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400 GB External HD - ridiculous playback issues

Last response: in Storage
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hello. i recently bought a Samsung HD400LD external drive. i have transferred about 105 gigs of media, mostly mp3's and video files from my internal HD to this here external one. it is connected via USB 2.0.

initially (for the first few days) i could playback both the music and moving image without any delay issues at all. now as of late i cannot even listen to a simple mp3, such as a 128kb file of nina simone. this is extremely painfull, especially to my ears, brain and wallet.

i've checked to make sure the drive is listed under the USB 2.0 enhanced host controller in the device manager - ACPI/PCI menu. it is. the drivers are fine too, apparently. i really don't understand it.

i've spent a lot of money on this drive, i bought it off ebay, and quite frankly i'm a little disenchanted. do you ppl know what i could do to solve this playback issue? it really shouldn't be happening, especially with a file of such a small size. thank you, any help is appreciated.

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Hi. The first thing you need to do is establish that your machine's USB is functioning correctly (it can be surprisingly tetchy). After you have tried the drive on various different USB ports, try using another device such as a USB flash drive and do a file transfer. After this use the Control Panel>System and locate then remove your computers USB. After you reboot it will detect and reinstall the appropriate drivers. If your drive (which I assume is either FAT32 or NTFS formatted) is mechanically sound, then it should work okay. Otherwise it might have some issues...

You can always try running a disk defrag and cleanup on the external and see if that makes a difference. And of course try it on another machine. If you get the same results then it is probably defective and I would get on to the person who sold you it.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

DC

Try using a drive speed tester (I think PC Wizard has one) to check the read/write times of the drive. Its possible that the drive may be highly fragmented or even beginning to fail. But its also possible that your computer is being bogged down by background programs or worse, spyware.

Like the other poster said, check it on another computer. Also, one of my external drives needs to have both USB plugs connected on one machine in order to work properly (one plug is for data transfer, and the 2nd plug is for additional power).

Because it worked fine at first, it could also be simply a bad cable.
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By default external hard drives are setup for "quick removal." There can be stuttering as the drive opens data, because it is not taking advantage of the hard drives cache.

Setting your drive to "Optimal Performance" may solve your issue.
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