external HDD(Caddy) problems

  Hi Guys,
have an external HDD in a USB Caddy, built the computer around 5 months ago
and everything was going ok,  when I shut down (WinXP SP2),
it seems to close down ok, but the next time I boot the computer up, I have
started getting the message , the external HDD(Caddy), didn't shut down
correctly and it does a scan for problems but never finds anything.  The HDD
is a IDE type a WD3200 Caviar SE
Any ideas with this problem please guys, help appreciated
Thanks and Regards
Bob

 
Does this problem manifest itself if you manually unmount the drive
before shut down (the "Safely remove ..." thing in the system tray)?
Windows should perform equivalent actions before a shut down so it
_shouldn't_ make any difference but stranger things have happened.

If OTOH Windows won't let you remove the disk that is potentially
where your problem lies.  What have you got on the drive?  If you
have programs running from it they will prevent the disk from being
unmounted.  Same goes for any open documents.  In theory these
should all be closed down as part of the shut down process before
the disk is unmounted, but this is the kind of thing that Windows
is often lousy at.  Low level stuff such as virus scanners (and
possibly malware) are the most likely culprits.

--
Andrew Smallshaw
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org

 
BH2 wrote:


It is always a good idea to shut down the external USB drive by using
the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon. This will flush the cache, resulting
in an orderly shut down of the external hard drive. Windows is treating
the external HD just like any other HD and doing otherwise can result in
corruption of the HD.

 Thanks for the advice guys
Regards
Bob