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I don't keep my SimpleTech SimpleDrive Pininfarina 500 GB USB external hard drive (which I've taken to calling my Time Machine drive) plugged into my production PowerBook all the time. For one thing, I need the USB port for a variety of other things, for instance the microphone I'm using to dictate this column, some drivers for transferring files, and so forth. And yes, I do have a four-port USB hub plugged into the PowerBook's other USB port and it's oversubscribed as well. For another, I don't like listening to the loud 7400 RPM 3.5" Maxtor drive spooling up and down, which it does if it's left plugged in and Time Machine is activated.
However, I do fairly frequent Time Machine backups, and also backup my data to the hard drive of another PowerBook as well. So, Tuesday evening when I plugged in the SimpleDrive to do a routine Time Machine Run, instead of chattering energetically as it normally does upon mounting, it just made some feeble and pathetic clicks and grunts, and after twenty or thirty seconds, the dreaded "this disc is unrecognizable by this computer" dialog sheet appeared.
This had never happened before in the two years that I've been using this drive (which I like a bunch; it's sooo cool-looking and has worked flawlessly up till this week), and while two years is not an insignificant passage of time, the drive has only been used for backups on a periodic basis, so the number of hours is pretty low. Anyway, I tried removing the cable and replugging it several times, to no avail.
I launched Disk Utility, which was able to see the drive, and recognized it as a 500 MB unit, but no details as to content, and the Verify and Repair buttons in Disk First Aid remained greyed out. Figuring that I had little to lose at this point ( there was nothing important on the drive but Time Machine backups, which would be recoverable if I could get it working again, I attempted to erase and repartition the drive. That caused Disk Utility to crash. Twice. it wasn't even able to properly eject the disk, so I was obliged to unceremoniously cut the power and pull the cable out.
I tried plugging the drive into another PowerBook to see if the issue might have been with my workhorse machine's system or possibly that overworked USB port, but it wouldn't mount on the second computer either. This was all more than passing strange. While everything has to start sometime, there hadn't even been a hint of trouble the last time I had used the drive. However, it was beginning to seem probable that perhaps the hard drive unit had failed, which had happened to me once before some years ago with a Fujitsu 2.5-inch hard drive in an external FireWire housing with less than 50 hours on it.
On the other hand, there was still a possibility that it was something else and some more thorough diagnostics were in order. I decided that since the SimpleDrive is well out of warranty, I had little to lose and popping it open, which happily turned out to be quite easy requiring the removal of just four easily accessed Philips machine screws and a bit of judicious prying to snap the case halves apart. Thumbs-up to the SimpleDrive folks for making the unit user-serviceable (so to speak) using ordinary tools. I love stuff that is easy to take apart (and put back together).
I removed the drive from the housing and connected it to my handy Daystar/XLR8 AnyDrive USB 2.0 Adapter, which has the happy facility of being able to connect virtually any 2.5", 3.5" or 5" ATA or SATA hard drive to Macs or PCs via USB.
I can't recommend this extremely useful and relatively inexpensive unit highly enough. Anyway, I connected the power supply and plugged the drive into the PowerBook and it spun right up and mounted without hesitation or drama whatsoever.
Okay, it evidently wasn't the drive itself, which was a relief, So perhaps it was the cable. I reinstalled the hard drive in the SimpleDrive housing, and connected it using the USB cable from my printer. Again, it powered up and mounted normally. Was it the cable? Apparently not, since when I tried it again with its own cable, it was working fine now with that as well.
I was of course happy, but perplexed. This sort of mysterious fault can make you tear your hair in frustration if it recurs. I did a Time Machine backup run, and that went completely smoothly as well.
So what was the problem previously? The thing to do in this sort of situation is to try and remember if any even slightly unusual occurrence comes to mind. I don't as a rule pack the SimpleDrive around from place to place much, but I do keep it in a computer messenger bag for storage, and I now recalled that the day before I had picked up the case upside down, and the drive fell to the top with a noticeable thump. It wasn't a hard bump like being dropped on the floor, and it was inside a generously padded computer case, but then I further recalled that when I opened up the SimpleDrive housing, the large multi-pin ATA connector plug had popped loose. My assumption was that it got disconnected as I separated the case halves,and I didn't really think much of it at the time, but upon further reflection and deduction I've come up with a provisional theory as to what might have initiated this chain of events.
It's possible that when the SimpleDrive shifted inside the computer messenger bag, the ATA connector, which might possibly have not been inserted securely at the factory, may have been jarred loose, resulting in only partial electrical contact and data transfer when I connected the drive. If that is indeed what has happened, it got "fixed" when I reinstalled the hard drive in the housing and plugged the multi-pin connector in properly.
We shall see. If the problem doesn't recur, it would be an indication that my hypothesis is correct, and that this was all just one of those weird glitches that crop up from time to time to keep life life from getting dull.
Charles W. Moore
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