Did My New Laptop Corrupt My External Hard Drive?

L[Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 18:18
Last edited 11/02/2024 - 22:21 by 1 other user

Hi, I'm looking for some help, hoping someone here has seen this issue before and can guide me in the next steps to follow.

Old laptop runs Windows 7.
New laptop runs Windows 11.

I plugged my USB WD 2TB HDD into my new laptop, it said there's some errors to repair. No problem, it's happened a few times on my old laptop. Okay, all good. I transfer 120GB onto my new laptop. I deleted a small portion of files, empty recycle bin. I unplug it, correctly through windows.

I plug into old laptop, it read it as only 3GB space available. I check, and files not deleted but I assume it's maybe reading a memory of the HDD?

So I try delete files again, and nothing…just loads. I unplug correctly, put into new computer and says it can't read as some corrupted files. I plug into old laptop, says I need to format to use disk.

I'm just shocked, the simple act of using a new laptop could cause some changes to affect the HDD.

My basic understanding I can run something like CHKDSK to repair? My new laptop still picks up HDD, it loads and it's running when plugged it.

It's very upsetting and I'm not techy savvy but I'm not tech dumb. It was just meant to be a simple transfer. I appreciate any help or guidance from tech savvy super members on here.

What options, or what should I do? I'm hoping it's a simple fix.

Thank you.

Computing Computer Computer Peripheral External Hard Drive Laptop

Comments

  • FoxJump on 11/02/2024 - 18:31
    +1

    welcome to having more than one backup
    also, try photo rec
    https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
    your hdd is toast.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 18:35

      I should buy an extra 10TB to back up my 10TB of HDD?

      Why is my HDD toast? Does this mean any HDD I plug into different windows laptop is going to automatically toast my HDD?

      Thank you for the software recommendation, I will look into it.

      • scrimshaw on 11/02/2024 - 18:44
        +4

        The hard drive was likely to be unhealthy to begin with. If your laptop had previously asked you to scan and fix problems with the drive, those repair attempts occurred because it detected bad blocks on it, which is usually a sign of impending failure.

        You can usually find out about drive health by looking at its SMART data which is basically a log of what the drive did during its lifetime. (software such as HDD Sentinel can monitor it)

        • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 18:45

          After the simple error repairs, like 2 minutes it was working fine.

          • scrimshaw on 11/02/2024 - 19:00
            +13

            @[Deactivated]: The "repair" is misleading, it's not really fixing any issue, more like marking the bad sectors on the drive as unusable and preventing the Os from using these bad sectors when it needs to write more data to it. These are called reallocated sectors when you view them in SMART data.

            Flawed anology: This is like having pot holes in the roads in your suburb but instead of patching the broken road they just put traffic cones in front so that people know not to walk or ride over it. The pot holes forever remain though and nothing was really repaired.

            • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 19:00

              @scrimshaw: Okay, thank you.

        • HeWhoKnows on 12/02/2024 - 07:42

          CrystalDiskInfo

          • Sinnerator on 12/02/2024 - 08:37

            @HeWhoKnows: LOL
            My HDD was physically dying and sick and coughing and spluttering and vomitting and shitting it's pants BUT crystaldiskinfo was still reporting at 100% health

            • HeWhoKnows on 15/02/2024 - 07:45
              +2

              @Sinnerator: CrystaldiskInfo (FREE) just reads the Smart data stored on the disk.
              m just poiting out you dont need anything fancy to do this.

  • AndyC1 on 11/02/2024 - 18:40

    What exactly was then " it said there's some errors to repair.". What did you to when the error dialog with the some error showed on the screen?

    Any HDD that an OS detects an error on with should only be used to read data from it and never write to it until you have extracted all of the data off it.

    No simple fix, Google "HDD recovery" and have a good read about trying to recover data from the HDD.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 18:47

      Sometimes this happens if I'm using it with the TV, and say power cuts out.

      Windows when I plug it in, will say it needs to repair some errors.

      It fixed it within a few minutes, and then I used the drive like normal. It worked just fine on my new laptop, I used it to transfer files which yes are on my new laptop.

      I didn't write any new data on the HDD. I transferred data off it onto laptop SSD.

      This happened 2 days ago, I can't remember the exact thing it said when I plugged it into my new laptop for the first time. I figured, because I'm plugging it into a new laptop and needed to clean something up to be able to read it.

      Like when I plugged it into my friend's LG TV, I found an LG folder with files inside it.

      • AndyC1 on 11/02/2024 - 21:04

        So you had no idea exactly what windows said the error was?

        So you "deleted a small portion of files" from your new laptop?

        • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 21:06

          I can't remember and I would never delete any files.

          I actually thought it was just because I connected it to a newer laptop, it needed to do something.

          As I mentioned below, the hard drive is working through my media box. I can watch movies, open photos.

          The hard drive itself seems to be working, I'm not sure what happened between using it on my new laptop and then connecting it back to the windows 7 laptop.

  • tritty on 11/02/2024 - 18:51
    +5

    I work in data recovery. When a drive is failing physically it will begin having trouble reading some parts of the disk. Windows isn’t designed to diagnose hard drives that are failing physically, it will interpret any data that it can’t read as a software problem, and prompt with what it can to try to help to fix it, such as running check disk. But the thing to remember is software based solutions (such as check disk) cannot address physical issues with the drive, such as the disk surface beginning to wear out.

    Also a failing drive will quickly deteriorate further, so it wasn’t the laptop that corrupted the drive, it was just the internal physical problems of the drive getting worse. It will most likely need data recovery hardware to recover. If you’re in Perth, let me know, I can help.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 18:59

      The hard drive still boots up, then you laptop says it can't read it due to some corrupted files.

