External USB drives beeps a few times before spinning up

[Rick441]

I have a Hitachi Travelstar 2.5" drive in a small Nexstar enclosure that I used to back up some data -- AV, some documents, a few system images. I used it tonight for the first time in a year or two, to copy some files onto my Lenovo Thinkpad W530. When I plug the usb 2.0 min-cord into the Lenovo, the drive (or possibly the enclosure?) beeps a few times, and then it seems to spin up normally and works fine. It happens every time, and I don't recall it happening in the past (I suppose it's possible I just forgot, but I doubt it). The SMART data look fine. Haven't tried chkdsk. I don't see any errors or warnings in the Win7 event log. Any idea what may be causing this, and should I be concerned? Thanks.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Rick441!

I'd recommend you plug the HDD internally to see if the beeping will still be present. Another thing you could try is to use a simple SATA-to-USB cable to connect the drive via USB and check how its performance will be. If you have access to another PC/laptop, I'd suggest connecting the drive there as well to see if the noises will still be present. Either way, before proceeding with the troubleshooting, back up all important data from that externally-connected HDD somewhere else as well. This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss headaches.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Rick441]

Thanks for the suggestions SuperSoph_WD! I'll be able to try a different laptop within the next day or two, and also try out connecting the drive internally not long after that. Will let you know.

 

[Rick441]

Replaced the cheap-looking cord and haven't had any more start-up beeps in several tries. So it looks like the cord *may* have been the issue. The drive isn't making any other strange noises or exhibiting any other odd behavior, and chksdk (including for bad sectors) and SMART check out well. So I'll mark it solved for now. This isn't one of my key backup drives, and I have some redundancy in my backups anyway.