music on external hard drive skips

i have 1.04 tb free of 1.81 tb on a seagate external and just recently my music has started skipping

i know it's not the mp3s because this never happened when i had 2 500gb western digital mybooks

is this unavoidable/terminal? or can i do something about it as you can imagine it's quite good (not)

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:32 AM, chassis said:

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

 

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

thanks & no, i haven't tried either of those techniques

i thought maybe i just needed to restart my computer

seems to skip worst when i'm also writing to the disk

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:34 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:32 AM, chassis said:

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

 

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

 

thanks & no, i haven't tried either of those techniques

i thought maybe i just needed to restart my computer

seems to skip worst when i'm also writing to the disk

So it has problems when you try to read from and write to the same device at the same time?

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:40 AM, Hautlle said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:34 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:32 AM, chassis said:

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

 

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

 

thanks & no, i haven't tried either of those techniques

i thought maybe i just needed to restart my computer

seems to skip worst when i'm also writing to the disk

 

So it has problems when you try to read from and write to the same device at the same time?

affirmative

you could try increasing the audio buffer in whatever app you're using. it might not be possible if you're using something lame like itunes, but i know winamp will do it.

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:42 AM, chaosmachine said:

you could try increasing the audio buffer in whatever app you're using. it might not be possible if you're using something lame like itunes, but i know winamp will do it.

thanks; i use foobar2000 (dunno what version), could you tell me how to do it there? or i'll just google it

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:42 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:40 AM, Hautlle said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:34 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:32 AM, chassis said:

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

 

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

 

thanks & no, i haven't tried either of those techniques

i thought maybe i just needed to restart my computer

seems to skip worst when i'm also writing to the disk

 

So it has problems when you try to read from and write to the same device at the same time?

 

affirmative

He's implying that its retarded to do. But as long as theyre not massive files you should be ok.

Does it have dual usb? It probably should for such a big HD.

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:44 AM, chassis said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:42 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:40 AM, Hautlle said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:34 AM, tht tne said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:32 AM, chassis said:

OMG bro, I have a seagate.

 

Anyway stupid question but have you tried:

-changing usb ports

-changing usb cables

?

 

thanks & no, i haven't tried either of those techniques

i thought maybe i just needed to restart my computer

seems to skip worst when i'm also writing to the disk

 

So it has problems when you try to read from and write to the same device at the same time?

 

affirmative

He's implying that its retarded to do. But as long as theyre not massive files you should be ok.

 

Does it have dual usb? It probably should for such a big HD.

ok nice to know that guy is a dick, i don't know if it has dual usb i just want to listen to music

I wasn't trying to be a dick but... You do know how hard drives work right? What you're trying to do would be like me having you write down a list of items while you're reading another list back to me, and you can only read or write at any given time. Add the fact that the HDD is probably USB 2.0 and that makes the problem bigger because of the smaller throughput than an internal SATA drive or whatever.

i didn't read all of the replys but if it's not a multimedia external,

i wouldn't recommend streaming any multimedia off it.

if my music started skipping all of the sudden off my external harddrive i would back it up immediately. but i've had like 5 hard drive crashes in my time and lost a lot of stuff, the paranoia causes me to backup frequently.

  On 4/18/2010 at 2:09 AM, sonny said:

i didn't read all of the replys but if it's not a multimedia external,

i wouldn't recommend streaming any multimedia off it.

Well except for I stream all my music and video from external drives and it works fine. So I have no idea what you're talking about ....

Yeah as Awepittance says 'skipping' drives is the first sign of them going down the shitter real soon....

  On 4/18/2010 at 1:34 AM, Hautlle said:

I wasn't trying to be a dick but... You do know how hard drives work right? What you're trying to do would be like me having you write down a list of items while you're reading another list back to me, and you can only read or write at any given time. Add the fact that the HDD is probably USB 2.0 and that makes the problem bigger because of the smaller throughput than an internal SATA drive or whatever.

i do this on my hard drives all the time with no skipping issues, maybe if i was trying to stream movies it would start skipping but not from simple mp3 playback. Most usb 2.0 drives at 5400 rpm are very capable of being able to do simple read /write at the same time without coughing

in other words: BACK UP YOUR SHIT

don't post in my threads, xxx

  On 4/18/2010 at 2:11 AM, Awepittance said:

paranoia causes me to backup frequently.

your not alone. i do a secondary back-up on dvd of all my most sensitive material.

  On 4/18/2010 at 2:49 AM, Awepittance said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 1:34 AM, Hautlle said:

I wasn't trying to be a dick but... You do know how hard drives work right? What you're trying to do would be like me having you write down a list of items while you're reading another list back to me, and you can only read or write at any given time. Add the fact that the HDD is probably USB 2.0 and that makes the problem bigger because of the smaller throughput than an internal SATA drive or whatever.

 

i do this on my hard drives all the time with no skipping issues, maybe if i was trying to stream movies it would start skipping but not from simple mp3 playback. Most usb 2.0 drives at 5400 rpm are very capable of being able to do simple read /write at the same time without coughing

 

in other words: BACK UP YOUR SHIT

correct me if i'm wrong, someone, but i wasn't aware of hard drives having multiple read/write heads that operate independently of each other. having cracked a few hard drives open myself, i know that it's pretty impossible for a hard drive to read data from the beginning of the drive while simultaneously writing data to the middle of the drive.

as far as a solution to the problem? just a simple defrag may help alleviate the problem. but it is usually a good idea not to read and write data at the same time.

