2.5" HDDs in case with e-SATA connection refusing write commands

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Frenchie

Member
Oct 3, 2020
5
1
I have an old laptop that I keep to run Spinrite 6.1 because it has an e-SATA port. That allows me to physically mount 2.5" and 3.5" HDDs in an external case that also has an e-SATA port, and the drive appears to the BIOS as an internal HDD, so no special drivers are needed - perfect for using Spinrite when booted from a USB stick!

I have run a number of 3.5" drives on level 3 using this setup with no issues. Today I inserted 2 different 2.5" HDDs, (a 2TB Seagate and then a 1TB HGST), and both of them refused write commands from the very start. I can read and write to both drives using the same physical setup via Windows, but Spinrite throws command timeout and comm/cable errors when attempting both maintenance write and recovery rewrite commands. Both HDDs ran all the way through with no errors on level 2.

Any ideas what could be going on here?
 
Try one of the 3.5" HDDs again to make sure it's not something like a loose cable.
 
Any ideas what could be going on here?
Level 2 uses a transfer size of 1024 whereas Levels 3 and up will use a transfer size of 32768. That large transfer size can be too aggressive for some drives. Normally SpinRite will be able to throttle down the transfer rate to get a lower rate that works. However: The drive has to tolerate the higher rates long enough for SpinRite to throttle down to a lower rate that works. Your two 2.5" Drives are not doing that.

So . . . I would suggest trying the XFER command line token with smaller transfer sizes for a "gentler" approach. For example:
spinrite xfer 16384
spinrite xfer 8192
spinrite xfer 4096
spinrite xfer 2048
spinrite xfer 1024

1024 should obviously work as Level 2 used that successfully. But 2048 or 4096 might also work for better scan speeds without being too aggressive for those two 2.5" drives. 16384 and 8192 might still be too aggressive.
 
Level 2 uses a transfer size of 1024 whereas Levels 3 and up will use a transfer size of 32768. That large transfer size can be too aggressive for some drives. Normally SpinRite will be able to throttle down the transfer rate to get a lower rate that works. However: The drive has to tolerate the higher rates long enough for SpinRite to throttle down to a lower rate that works. Your two 2.5" Drives are not doing that.

So . . . I would suggest trying the XFER command line token with smaller transfer sizes for a "gentler" approach. For example:
spinrite xfer 16384
spinrite xfer 8192
spinrite xfer 4096
spinrite xfer 2048
spinrite xfer 1024

1024 should obviously work as Level 2 used that successfully. But 2048 or 4096 might also work for better scan speeds without being too aggressive for those two 2.5" drives. 16384 and 8192 might still be too aggressive.
Hey Dan - thank you. That would certainly explain the instantaneous response I seem to be getting. I am currently away from home for several weeks, meaning I won't be able to try this approach for a while. It is on my 'to do' list for when I get back.