Raspberry Pi 4 WD Elements 4TB external drive clicking from HDD

npolite · August 22, 2021 at 1:23 PM

Hi All,

At first I thought I had a failing external drive as it starting clicking and being all around sluggish in 9.2.8 on my Raspberry Pi 4. I took the drive and put it in my PC, using HDD Sentinel the drive is 100% with no reallocated sectors. I took the drive and fired up my old 3b and no issues. The only difference is the power brick and cable. I'm waiting on a microUSB to USB C converter but for now I have an Anker USB type C cable going into a iPad wall charger. So it appears that it's something with the 4 build or hardware related.. I also tried both USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports and getting the same issue. Has anyone seen this issue?

Thanks

noggin · August 22, 2021 at 3:51 PM

This sounds like a power supply issue. In my experience you get ticking from 2.5" external drives when the power supply isn't quite up to it. I always had to use a powered USB hub to feed 4TB drives from my Pi 4B (I now used a Celeron box with my 4TB drive), as the stock Pi supply wasn't quite able to provide enough power.

**Klojum** · August 22, 2021 at 5:33 PM Official Post

The WD Elements 4TB external drive will have its own power adapter, simply use it.

Lots of (RPi) power adapters are simply not capable of their advertised potential.

npolite · August 22, 2021 at 6:20 PM

Quote from Klojum

The WD Elements 4TB external drive will have its own power adapter, simply use it.
Lots of (RPi) power adapters are simply not capable of their advertised potential.

Sorry I should have stated this a portable. If it was a 3.5" I don't think it could even spin the drive up off of USB power.

npolite · August 22, 2021 at 7:00 PM

Quote from noggin

This sounds like a power supply issue. In my experience you get ticking from 2.5" external drives when the power supply isn't quite up to it. I always had to use a powered USB hub to feed 4TB drives from my Pi 4B (I now used a Celeron box with my 4TB drive), as the stock Pi supply wasn't quite able to provide enough power.

I was able to find my Chromebook charger which is 1.4A and that seems to work. I will get a higher rated power brick.

Thanks for your help.

**Klojum** · August 22, 2021 at 9:11 PM Official Post

The RPi 4B requires at least a 3 Amp adapter, and 3.5+ Amps when USB devices are connected.

ghtester · August 22, 2021 at 9:50 PM

Please note RPi 4B has a low power limit on USB ports so even though the power supply (connected to RPi) is strong enough, the external HDD (powered by USB port only) might not work. Use the USB hub with external power supply or a fork USB cable (allowing to connect an external power supply).

Mario77 · August 23, 2021 at 12:39 AM

Quote from ghtester

Please note RPi 4B has a low power limit on USB ports so even though the power supply (connected to RPi) is strong enough, the external HDD (powered by USB port only) might not work. Use the USB hub with external power supply or a fork USB cable (allowing to connect an external power supply).

ghtester

Raspberry Pi 4 once again, just as it’s predecessors, delivers 1.2A max to all USB connectors.

Meaning, since USB 3.0 needs a max of 900mA and USB 2.0 max. 500mA,at max power you can either use ONE USB 3.0 port or TWO USB 2.0 ports.

ghtester · August 23, 2021 at 6:15 PM

Quote from Mario77

Raspberry Pi 4 once again, just as it’s predecessors, delivers 1.2A max to all USB connectors.

Thanks for the remark, this is an information which I could not find anywhere. Based on practical experiences with RPi 4B, perhaps these limits are more strict than on many other hosts with USB 2.0 / USB 3.0 ports as my old 2,5" HDD with USB/SATA adapter, working on another hosts, did not work on any USB port of RPi 4B (I suppose there's a current peak at HDD startup - a homemade fork USB cable, with reconnected 5 V to power supply, did fix that).

Raspberry Pi 4 WD Elements 4TB external drive clicking from HDD

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