I have a HP Compaq Presario C700 laptop OS Win7 Home 32bit. I have a 250gb Sata HDD in a external usb case connected (that is my D: hard drive were I store things) to 1 port of and acitive (powered) USB hub. Also connect to the USP hub is a RTL 24mhz to I think 1.2 ghz dongle and my b/w laser printer, and a external USB case with an optical cd drive in it. The USB hub is connected to one of the USB ports on my laptop. Everything works fine except when there is RF energy in the room. It doesn’t matter what the source is. Ea my Icon IC-730, Baofeng UV-5RA ht, any one of the frs ht’s that I have, the cb ht’s or if I am working on a radio.
My whole computer system is immune to the RF energy except for the 250gb HDD in the external USB case. Every time there is any RF energy in the air (except for the small amount that my MFJ-269 antenna analyzer puts out). The 250gb HDD goes nuts. It acts like R2D2 on speed. It makes all kinds of noise, stops working and Windows flashes that the HDD needs to be reformated. When I kill the RF source. Unplug the HDD from the USB port and it’s 5vdc power source. Let it sit for a few seconds powered down. Then do a normal power up (plug in the 5vdc 1st) then the USB cable. The HDD is fine again.
I need to know if there is any ideas on some kind of a shield that I can buy or build to protect the HDD in it’s case so the RF energy can’t get to the HDD? Right now if I am doing any thing that will generate any RF energy, I have to power down the HDD to protect the prog’s and files stored on it.
By the way cell phones and wireless phones don’t bother the HDD. If I need to use my backup ISP because, Frontier Communications, my primary ISP, is down. The backup ISP doesn’t effect the HDD either. My backup ISP is via my cell phone. I have it rigged to to supply internet to my laptop via the USB cable. It isn’t much faster then dialup but it is better then no internet period.
Steve