Some issues with External Drive

Hello

I hope this is going right today, nothing seems working correct... :-\

Now, I got an 500 (officially 596 GB) GB hard drive from my dad.
I have it turned on now.
While I am busy doing things on my C:\ or D:\ drive, the HDD light of the 500 GB flashes every 2 seconds.
It is in G:\.
Do I need to do something, or can I just leave it alone?

The other issue is that the external drive is EXTREMELY slow (always has been).
Sometimes WMP gives an error that it can't load the file!
Also, playing games from Zylom on it isn't going to happen; "An error has occured in gamename.exe and it needs to be closed."
How can I fix this?
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And it's very hot.

I've turned it off

 

From my experience (I have several external hard drives-2 one tb hard drives and a 500gb ) I think I can solve some of those...

The HDD light will flash if there is activity in the drive, ethier an anto virus, or if music is being played from it...

Don't play/watch movies from your external, I find it makes them work a tad much more than they should (though in my 500gb's cases I don't care since I cbf'd placing all the movies and music on my ps3 but the drive will break down after awhile).

And your drive is listed as a 500gb...yet holds more-that doesn't sound right, a drive would hold LESS then the given number (my 500gb really holds 479 gb, all the system data etc goes into an unseen partician).

Your drive being slow...what format is it in?

fat32 can be a tad slow and can restrict files more than 4gb moving in and out of it, if it's in NFTS then it should be a tad faster and data transfer should be unrestricted

Sometimes the files in my externals don't run or extract, so I attempt to move them out of the drive to my pc THEN mess around with them (sometimes they don't want to move...so I spend 30mins making it work which it does...no idea why though...)


And same as music and movies-don't run games from your drive...I'm sure people will contest this but I believe the LESS work a drive does the longer it'll last.

Bonus tip 1-A good brand will preform better, all my drives are WD (western digital) which are an awesome brand

Bonus tip 2-Fat/fat32/exFAT are older formats for drives (and fat32 is only good for psp/ps3 connectivity/ds flash card use) so for pc use then make it NFTS (just use the pc and format it again-take note to get best results it'll take a few hours to format)

 

Added notes in bold.
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It is in FAT32, yes... Do I need to format?

EDIT: I cannot format it...

 

...

Could just be the fact that it's connected...i coulda sworn my lights on my external 500gb flash every moment or so when connected to my ps3 even though I'm not running anything...

Internal drives don't matter because they are designed like that (to actually run stuff), and it's more of a personal preference.

If your on vista/xp make sure you use the safe to remove button where possible...on 7 you lack such an option...just be sure to give it 30 seconds once you closed everything running on it.

Pc games use more power and resources to run dude than ds/emulated games-I still wouldn't run them on an external.


Now for the main 2 points...

Your brand I never heard of-if I saw it I wouldn't have bought it...even if cheap because cheap drives don't last long and can be hard to trust.


If you want it to run a tad better then yes, format the drive (none of that quick format crap ethier-a FULL format is needed).

Just move the stuff out to preserve it, and format (ask again if your not sure how )


It took me a week to get my 1tbset to go (all day and night to format 1tb, then the rest of the week trying to figure out what's wrong with some of my files which apparently had viruses ...all on a friends computer because my laptop doesn't have the needed space for 700gb's worth of junk )

 

I leaved it off for 10 mins and now it is as fast as hell, so...

And the light problem is also gone.

 

I'd still advising formatting it, though if your fine with the older fat32...


Also, is it usb charged or does it need an external power source ie plug in?

The way I see it, if an external is plugged in all day it get's VERY hot, and may affect performance, so I'd leave it unconnected were possible.


Saves power as well.

 

I turn it off with the switch on the back when not in use.

Also, it needs an external power source. Here's a photo of it:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=153097&id=100000325644710#!/photo.php?pid=153097&id=100000325644710

The red light you see it the one of HDD.
The blue light is that it is powered on.

 

I can't see the pics...your facebook is on private.

Right click on the pic-view picture, you should see nothing but the pic...send me that link.

 

And I'm using IE.

 

Try to format it, if the light keep flashing when there's no activity done from it,
it usually a virus.

and try to plug it from another slot.

 

Also an option. But I cannot format it!

Anyways, I'm powering off my PC now.

 

...that's one big o'l hard drive.

My 500gb can fit into my brother's little pant pockets :

...that could be it, viruses are always working...

Have you scanned it with an anti virus yoshi?

Explain why-can;t you send the files to your pc just for the moment/download the stuff that is easy to download.

 

Are there any errors pop out when you trying to format it?

 

Opps, forgot about that (now I remember why my mates keep laughing at my use of external drives...)


Though one mate reckons in the case of mine, the supplied power cable for my verbutim 1tb, the power supplied is too much (standard power-12v-he reckons it only needs 5 because the box tends to get to almost burning temperature...not that we can get a 5v power supply )

 

Yes.

"Windows cannot format the drive. Make sure no program is displaying the content of it and try again."

Yes there are... The one in front (that looks like a CD drive) and one small in the back.
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No I didn't, lets do that...
But I must unplug and replug it now.
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Hmm... While scanning it gives a weird sound...

Like "Kgg... Kgggggg... Vrrrrrrrrr..." and so on.

Scan done.

No result.

 

Did you install any OS into that external?

 

No.

 

Why cant you format the extrenal drive via Computer Management.If your external drive doesnt have an internal cooling fan,you can buy a case with one for around £10,and stick the HD in that.

 

Even a cheap one these days has some sort of fan unless it's usb powered, and those are tiny...generate soo small amount of heat...I can't feel anything in my 500gb connected to my ps3 which has been on for 7 hours now.