collegeitdept wrote:… If do buy one of those SATA to USB things …
Anecdotally, I would not recommend Winstars Communicator C2 docking station (from Maplin Electronics and other distributors). Some people are very happy, but two other people I know have used the product (two of the stations shared between three people) and all three of us had sometimes poor results.
Maybe we three were simply unlucky with our choices of drive to use with the station. But (collegeitdept) as you have already had some bad luck, I hesitate before recommending the Communicator C2.
Drive hardware
… Where does the problem lie? The SATA connector within the drive, or USB within the external case?
Dunno, sorry.
To help other readers answer that question – assuming that we have pretty much ruled out everything except the drive and its firmware – for convenience:
grahamperrin wrote:… According to Western Digital, WDBACW0030HBK is the My Book Essential Edition 3 TB. …
– but there's still a problem with Western Digital's previously advertised page for the My Book Essential.
Drive firmware?
Considering the possibility of power surges etc. whilst writing in the past, I wonder whether reinstallation of firmware could help. Reinstallation might be not possible with the Mac hardware running OS X (see previous pages, viewtopic.php?p=2667#p2667 and earlier viewtopic.php?p=1352#p1352 in particular) but I have a hunch that a Windows-based attempt to reinstall firmware might succeed.
If my idea of reinstalling firmware seems loony to you … it's loosely based on a long ago unlucky experience with a carelessly handled LaCie device (under my devices with known imperfections or suspected issues).
(Don, is this too way off?)