new hardware woes

[pellucid]

I've been thinking for a while that I need to invest in an external hard drive, so the other day I went to Best Buy and bought a SimpleTech SimpleDrive 500 GB external hard drive. There was no research or forethought into which one to buy; it was the one on sale

Comments

[cnidarian]

I'm pretty clueless when it comes to these things and when I bought one I plugged it in and it's been fine ever since (about 2 years ago). SO my conclusion is it's broken, take it back. It also sounds familiar - when my ex bought his he got it cheap from the states and it used to chug to itself for no apparent reason and play up. He sent it back - maybe it got damaged in transit - and they replaced it.

But, I'm probably not the best person to ask... *shrug*

[pellucid]

I'm sure I will end up just taking it back--Best Buy is usually quite good about these things. It's just frustrating! I don't exactly have loads of extra time on my hands for such errands.

[danceswithwords]

The only troubleshooting step I can think of is to try reformatting it. But it rather sounds like a hardware issue; sometimes you just get a bum drive.

[pellucid]

I tried reformatting it, and that didn't help, so yes, I think it must just be a bum drive. Not the end of the world, since Best Buy has always been good about returns and such, but still rather annoying. Oh technology!

didja try

[anonymous]

plugging into a different USB port? Sometimes these things (ports) get a little banged up with Ipods and thumb drives being inserted and removed over and over and...