WD MyBook Pro wouldn't start up with the computer...

[ceco]

I have another problem with my WD MyBook Pro (500 GB, connected via FireWire400 to notebook HP Compaq nx9005). WD states on its web site that these drives start-up and shut-down as the computer to which they are connected starts-up or shuts down. My drive, however tends to "flip a coin" to decide whether it

1.) will start normally;
2.) will spin-up but it will not be detected by WinXP (turning the drive off and back on solves the problem);
3.) will remain off as if I did not turn the computer on at all;

Shut down works correctly but the start-up behavior of the drive is really driving me crazy....

Im trying to search the web the find advice but I have not beeb successful so far.

Any ideas on this is happening? Thank you all.

 

[ceco]

One more thing - I use HDDHealth to view the S.M.A.R.T. info from my drives and the program says S.M.A.R.T. is disabled on this external drive. WD says on its web site that all their drives support S.M.A.R.T. Is there any reason why HDDHealth has no problem reading S.M.A.R.T. from my internal HDD but is unable to read the same info from the external drive?