Hi, first off, having read through MacNN Forum's category descriptions, I saw that this section was reserved for internal hardware, such as internal hard drives. I could not find a section for external hard drives and thus have concluded that this section provides the best choice in terms of relevancy for this topic.
Second, my father has an OWC Neptune firewire 80 GB external hard drive that went from working fine with minimal wear and tear, no dents, drops, or kicks, to not being recognized on any computer (and perhaps sounding a little different when powering on the device) with minimal wear and tear, no dents, drops, or kicks.
I have my own OWC Neptune, identical model (although I do not recall if our internal hard drives are the same, but otherwise the buffer speeds, number of sectors, etc. are), which I have scratched to hell trying to find the Firewire ports... I've bumped my power supply well and long enough rewiring my setup, etc. and have used the drive for months/years, even with Time Machine. My hard drive has no connectivity problems. In turning on my hard drive, there is the initial hard drive connection (acoustic of 220 Hz) buzz, then the 5-second spin-up to full speed, and then the clicking sounds of the hard drive to mount the drive. The full-speed harmonic resonance is a B (acoustic of ≈ 120 Hz). The blue LED is pretty to observe.
My father's (damaged?) hard drive, identical model, is not recognized by any computer, i.e., a sleeping computer will not even wake when the connected drive is switched on/off. The problem seems to be with the drive itself. In turning on his hard drive, the initial connection buzz has a slightly higher frequency (acoustic of 230 Hz, A sharp), the spin-up takes only 4 seconds and tops off at the end for an extra ≈ 0.7 seconds before the clicking begins, there is also a very short, scratchy error-like tone at the end of the spin-up, and the full-speed harmonic is a slightly higher B (acoustic of ≈ 125 Hz). Sometimes, in addition to the blue LED, a red LED will flash quickly over the blue once or twice, either during the start-up process, or even if I fiddle around with the power cable.
Disconnecting the Firewire cable, opening up the case, and using just the power supply results in the same behavior.
I do not have a second power supply at the moment. I have no idea if the power supply is delivering too much power or if it is still operating normally.
I have already looked inside the case of the Neptune... I do not see anything that needs fastening. The hard drive also looks solid and in tact, and the wires are stiff as usual. The ribbon connectors are also stiff and fastened, and the power jack looks fine. Our power supply reads "DC OUTPUT: +12V/3A" and on the back of the hard drive case, a 12V DC connection is a stated requirement.
At this point, I cannot determine if this is a software issue or a hardware issue. This issue did not exist before backing up data from other computers whose hard drives were erased. Shortly after, the issue simply appeared.
What's going on??
OWC Neptune
80 GB Hitachi
Firewire
Computer-independent issue
This issue is apparently the result of a bridgeboard failure (whatever that means). OWC tech. has answered this question.
Topic closed now.
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