Lost Video Island

Im1oftheOceanic6 · Expert Vidder Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 3705

For about a week now my portable hard-drive has been acting up. I plugged it in one morning last week to set up for a vid and it never turned on (the light was blinking, but my computer never acknowledged it). So I unplugged it and this time it came up saying it was installing a new device but it failed. So I unplugged it again. The third time I plugged it in it came on like normal. Although in the midst of using it that time, it did go off for a moment before it turned itself back on, threw the prompt box (the thing that asks if I want to play it, open files, import, etc) back up, made me pick an option and then went on like normal.

For the last week it has alternated between trying to install itself and failing or coming on perfectly fine. Today I got a message that said it had malfunctioned and to try again. When I plugged it in the second time it was fine.

I've backed up all the media on it because I'm pretty sure it is dying. I kind of think half the issues I've been having with Vegas throwing me out all the time are actually because of it.

What I don't understand is what happened to it. It has been getting slower about coming on for the last several months but I thought maybe it was just because of the amount of media on it. Though really it isn't that full given how much data it can hold. It has suffered no physical damage: I've never dropped it, gotten it wet, shocked it, etc.The only thing I could think of was that it is about 2- 3 years old now. Do they just wear out? I even tried a different USB port to be sure it wasn't just that port messing up.

Is there anything I can do to prolong it's life? Could it be just the connecting cord itself? Or is it pretty much a lost cause now? It just has me stumped as to what is happening since sometimes it acts up and sometimes it acts like nothing is wrong.

Macaila

tjmack1986 · Expert Vidder Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 3436

Did you happen to format the external hard drive? That can cause the computer to reject it.

Im1oftheOceanic6 · Expert Vidder Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 3705

No, I'm pretty sure I didn't format it. When I transfered stuff to my backup drive it asked me to format that one and I clicked no because I was pretty sure that would make it so I couldn't change things. I don't recall it ever asking me to format the one that is messing up. Good to know it will reject it if I format it.

About two days ago it would not come on at all, but yesterday it came on quickly. It's the weirdest thing.

Macaila