  On 4/18/2010 at 2:09 AM, sonny said:

i didn't read all of the replys but if it's not a multimedia external,

i wouldn't recommend streaming any multimedia off it.

But its plugged into a computer

That mutimedia thing is only for Tv's and Xbox's.

  On 4/18/2010 at 12:06 PM, oscillik said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 2:49 AM, Awepittance said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 1:34 AM, Hautlle said:

I wasn't trying to be a dick but... You do know how hard drives work right? What you're trying to do would be like me having you write down a list of items while you're reading another list back to me, and you can only read or write at any given time. Add the fact that the HDD is probably USB 2.0 and that makes the problem bigger because of the smaller throughput than an internal SATA drive or whatever.

 

i do this on my hard drives all the time with no skipping issues, maybe if i was trying to stream movies it would start skipping but not from simple mp3 playback. Most usb 2.0 drives at 5400 rpm are very capable of being able to do simple read /write at the same time without coughing

 

in other words: BACK UP YOUR SHIT

correct me if i'm wrong, someone, but i wasn't aware of hard drives having multiple read/write heads that operate independently of each other. having cracked a few hard drives open myself, i know that it's pretty impossible for a hard drive to read data from the beginning of the drive while simultaneously writing data to the middle of the drive.

 

as far as a solution to the problem? just a simple defrag may help alleviate the problem. but it is usually a good idea not to read and write data at the same time.

Ok this was pissing me off cause I KNOW I've written stuff to my HD while playing music. I just put an album from my computer to the hard drive while listening to music and no problems.

Like I said though, I only do it with small amounts of files.

  On 4/18/2010 at 3:24 PM, chassis said:

Ok this was pissing me off cause I KNOW I've written stuff to my HD while playing music. I just put an album from my computer to the hard drive while listening to music and no problems.

 

Like I said though, I only do it with small amounts of files.

it must've been saving the files to a memory buffer or something and then writing the data afterwards - it is physically impossible to write data at the end of the drive if you're reading data from the beginning of the drive. i'm just quoting the laws of physics here

  On 4/18/2010 at 3:38 PM, oscillik said:

it must've been saving the files to a memory buffer or something and then writing the data afterwards - it is physically impossible to write data at the end of the drive if you're reading data from the beginning of the drive. i'm just quoting the laws of physics here

Drives can read and write "at once" without any problem. In reality, they're just bouncing back and forth between different sectors fast enough to keep up with multiple operations.

The average hard drive can jump between two sections of the disk in under 10ms (this is called seek time). It's no problem for a disk to read a few kb of the track you're listening to into the audio player's buffer and decompress a huge zip file at the same time.

  On 4/18/2010 at 3:59 PM, chaosmachine said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 3:38 PM, oscillik said:

it must've been saving the files to a memory buffer or something and then writing the data afterwards - it is physically impossible to write data at the end of the drive if you're reading data from the beginning of the drive. i'm just quoting the laws of physics here

 

Drives can read and write "at once" without any problem. In reality, they're just bouncing back and forth between different sectors fast enough to keep up with multiple operations.

 

The average hard drive can jump between two sections of the disk in under 10ms (this is called seek time). It's no problem for a disk to read a few kb of the track you're listening to into the audio player's buffer and decompress a huge zip file at the same time.

so you're just confirming what i said - it is physically impossible for one drive head to be in two places at once

  On 4/18/2010 at 4:02 PM, oscillik said:

so you're just confirming what i said - it is physically impossible for one drive head to be in two places at once

It's true, but that has no bearing on the ability of the drive to read and write to multiple files at the same time.

Here's a cool demonstration of just how fast hard drives really are.

[youtubehd]jbqPBcMVARE[/youtubehd]

The movement is so fast the arm literally appears to be in multiple places at once.

  Quote

i know that it's pretty impossible for a hard drive to read data from the beginning of the drive while simultaneously writing data to the middle of the drive.

I guess it really depends on what your definition of simultaneous is. It's definitely simultaneous from the user's perspective. From a physical perspective, obviously the arm is only in one place at once. Again, this has no bearing on how many files a hard drive can read and write to at once. Drives are sufficiently fast enough to read and write many files simultaneously. It should, for the most part, cause no problems for the user.

  On 4/18/2010 at 4:07 PM, chaosmachine said:

  On 4/18/2010 at 4:02 PM, oscillik said:

so you're just confirming what i said - it is physically impossible for one drive head to be in two places at once

 

It's true, but that has no bearing on the ability of the drive to read and write to multiple files at the same time.

 

Here's a cool demonstration of just how fast hard drives really are.

 

[youtubehd]jbqPBcMVARE[/youtubehd]

 

The movement is so fast the arm literally appears to be in multiple places at once.

 

  Quote

i know that it's pretty impossible for a hard drive to read data from the beginning of the drive while simultaneously writing data to the middle of the drive.

 

I guess it really depends on what your definition of simultaneous is. It's definitely simultaneous from the user's perspective. From a physical perspective, obviously the arm is only in one place at once. Again, this has no bearing on how many files a hard drive can read and write to at once. Drives are sufficiently fast enough to read and write many files simultaneously, it should, for the most part, cause no problems for the user.

flawless victory!

i only get that crackly skip now and then, but im almost certain thats due to a soundcard problem which i have had since the beginning of time.