corrupted external hardrives
- Thread starter CoolKevin
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From what little I know most external harddrives suffer from inadequate cooling problems so to prevent future problems it is suggested that this be addressed.
http://www.grc.com/spinRite.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinRite
A few words on this product and its' creator:
Steve Gibson is one of the geniuses out there.
Spinrite comes highly recommended.
As far as freeware goes that is something I'd have to further look into, I assumed you wanted the best. If you read the Wiki article you might come up with some alternatives.
http://www.grc.com/spinRite.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpinRite
A few words on this product and its' creator:
Steve Gibson is one of the geniuses out there.
Spinrite comes highly recommended.
As far as freeware goes that is something I'd have to further look into, I assumed you wanted the best. If you read the Wiki article you might come up with some alternatives.
It would be very useful to know a little more if possible about what happened. Did you go to bed and wake up and nothing? Did you plug one drive in and blow a fuse? Did you restart your PC and no drive. There are myriad of troubles with external drives some very serious ad others no sweat. The more we know the better to evaluate the situation.
desioner
desioner
That is actually an excellent point, not just for this thread but to queries in the "Tech Support" area in general. There are a lot of helpful "oldtimers" here as well as a diverse selection of problem solvers who might be generous enough to help solve a particular problem based on their similar past experiences. If possible describing a problem in as much detail as possible will give you a much more reasonable answer as to how best to diagnose, fix, and prevent a problem from reoccurring again. This may be preferable to ferreting the problem out yourself and taking a guess as to the best possible solution and then seeking help. It is what "Tech Support" is all about.
Of course if you just want someone to just take a stab in the dark at a problem there are those of willing to do that too.
Thank you all for your comments
I have 2 lacie firewire connection hardrives,
my OS was xp home, When I tried to access a file a jpeg or avi, or various other files, I got a message up saying disk is corrupted, cannot read files
I have just bought a new pc, still running xp but professiomal version, I also bought a new external hardrive to put the corrupted files on
I hope this helps, thank you for your help
I have 2 lacie firewire connection hardrives,
my OS was xp home, When I tried to access a file a jpeg or avi, or various other files, I got a message up saying disk is corrupted, cannot read files
I have just bought a new pc, still running xp but professiomal version, I also bought a new external hardrive to put the corrupted files on
I hope this helps, thank you for your help
If you're just having trouble with a few files then there seems to be no problem with the drive itself. It's much easier for a file to become corrupt than a drive.
To help narrow the problem down I would recommend the following.
1: Open other files on the drive. If other files open fine then the problem is not the drive. If no files on the drive open then the problem is with the drive.
2: Copy the corrupted files to another drive and try to open them. If they don't open then the files them self are corrupt and should be deleted/re-downloaded. If the files open fine then there is some problem with the drive.
3: If you've determined that the files are fine and the drive is corrupted than you should backup what files you find to be ok. Then re-format the drive.
I hope this helps.
desioner
To help narrow the problem down I would recommend the following.
1: Open other files on the drive. If other files open fine then the problem is not the drive. If no files on the drive open then the problem is with the drive.
2: Copy the corrupted files to another drive and try to open them. If they don't open then the files them self are corrupt and should be deleted/re-downloaded. If the files open fine then there is some problem with the drive.
3: If you've determined that the files are fine and the drive is corrupted than you should backup what files you find to be ok. Then re-format the drive.
I hope this helps.
desioner
+1 for GetDataBack NTFS
General safe-practice tips for dealing with a (possibly) corrupt drive:
- Do not write anything to the drive. This includes coping files to the drive, or moving/deleting files from the drive. Any changes to an NTFS partition will make XP alter the file tables, and if the drive is indeed corrupt it could spread to other files.
- Test your drive using data recovery software. They use specific read-only access modes that will prevent XP from altering the file tables (as above).
- In particular with firewire drives on PCs, make sure your firewire drivers are up-to-date. XP may also require some hotfixes to correct any firewire device problems, so check that your Windows Update is current.
- If your drives also have USB ports, I would recommend switching to USB.
