when I play them.

I formatted the external drive and started again. Same problem.

My question: Is my external hard drive bad OR am I using it for the wrong reason and getting another external drive would produce the same results?

Bonus question: Would I be better off getting another internal sata drive and putting my music on it? I have done that before, but I felt my computer seemed slower after putting in another hard drive.

Im not sure exactly whats wrong, but I transfer thousands of MP3's as well as movies on and off of my 1TB drive without and problems.

Ok so it would seem my external hard drive is bad. That's what I am thinking, but I just wasn't sure if maybe I wasn't using the external hard drive the way it's meant to be used.

I forgot to mention I also put pictures on the external drive and when I go to view them, they are all screwed up - i.e. lines through pictures, discoloration, clipping

I put all of my music, kids pictures and family home movies on it, then put it back into my safe about once a month. I take it out to change music on my ipod, or to print pictures for my wife to scrapbook and I experience non of the problems you have. I connect it via USB. I cant remember the name brand of HD, but it is 1 TB and I bought it at Walmart 2 years ago if that helps.

It sounds to me like your digital data is getting corrupted. It's probably happening when it's being written to the external drive, but I would verify that it's not corrupted at the source if you haven't already.

good idea. I downloaded about 5gs of music to my internal hard drive and it works as it should. those same 5gs of music went to my external drive and now are all chopped up and whatnot.

One other random idea...

Try taking a folder of music

zip it

Transfer zipped folder to external harddrive

Unzip folder on external hard drive

what happens?

ok let me try that now.

same result. sounds fine on regular hard drive, zip transfer to external, unzip, listen - clipping

I assume it is a USB external drive.

Could be a streaming transfer issue, try a different USB port on the PC, also try a different cable.

Another idea (assuming the drive is no longer under warranty) is to remove the drive itself from the case and either put it inside the computer or get an external drive caddy/sled and see if the issue is the drive itself or the hardware interface in the case.

With all that said, it may be easier to buy a new drive.

Is it a usb? try a different port or cable

yes it is usb

i am trying a different port and cable atm. downloading a bunch of songs to test it.

Try copying one of the songs that sounds bad from the external hard drive to an internal hard drive on the computer. See how it sounds there. Maybe it sounds that way because the data transfer from the external is slow?

i tried that Cap and it still clips. I ordered a new external hard drive and we will see what happens. this time, i am going to try it as soon as i get it so i can return it if its actually my PC that is messed up.

to all the others: i tried a new cable and port, still same problem.

i have to think that since its a refurbished hard drive, the old problem it had has resurfaced

Is this a Windows system?

How is your computer hard drive formatted? How is the drive formatted?

Is the hard drive USB, USB2, USB3? How about the computer itself?

Is there software to install with the external drive that helps diagnose problems?

Did you format the drive yourself?

Have you copied the music to a thumb drive or something and tried to play from there? Do they play ok or are they choppy also?

One other thought....could it be a CODEC problem? Have you re-installed iTunes? Maybe one of the play components isn't correct?

Just brainstorming...

it was a fresh install of iTunes,

but also pictures and videos I saved to the external drive are all chopped up and whatnot as well. I can't save pics or videos to a thumb drive now because I have none on my internal drive and all the ones on my external one are already chopped up and discolored.

new external drive just arrived. got a Fantom 2 TB from amazon

I just downloaded two movies and 500 songs. All play fine. No problems. I am using same port and same USB cord, so now it is for certain it was the external drive.

Dug up this old topic because I have an issue, and didn't want to make a new topic....

My computer is stuck on the screen you get when you first turn it on. I have a powerspec PC which is the cheaper desktops that you can buy from Microcenter. I got it in 2008 and it's been extremely reliable.

I run Vista because that's what came on there.

I start up my computer, and it gets to the screen that says Powerspec, and intel (also press F2 for BIOS) but I can't run the BIOS and I can't get into safemode.

If this computer is toast, it's not the end of the world, because I feel I got my money's worth, and I can still pull my files off the harddrive.

Anyone that can offer anything, I greatly appreciate!

Well, without the BIOS, a computer is generally a paperweight.

