Building External Hard Drive (Time Crunch)

physicsCU

Hey,

I bought a Western Digital hard drive to put into an enclosure. I have an HP pavilion zv5000 notebook.

I have no idea what jumper setting on the hard drive I should use. Should I leave it as cable select, move it to master, or call tech support?

The box from the enclosure says master. The hard drive's manual says if you are unsure, move it to master.

Opinions?

so-crates

If it is the only drive on the IDE channel (which is probably the case if you have only one drive) then you set the jumper to master. If it is the second drive, you would set it to slave.

Cable select will render the drive inaccessible.

graphic7

No, cable select must be set if the drive is the only drive on the channel. This is some "bug", "thing", etc. that only Western Digital drives must have as far as I know.

physicsCU

Actually, I removed the jumper shunt, setting the drive to master and it works just fine.

Been using it all of today with no problems. Done all the normal testing, shut down, removing from power.

btw, how long does the battery in a hard drive last?

Pengwuino

Hard drives dont have batteries (unless maybe a small, unaccessable battery used for keeping some info alive... except you'd expect those to be non-volatile)

If you have an external inclosure, its either taking power from a seperate power cord or the USB cord that the external inclosure is connected with

physicsCU

I guess since I am taking it on a plane, I am worried about losing my data. Should I buy a battery pack or something to keep my data intact? I tried unplugging it today for a little while, about 10 minutes and didn't lose anything.

Or should i plug into my computer? Only problem there is that the computer is in a seperate compartment. So the cord would be sticking out.

And should i leave the drive in my bag going through the x-ray machine at the airport?

Pengwuino

The hard drive doesnt have a battery that will go out in under... a few years at the least. Just keep it unplugged and hand it to the attendant and ask for it to be hand-checked or something because your afraid hte detectors might do something to it. I highly doubt they would... but im sure they would do a manual check instead.

physicsCU

Thanks for the answers!!!

Yes, I just need a battery to keep data intact, planning on sleeping/reading on the flight.

I will certainly pass the drive to a screener. Shouldn't be too busy on a Monday.

But as long as my data is intact, I am happy.

gnome

Don't worry about batteries. The hard drive in a desktop computer doesn't lose data when the computer is unplugged. The hard drive in your laptop doesn't lose data when it is unplugged -- even if you remove the laptop's battery. So your external hd will do just fine.

Also, don't worry if they put it through the xray machine. Laptops go through those machines all the time with no problem.

chroot

Hard drives are non-volatile storage. They record information in patterns of the magnetic field on a ferromagnetic platter. They do not need any kind of battery to keep the information intact.

- Warren