Strange External HDD Issue

[finakechi]

Heya folks!

First time on this forum, hope you all can help me out here. I recently upgraded both my PC to Windows 8 Pro (64bit). Now before I did this I copied a lot of files to an external HDD.

It is a 1TB disk in a Rocketfish USB 3.0 enclosure.

Now before I did this upgrade this drive was working fine.

After the installations were done I noticed that my main PC was freezing up alot. At first I thought I had done something by updating the BIOS, but I noticed I started having the same issues when I connected the drive to my laptop as well.

Here is the issue, basically the drive will mount and I can oped the root of it. I can see all the files, but if I try to open and files/folders it freezes up Windows Explorer and I usually have to reboot the PC as nothing will respond.

I tried connecting it to my iMac with similar results.

I ran a Check Disk on it and it found no errors.

I am at a loss, I would really like to recover this drive as it is almost entirely filled with data (930GB out of 1TB).

Any help is appreciated!

And thanks in advance.

[MANEMAN]

Hi there. Welcome.

Assuming that the main PC, the laptop, and the iMac are all working properly without the 1TB drive connected, and that drivers and other necessary updates are in position on all operating systems, it would seem to point to a read error when using the external drive.

Now before I did this I copied a lot of files to an external HDD.

Now before I did this upgrade this drive was working fine.

The one constant unchanged here then would seem to be the iMac ?

(A.) It could read files on the external drive before "you copied a lot of files"

(B.) It could not read files on the external drive after "you copied a lot of files."

(C.) It can perhaps be concluded that if by using the iMac native operating system to read the external drive gives a negative condition also, the Windows 8 upgrade cannot be the problem.

If the iMac native operating system could read the external hard drive without the similar freezing, you could of course retrieve your files.

Conclusion:

The external drive cannot be read by at least two differing operating systems.

Write errors were probably produced when copying files, resulting in corrupted files.

Write error / corruption has caused a read error resulting in a probable cyclical deadly embrace "Hang" situation.

When copying lots of files and folders to an external drive either by eSATA or USB do not put your trust in the Windows file copier. Super Copier and many others are more reliable, provide an error log, hash check, speed control, and other features not found in Windows.

http://ultracopier.f...upercopier.html

http://www.techsuppo...Selection_Guide

TetraCopy is available for Windows 8, and the others will probably work also. Freeware is also available for the iMac.

When using a large drive for data storage (1TB) - partition it off into 4 or 5 partions. Not only will it reduce drive thrashing and hunting, but smaller partitions will respond better and faster to the running of, - Chkdsk, defragmentation software, diagnostic tools, and file recovery programs. - Do remember to leave at least 15% free space on any drive or partition to enable defragmentation software to do it's job properly.

Possible Fixes:

Try to read the drive with other machines and other operating systems. - XP / W7 (You never know, your luck may be in.)

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Use proprietary Windows based partition / file recovery software to reclaim your data.

Do remember that if you start a data recovery process that you will need storage space of the same size to enable transfer and storage.

http://pcsupport.abo...ry-programs.htm

http://lifehacker.co...-recovery-tools

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Use a Linux Live CD to reclaim your data.

http://www.techrepub...c-machines/1458

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- (Older guide but still applicable.)

Plenty more guides and tutorials on the internet also.

Good luck.

John.

Again. - Do remember that if you start a data recovery process that you will need storage space of the same size to enable transfer and storage.

[MANEMAN]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5jGKzboesA

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exq-aWBmRyI

[finakechi]

Thank you for the suggestions.

After a few hours of testing, I finally cracked open the enclosure and inserted the drive via a SATA connection.

It is acting a little weird, but it SEEMS to be working.

I will be backing up accordingly.

Lesson Learned: 1. Do not use Windows File Copier, and do not buy any more Rocketfish HDD enclosures.

[MANEMAN]

Pleased to hear that things are going a little better now.

Thanks for the reply.

John.

[Allie576876]

Why not to try this external hard drive on another computer?

Perhaps, the upgraded Windows has changed some original setting and causes this problem.

So, try it on another computer and see whether it could be read here functionally.

If it could, just copy off all your saved data on this drive on another computer and format it to try again on your PC.

But, if it could not, you drive may get some problems.

For the safety of inner saved data, you are supposed to restore it back for free at the aid of data recovery freeware, such as Recuva, Eeaseus and iCare Data Recovery Free, etc.

Or you also could try some paid ones for better security of complete data recovery.

After experiencing this trouble, I hope you could learn to back up everything important at least on two drives.