🚀 go-pugleaf

"muzician21" <muzician21@yahoo.com> wrote in message 
news:807ac7a0-4fce-414a-a3db-f8884fef9bcc@f19g2000yqo.googlegroups.com...
> I've got this WD 500 gb Firewire  external My Book drive I've been
> using to store mostly video files for a big video project. It doesn't
> have an on/off switch,

Yes it does, the switch is on the rear panel, but.....

> it powers up when power is first applied, goes
> dormant after a period of inactivity and restarts when you try to
> access it. It's worked flawlessly until today.

If as implied, you are powering it from the firewire connection
then you are very lucky it ever powered up.
Clarify: The WD 500gb firewire drive would have been supplied
with it's own dedicated AC power unit, do you use that or is it
drawing(draining) it's power supply via firewire?

>
> Normally the blue light in front dances up and down during boot up as
> well as whenever there's data transfer but now I notice the light
> flashes briefly when power is first applied, the drive makes some
> noise like it's starting to spool up but then shuts down. The couple
> of h/d's I've had die in the past gave me some warning, made weird
> clicking noises for a while before crapping out. This one was working
> perfectly normally until now. I wouldn't think overheating would be an
> issue with this drive, the case is extensively vented unlike most
> external drives I've seen. It doesn't get used that much.

Plenty of recent threads on externally connected HDD's, did you read
any of them?
The simple steps first:
Have you checked Device Manager to see if the drive is flagged as
problematic - exclaimation or questionmarks?
There is nothing in your post to indicate operating system, but your
google groups post indicates XP in headers, so...
Do you have the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon on display in the
notification area or taskbar? If not:
RIGHT click in the area
A dialog appears "Customize Notifications"
Scroll and locate "Safely Remove Hardware"
Use the drop down to select "Always Show"
Click the OK buttons and close that dialog
The icon is now available and use it to remove the Firewire drive.
Then goto Device Manager and UNInstall the firewire drive.
Do NOT uninstall any associated software that came bundled
with the drive - leave all that installed.
Shut down your computer.
Disconnect the firewire drive.
Find, purchase, steal a dedicated power supply for your firewire drive.
Restart your PC without the firewire drive DISconnected
Download and install WD diagnostic tool (firwire version):
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Western-Digital-Data-Lifeguard-Diagnostics.shtml
Fully shut down your computer
Reconnect the WD 500gb firewire HDD with it powered from a dedicated
power supply.
Restart your PC.
Windows "Found new hardware" wizard will detect the connected
firewire HDD and will correctly reinstall it.
Check in "MyComputer" that it has beed assigned a drive letter.
Check in Device Manager that it is not flagged with an
Exclaimation or Questionmark.
Now run WD's diagnostic tool which will check it's health and
try to repair any problems found.