      The old laptop asks me to format it to use it.

      That doesn't sound like a hardware issue to me, even if it's on the way out.

      The hard drive was working fine on my new laptop, after I fixed the errors.

      I've used this external hard drive for a very long time, It's never missed a beat and yes, perhaps it could be on its way out but it really hasn't showed me any signs of that.

      I just figured they would be some form of hard drive repair software you could run, I figured maybe between the laptops something happened.

      I will probably try software for recovery, there's no point paying someone considering the prices I've seen online cost more than five times the price of a new hard drive.

      Thanks for the offer tho, if it had important files on it I'd probably go down that path. I can't even remember if anything important is on it :/

      • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 11/02/2024 - 19:25
        +1

        perhaps it could be on its way out but it really hasn't showed me any signs of that.

        it said there's some errors to repair. No problem, it's happened a few times on my old laptop.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 20:46

    UPDATE.

    I thought to myself, let me plug this into my media box for my TV.

    Hard drive loaded, folders opened up.

    I can see everything that's on my hard drive, so it doesn't look like it's a hardware fault.

    I found step by step guides that I'm going to follow.

    https://www.diskpart.com/articles/my-external-hard-drive-say…

    At least now I can view my hard drive, see if there's any important data I really need to save.

    I'm not sure why I'm getting the errors, like I said the hard drive does boot up.

    I found it very odd that switching between two laptops caused this error, as odd as I'm sure everyone on here also probably thinks.

    I'm not sure what it is, but hopefully one of the steps can fix it.

  • GordonD on 11/02/2024 - 21:28
    +1

    Windows 10 always says there's a problem with external media from Windows 7. And wants to fix it. And thinks it has. But that's as far as the problem usually goes.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2024 - 21:31

      So it's common? Any idea on the fix?

      • Loopholio on 12/02/2024 - 09:31
        +1

        There isn't a fix. Based on the information you have provided, the drive is dieing. The errors you see are caused by a physical issue within the drive. Backup what you can and replace the drive.

        Plugging a drive into various TVs and computers should do no harm. The next time you see an error like this, backup then check the drive for errors.

  • jv on 12/02/2024 - 00:16

    https://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

    • Loopholio on 12/02/2024 - 09:26

      I don't know of anyone who has used this software and I doubt it's useful today. From memory, Gibson is full of profanity. If any nerds are around I would like to hear your opinion.

      • jv on 12/02/2024 - 09:28

        I don't know of anyone who has used this software

        That's because you don't know me…

        I've used it to recover quite a few disks over the years.

      • jv on 12/02/2024 - 09:29

        From memory, Gibson is full of profanity.

        You are thinking of the wrong person it appears.

  • kiitos on 12/02/2024 - 09:45

    What media box do you have? What file system is the HDD formatted as?

    • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2024 - 11:57

      Roku?

      No idea, I've always used it on my laptop(Windows 7).

      I just plugged it into my HP Windows 11, weather it was error or a file system adjustment it did I can't recall. I transferred files off it, then went to plug back into other Windows 7 laptop and the issues began.

      So ATM, hard drive works through Roku.
      Windows 11 laptop reads it, as in it shows a drive but won't open due to file corruption.
      Windows 7 laptop says it needs to format for use.

      :/

      • Loopholio on 12/02/2024 - 12:04

        When you say works through Roku, are you able to play all of the files? You could try playing one video in each folder for a few seconds.

        • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2024 - 12:28
          +1

          I mean, do I have 20,000 hours to play every file?

          I played a few movies, I went through various folders and everything seemed to work.

          Roku has to load the whole drive, and index's.

          The main folder is the largest full of movies, probably 1TB and it loaded fine.

          The filed I transferred off, they were educational programs. I downloaded them a long time ago, never watched them.

          I mean it's clear that the drive is not faulty, if it's working through my media player and even playing one file than part of the drive is still okay.

          Obviously a loading problem with both laptops, I could probably try and find a third computer and see if it reads?

          I mean my current takeaway is. At the very least I should be able to do hard drive recovery, save the important files and just reformat the drive? But at some stage this week I will run the step-by-step guides, look into the websites members have provided for me, which I'm very appreciative for and hopefully it's just a sector error or something?

          • Loopholio on 12/02/2024 - 13:57
            +1

            @[Deactivated]: Very strange that it works in Roku but not on two PCs. That's a puzzle for sure.

            Yep, backup anything you care about and put it on another drive. You can try reformatting the drive after the backup.

            I have recently checked two 1TB drives I bought at a povo shop for $1 each. Both came out fine, although one disconnected (I suspect a dodgy cable) on the first format.

            Here is what I did, keep in mind this isn't nessary and will put a lot of strain on the drive. I recommend keeping a fan on it while doing these tests. Open CMD and run chkdsk with the switches /f /r /b. For details on how to do this look here.

            After I did this I ran a program called H2testw. This is meant for flash drives but works for mechanicals too. Again, long test and cooling is recommended.

            • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2024 - 14:14

              @Loopholio: Thank you.

              I don't think I can save anything through Roku, I'd have to run recovery software.

              I'm not sure if I should run Chkdsk first or recovery software.

              I honestly just feel like some sector must have an error, as in plugging into Windows 11 just of changed index or something. It's just odd that this happened at all, I know people blame hardware failure or old HDD etc

  • Webber000 on 12/02/2024 - 18:53

    I've had usb HDD fail like this just using the same computer, I always figured it was a sign the drive was on its way out.
    I can recommend "Active Uneraser" from LSoft Technologies should you find that it stops working completely and you need to recover stuff.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2024 - 19:21

      Thank you

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