Weird External HDD trouble

[chanchan05]

So I have a weird problem with my external HDD. Some files are easily accessed, while some, well wont let me even copy them They give me "source file cannot be read"errors. Also when disk checkers and AVs come across these files, they stop.

 

[Yami]

Sounds like the drive is on its way out - I highly suggest you back up anything you want to make sure you keep.

 

[chanchan05]

Well that's kind of the problem. I'm having to download files like 1 by 1 from the HDD since I cant copy them en masse since whenever they reach the "error files", they stop and everything stops responding (and I'm talking about like 300gb of files to move). Although it may also be because of other errors since I was prompted once that I need to format the drive.

Also I noticed something about the SATA to USB switch notification lights.



For some reason the light gets stuck at the icon that looks like a printer. Whenever its there, the reading of data stops and the disk stops responding. But in the few times it goes to the floppy looking icon, it works normally. And it works only for some files, while on others it does not.

 

[MindoverMaster]

can you possibly take the drive out of the external and connect it internally? If this stops the errors, it is the controller board on the external that is causing the problem.

 

[chanchan05]

No, since I have a laptop and I have no SATA cables running around. I'm thinking of probably buying one of them cheap China enclosures (there's a store here that sells these for around $4), would that be enough to test?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Maybe so. Won't be bad to try.

 

[chanchan05]

Ok, I'll get to that tomorrow and see.

 

[95BlackGA]

Ok, I'll get to that tomorrow and see.

What model is the external drive? I see it's Toshiba. How old is the drive? Does it have any sort of S.M.A.R.T. features? You can use PCWizard to determine whether or not it does. This will give you a good determination on whether or not it's the hard drive at fault, or the enclosure (includes the usb controller board).

Honestly, it does sound like it's failing. Be that the drive is dying or if it's got corrupted information on it. (Corrupted information could also mean the drive is prematurely failing, as mine did the exact same thing.)

 

[chanchan05]

I dont know what model it is. My dad gave it to me in late 2008. Its already packaged as an external HDD by ROCO.

Anyway, I had this thing being transferred between a Win7 desktop and a Vista Laptop. I am hoping that its just the switch with a problem. It could also be something like the problem I experienced with my memcard a few weeks back. The Vista laptop and my phone stopped reading the card after it was stuck a few times in the Win7 desktop and only a reformat on the Win7 fixed it for all units.

I'll just be testing the hard drive itself when I get the new enclosure/switch.

Actually I'm just hoping that its a switch case so I can just transfer the impt files into my PC and format the **** thing.