HELP: External 250G USB screwed with GParted

[Ed Greshko]

Craig White wrote:
> On Mon, 2008-01-21 at 15:22 -0500, Lamar Owen wrote:
>> On Monday 21 January 2008, Craig White wrote:
>>> The guy from tech
>>> support told me that he was unconcerned and that if the cable appeared
>>> to be undamaged, it in all likelihood wasn't the problem and that in his
>>> view, all commercially available USB device cables (6 foot and less)
>>> were suitable for using with their USB 2.0 drives.
>>> I have seen nothing to disprove that statement, either from my own
>>> experience nor even the anecdotal experience of others. Only Tim's
>>> theories and Tim is long on theories.
>>
>> There was a slip of paper in the box with my 80GB WD PassPort drive that 
>> warned to always use the supplied cable, and that the drive might not work 
>> with other cables, and to not use extensions.  My own experience trying to 
>> use another cable, one that was the same length but had been supplied with a 
>> USB multi-card reader (SanDisk branded), indicated that this was in fact 
>> true, as the PassPort did not spin up with the SanDisk USB 2.0 cable, but 
>> would with the supplied WD cable.
>>
>> Please see 
>> http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1336&p_created=1112290978&p_sid=cVO3XkWi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Mjk2LDI5NiZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1zdXBwbGllZCBjYWJsZQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
>> and 
>> http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1297&p_created=1102368573&p_sid=cVO3XkWi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9Mjk2LDI5NiZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1zdXBwbGllZCBjYWJsZQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1
> ----
> the cable that they suggested not to use was a specific type of cable
> that doesn't use normal shielding.
> 
> But thanks...you did find a cable that didn't work properly. What do you
> suppose was the problem with the cable that didn't work properly?

Gee....are you saying "Tim was right"?