Problem with Ximeta enclosure

[bigsury]

I have had a Ximeta 120Gb drive on my two computers (Dell 8400) running smoothly for the last 3 years. Encouraged by this fact, I bought a Maxtor 500Gb drive and Ximeta enclosure in December. The drive connects without any problems but within a day loses connection, especially after my computer goes to sleep. No matter how much I reset it does not connect. Only option is to turn off the Ximeta power and switch it on. The Ximeta120Gb has absolutely no problems. I contacted Ximeta and sent my unit back and they resent a new unit. The new unit is even worse. It cannot hold it for more than 15 minutes. Initially I formatted it as a single partition and thinking that is some how too big, repartitioned to 4 125Gb partitions and still no luck. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

with best regards,
Sury

[Paul Komski]

More specific details about the enclosure could be helpful. USB, eSATA, ethenet, etc and does its firmware support large drives? Also turn disk caching off if it is turned on.

[bigsury]

My mistake. I should have included that in the first place. I am using the enclosure in NAS mode (ethernet) connected to a 10/100/1000 switch. The disk is ATA disk from Maxtor with Parallel cable (P-ATA?). Firmware supports large drives from what I could gather. The Ximeta tech. guys though very helpful and professional did not have problems testing my enclosure along with the drive (I sent them both the enclosure and the drive).
Forgive my ignorance, how do I turn off the disk caching?

with best regards,
Sury

[Paul Komski]

how do I turn off the disk caching?
Run devmgmt.msc or otherwise open Device Manager.

Expand Disk Drives and RClick on the Maxtor. Then choose Properties and then Policies. There should be two options. The one for performance is the one with caching. It that is enabled switch to the one for quick removal.

I am not experienced with using ethernet access to hard drives so if there were an alternative method of accessing the enclosure it might help pin things down. I must say I suspect some network setting that gets affected by "sleep" but I'm not sure how best to test this out.

[bigsury]

Paul,
The disk caching was on quick removal already.

with best regards,
Sury

[Paul Komski]

If you could try using its USB port that might be help sort out if it is the NDAS technology via Ethernet or the HDD itself where the root of the problem lies.

Unlike NAS (which you indicated was the mode being used by you) NDAS is patented by Ximeta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Direct_Attached_Storage), doesn't use TCP/IP and there seems to be very little information about it.

I suspect that it may only be Ximeta that can identify where the problem lies but they obviously think a 500GB Maxtor should be compatible and it obviously is "for a while" - which is the strange thing about it only happening with the larger hard drive. Sorry to not be able to come up with any good solution. Some of the networking gurus might have some ideas so I will move this thread to that section of the forums.

[bigsury]

Paul,
Thank you. I tried the USB connection last night. So far the connection is stable and it is behaving the expected way. I have also forwarded this finding to Ximeta too.

with best regards,
Sury

[Colombia blues]

Hello Paul Komsky. I was reading this thread and was wondering if you could help me out with a problem related to a Ximeta NDAS 200gb hard drive I have? We have between 3 to 8 computers attached at any time. WE have a combination of XP home edition users and Vista home editions. We run the hard drive through a Trendnet TEW-432BRP wireless router. The whole system can work without problems for a week or so and then we have problems for several days in a row. The most common problems are that several computers will not be given permission to mount R/W. The error message says that the system is not set up to have multiple R/W users. Or (and this is especially for the wireless computers) the hard drive shows "offline." During all these problems the internet connection still works fine so the router is working. I simply cannot figure out where the communication problem is. And why it happens once in a while.

[mjc]

Colombia blues,

Please start your own thread on the topic, do not hijack an existing thread...

[Paul Komski]

As I stated above I have little experience with ethernet enabled hard drives and the "solution" above was to use a USB connection. You too could do this and setup a shared folder on the drive for everyone to access while that PC was turned-on. I don't even know how or if the network settings can be altered on the drive. I would contact Ximeta and/or do as mjc suggested and post a brand new question, with any exact messages about R/W etc. Possibly the network access is limited to a defined number of users. New threads are more likely to attract the attention any Networking Gurus.

[Colombia blues]

Sorry for the invasion of the thread. Not intentional. Lack of experience in these spaces. Thanks for the suggestions.

I will start a new thread.