However, you can try downloading an updated BIOS for the motherboard from the manufacturer's website, (if you get really lucky there will be one there, or there might be a link to find one) and hope that there is enough left to boot from the CD/DVD or floppy. (if from the dark ages, and so equipped) It probably won't boot to the CD/DVD drive, but it's worth a try anyway.

If not, then you can try just taking everything apart and making sure that all of the cables are tight. It shouldn't make a difference ..... but I have seen lots of times where :shouldn't have" turned into fixed with these damn machines from hell.

Other than that, I'm out of ideas. It's been too long that I've been out of the tech game, and I have tried to forget everything I once knew for the sake of my own sanity.

I cracked open the computer and turned it on, made sure everything was where it was supposed to be.

You know how when a computer starts and boots you get that plane taking off sound? It totally doesn't do that. When it's stuck on that first screen, when I press the power button in to turn off, it immediately turns off, where normally, a hard shutdown takes a few seconds.

Sounds like your hard drive is not spinning up, that sounds somewhat like a plane taking off.

Serious problem with the hard drive could cause the PC to freeze, and be unable to enter BIOS.

Try pressing the F2 - Setup key much earlier. Also try waiting for an extended period, up to 15 minutes. You may be able to enter the keystroke before the freeze occurs, also the PC may eventually determine there is a drive problem and proceed.

Next step is to disconnect the two cables on the hard drive, be marginally careful and no damage or harm can result. High odds the PC will enter BIOS normally.

Try a different power connector, on a different lead from the Power Supply if possible. High odds the hard drive is dead.

Recovery method would involve first testing in another PC or with a different power supply, but most likely would need an IDENTICAL working drive. Not hard to do, but somewhat delicate with some risk to the second drive.

Additional PC test would be to boot with a windows CD, what is called a Live CD, for other testing, but most likely the PC is fine and it's the drive.

New drive less than $100, all software needs re-installed. Consider a new PC if in the budget.

Edit: The reason the shutdown is immediate rather than delayed is that there is no operating system responding to the command. The power button is no longer really an on-off switch, it sends a shutdown command to Windows, which has work to do before it shuts down. No OS loaded, the command goes directly to BIOS, which has no work to do.

May want to check the battery. Motherboard have a small CR2032 battery to maintain BIOS data when not powered. Ihave only seen a couple actually wear out, but some really odd things happened when it did.

I should also note that about a year ago, I took apart my external hard drive, because I hated the extra wire (one of the older models that needs AC plug in) and made into an internal drive.

Worked well and good until about 2 months ago, when it started to disappear on me from time to time. I use it for music and movies, and sometimes, I'd hop on the PC and try and play music, and it would tell me it can't find the file. It seemed to always come back if I did a cold shut down and restart.

I got a bit scared it would disappear on me forever, so I dragged all my music onto the main hard drive. Does that have anything to do with it? If i disconnect the extra hard drive and just use one, will I have no issues?

I doubt it, because it sounds like your not getting past POST, not to say that something may be up with the connection to that drive, but it should just time out and not recognize it after a minute or so and go on, but according to your post it never gets past the BIOS boot.

How long have you waited, the delay could easily go beyond 1-2 minutes.

No problem in disconnecting the 2nd drive, worst case scenario is your swap file is there, some slowdown but no permanent damage. Some PCs may pause a while trying to detect the second drive, just wait and see what happens. You could go into the BIOS and disable the second connection, but usually not really necessary.

Disconnecting the secondary drive, knowing it has been a problem in the past, definitely absolutely take the 30 seconds needed to do it and test.

Also worth trying to listen very closely to both drives, as in put your ear ON it or hold it in your hand while powering up. If holding it, gently and slightly rotate your hand. You should feel the gyroscopic force of the spinning platters, or you can hear it on quieter drives with your ear on it. My guess would be that the bad drive is the one that made the louder "spin up" noise. They all do it, some are just fairly quiet. Not definitely an indicator of problem but occasionally failing to recognize is. Being loud and then really quiet is definitely a bad sign.

Important question, are these SATA or PATA cable? Data cable less than an inch wide or more than? PATA drives can be on same cable with a Master or Slave jumper which must be changed if drive is added or removed. SATA drives there is no interaction on that level between the two drives.