- If your drive is still under warranty, I would recommend backing up your data ASAP and seeing about getting a replacement device. Under normal usages, most companies should provide free replacements minus the cost of shipping -- some will also ship you the new drive first, allowing you to backup the defective drive, before you send the faulty one back.
I realize going as far as getting a replacement drive sounds like a big ordeal, but if the data is important to you then it's always best to play it safe. Ideally we would all sport RAID6 setups, but not everyone has the money for that. Fortunately most warranties cover drive replacements so please take advantage of them if you can.
Keep in mind, even though a drive has an advertised MTBF (mean time between failure), the number represents only the average time before failure for that particular model drive. That doesn't mean that the specific device that you received won't fail before then -- it could due to any number of uncontrollable factors.
It's also worth noting that MTBF applies to all drive makers. LaCie used to use Western Digital drive (whether they still do, I don't know). But a WD drive is no more or less likely to fail than a Seagate, Samsung, or Hitachi/IBM drive, etc. It all depends on your specific device -- luck of the draw. I've owned at least one of every brand of drive, and have had at least one of every brand fail before. My personal practice is to keep my data moving, buying a new/replacement drives every couple years before my current drives have a chance to start to fail.
Anecdotal evidence (second opinion): I previously had a firewire-only LaCie drive (d2, 250gb). A few years after using it, it suddenly started to give me lots of "Data Corruption, Windows was not able to write to the device, the data has been lost" error messages. Since it was already past its warranty period, I opened up the d2 case, disconnected the bare 3.5" drive, and hooked it up to a USB interface. Happily, I was able to use GetDataBack NTFS and recover all the files. I never did figure out if it was the firewire interface that was giving me problems or the bare hard drive itself; I got rid of both of them -- not worth risking data loss to know.
General safe-practice tips for dealing with a (possibly) corrupt drive:
- Do not write anything to the drive. This includes coping files to the drive, or moving/deleting files from the drive. Any changes to an NTFS partition will make XP alter the file tables, and if the drive is indeed corrupt it could spread to other files.
- Test your drive using data recovery software. They use specific read-only access modes that will prevent XP from altering the file tables (as above).
- In particular with firewire drives on PCs, make sure your firewire drivers are up-to-date. XP may also require some hotfixes to correct any firewire device problems, so check that your Windows Update is current.
- If your drives also have USB ports, I would recommend switching to USB.
- If your drive is still under warranty, I would recommend backing up your data ASAP and seeing about getting a replacement device. Under normal usages, most companies should provide free replacements minus the cost of shipping -- some will also ship you the new drive first, allowing you to backup the defective drive, before you send the faulty one back.
I realize going as far as getting a replacement drive sounds like a big ordeal, but if the data is important to you then it's always best to play it safe. Ideally we would all sport RAID6 setups, but not everyone has the money for that. Fortunately most warranties cover drive replacements so please take advantage of them if you can.
Keep in mind, even though a drive has an advertised MTBF (mean time between failure), the number represents only the average time before failure for that particular model drive. That doesn't mean that the specific device that you received won't fail before then -- it could due to any number of uncontrollable factors.
It's also worth noting that MTBF applies to all drive makers. LaCie used to use Western Digital drive (whether they still do, I don't know). But a WD drive is no more or less likely to fail than a Seagate, Samsung, or Hitachi/IBM drive, etc. It all depends on your specific device -- luck of the draw. I've owned at least one of every brand of drive, and have had at least one of every brand fail before. My personal practice is to keep my data moving, buying a new/replacement drives every couple years before my current drives have a chance to start to fail.
Anecdotal evidence (second opinion): I previously had a firewire-only LaCie drive (d2, 250gb). A few years after using it, it suddenly started to give me lots of "Data Corruption, Windows was not able to write to the device, the data has been lost" error messages. Since it was already past its warranty period, I opened up the d2 case, disconnected the bare 3.5" drive, and hooked it up to a USB interface. Happily, I was able to use GetDataBack NTFS and recover all the files. I never did figure out if it was the firewire interface that was giving me problems or the bare hard drive itself; I got rid of both of them -- not worth risking data loss to know.