Stuffed hard drive??

[boingo]

I've got a fairly new 160GB PATA (Not SATA) hard drive. Plugged directly into the PATA cable, it runs fine, but if I try to use it in my external hard drive enclosure, the hard drive starts to spin for just a few seconds before losing power, nearly stops spinning, then starts powering up again.
I haven't had any problems with the external enclosure with any other hard drives in it and am currently using an older 250GB hard drive in the enclosure.
I suspect perhaps the 160GB hard drive needs more power to run than the 250GB because I had to swap the USB cable to another port for the 250GB hard drive to work. Maybe the USB cable is stuffed and not letting enough power through.
Even if the USB cable is a bit dodgy and the 160GB needs more power to spin than the 250GB, that seems wrong because both hard drives are made by the same manufacturer.

Anyone got a clue what's going wrong?
Thanks in advance.

[franfran]

Stuffed hard drive??

Did you use breadcrumbs and herbs, or something a bit more substantial?

[cosmicB]

I had that problem of a drive with a mind of its own, on a garage sale tower, when the CPU was overheating from the heat-sink being totally plugged with dust.. but I didn't realize it in-time to prevent the CPU from self-destructing...

With that in mind, I would guess that your CPU can't handle the new drive..?
Or it isn't getting cooled properly..? Or the AC wires are crossing data wires..? Or "the frost is on the pumpkin, and the grass has stopped growing"..?

[kinkyslutlover]

Driving it via USB rather than IDE may need the jumper changed. Not an uncommon issue

Sean

[Obvious]

Could be power issue - do you have a double headed usb cable you can try ? ie 2 usb connectors on one end and one on the other ?

Plug the double headed end into 2 usb ports on your pc and the single connector on the other end into your drive. This way the drive can draw more power 500ma x 2.

If you screw a hard drive in too tight, it can stop it from working too - although it usually won't work at all ie not partially spin up like yours is doing.