I waited 10-15 minutes to try and get the BIOS but nothing. I'm gonna try switching connections with the hard drive when I get home.

Like I said, I was on the fence about getting a new laptop anyway, so this is no big thing. Plus this thing is 5 years, it was about 500 bucks, and it worked like a charm up until yesterday. I definitely feel like I got my money's worth.

The only thing I am worried about is pulling files off the hard drive. I do have a backup stashed away with music that I saved from probably a month or 2 ago.

Pictures are all on my cloud which is no worry. I have some Browns and Ohio State games saved on there, but for the most part, there is nothing crucial on this computer that could be lost forever.

I seriously appreciate all of you guys helping. If you have anything else to add please keep doing so.

Also, if you have any recommendations for a new laptop, I'm all ears, lol.

I'd out my money on the CPU fan not spinning up.

If it powers on, stays there for only a few seconds, but you are actually getting some stuff onscreen up to that point, then it shuts itself off.... then yeah, I bet on the CPU fan being dead and it is doing a self-preservation thing on overheat.

The "doesn't sound like a jet spinning up" comment backs this up.



Crack open the case and watch the fans... the one on the motherboard likely isn't connected, or it just won't spin.

Ahh, my bad... I thought I had read up above that it went to that screen and then shut off. Ooops.


Disconnect ALL drives - both power and data cables, then try to power up again. You should then at least get an error message on screen.

Check the composite drives included in your C++ mainframe. Are they properly formatted (see total packet error log SQL)?

If they are properly formatted, then my recommendation would be to rewire the Hadoop setting by pressing F12 and F5 simultaneously along with the number "8" on the number pad.

If they are not properly formatted (you will know because of the significant erosion of calculus and tungsten wiring beneath the cross-hatch boolean feeder), then you will need to purchase a 8.4" USB cable that will connect directly into the "smart-tech" located on the back of your PC.

Here's the update.

I disconnected the additional hard drive that I had convered myself. Computer started up as normal.

Is that drive toast, or can i somehow be fixed?

Have you checked the ball bearings?

Try hooking it all back up, but make sure you have good, solid connections.

If these are older ATA drives (with the wide-ass gray data cables), then ensure that you have your drives properly set as far as 'Master', 'Slave', 'Auto'. This was always configured via a jumper on the back of the drive near the data connection.

If they are newer SATA drives (more likely these days), then simply make sure that the cables are connected properly and that both drives have power. Perhaps try a different power connector for the "new" drive.

If you do all of that and the thing still hangs, then there is a very real possibility that the drive is hosed, but you'd be best served to try to put it into someone else's system and try to boot first. You could also try putting the drive into an external USB drive enclosure and try connecting the drive to the system with that AFTER you boot up.

Yeah, it's definitely SATA.

If it's gone, it's not a big deal, because the important things on there are backed up.

That's what I thought would happen.

Try the different power options I suggested. Also, do the mentioned noise and gyroscope tests to verify that the drive is indeed not spinning up. After that, the only real option is to swap the electronics board on the bottom of the drive with another, identical drive. Just a few screws and a delicate Mylar cable, the Mylar is a bit tricky. This usually works in these conditions, but not always.

Not really worth it if you already have the data.

Yeah i reconnected that second drive while the computer was still on. The disc makes an initial startup noise for 1-2 seconds. Then dies out.

I pulled the disc out, and will try using it as an enclosure.

Man I'm really glad I dragged all my music over last week. I have most of it backed up, but there's probably a good 2-3 gigs that I have added since the last backup.

Although I have this computer up and running, I think I'm still gonna look around. I live 10 minutes from a Microcenter so I can check out a lot of different options.

Strong odds there is nothing wrong other than the bad drive. Everything points to that.

The fact that it does spin up briefly does make the problem somewhat more likely to be internal and not a problem with the external board, but replacing this board is still a good option for recovery.

Again, if data is backed up, not really worth it as you would at best have one working and one broken drive.

Verify you connected the suspect drive WHILE THE PC WAS POWERED ON???

BAD idea, do NOT do this again.