External hard drive freezes

[imported_jediknight]

I have a SATA hard drive connected via a USB2 enclosure to my desktop running Windows Vista SP1.

The problem I am experiencing - and this seems to have become a bit more frequent recently - is the drive will completely freeze. I am unable to access any files (windows explorer freezes - I still sometimes have a limited ability to browse the drive.. but this may be Windows doing some caching..) The activity indicator light on the enclosure will sometimes stay constantly on. This even prevents Windows from shutting down (my machine stayed "shutting down" for hours this morning.. before I turned the drive off manually).

Notes:
1) The drive is a 750GB Hitachi Deskstar
2) The enclosure is an Acomdata (hate this company, but I digress!) Samba.
3) I did not completely assemble the enclosure (was moving data from my old DOA desktop - and it's 4 hd's.. when I completed this process, I couldn't figure out how to put the enclosure back together properly.. and didn't bother). Since this freezing has occurred more recently of late, I wonder if something could be overheating?

I'm really not sure what the source of the problem is. Any help appreciated.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Yup, that's how mind died. It's damaged because of overheating.

 

[imported_jediknight]

Yikes.. this was what I was afraid of (worst case scenario).

OK, now.. how would I (not necessarily in this order):
1) Confirm the drive is dying b/c of overheating?
2) Backup all of the data (in a way that won't kill the drive completely before I get my data..)?
3) Prevent this from happening in the future?

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

If it is freezing up the pc, its a definite sign.

To backup the data, I would take the drive out of the external cage/case, run a cable to it from my motherboard, eg a SATA cable, find an extension power cord if you can't run one that will reach the drive, and place a fan by it to keep it cool while backing it up.

To prevent this from happening in the future? External drive cases are not a good solution for anything. After spending all my money on a nice case, the right interface, and a nice size drive to back my data up in; it all failed. F THAT I will never do that again. For my needs, I don't need to unplug the drive and take it to a friends to share files. What I do is simply keep the drive in the case and when I want to back up my data I just shut down the PC, turn off the PSU, unplug it, plug in the drive with the appropriate cord, reboot, back up my data, shut down, turn off the PSU, unplug it, unplug the drive...