Problem with external HDD

corblimey

I've had a Maxtor 100gig drive connected to my PC for the last year or so with no problems, but recently, I've been having some trouble with it. I can see it in Explorer, but trying to access a directory on it (/music) takes about 2-3 minutes to respond, and I can't copy anything off it - that just results in Explorer crashing. I had some difficulty with my Zen Media Organizer yesterday, trying to update the id3 tags (?), but I've restarted my machine a few times since then.

Any ideas?

Karoma

Try the drive in another computer.

pdogs

Which OS is in use and do you have the same access problems if you boot up in Safe Mode?

If things run at normal speed in Safe Mode have a good look around for malware. If not then try running scandisk or chkdsk.

corblimey

I managed to narrow the problem down to a few directories. If I try to read them, or delete them, or even back them up, I get i/o errors. I'm not too worried if it's just them - they're backups of my own CDs so no great issue. I am worried though that the damage will spread. There's a lot of data backed up on this drive, and if it's dying slowly, I need to move everything off to DVDs.

I don't suppose there's a hard and fast rule with dying hdds, is there?

I've tried chkdisk, but it fails halfway through. Is Scandisk still available in Windows XP (home)?

Wolverine_1999

Sounds like she's about to give in alright. It may just have a few bad sectors.

Move as much stuff off of it as you can. Reformat the drive, LONG format, not quick. This will search for bad sectors and mark them bad if needed. I have also tried software which can recover bad sectors! It actually works! It remagnitises the surface of the hard drive.

pdogs

Download Maxtor's PowerMax - put it on a floppy - boot to the floppy and run the diagnostics.

If a HDD is developing bad sectors don't keep any unbacked-up valuable data on it - whatever you do to temporarily improve the situation.

corblimey

pdogs wrote:

Download Maxtor's PowerMax - put it on a floppy - boot to the floppy and run the diagnostics.

A floppy? :eek: Who the h*ll has a floppy drive these days

I wonder if I can burn it to CD and boot from there - anyone know any good software for creating bootable CDs?

Karoma

^Nero.

I'd go with SpinRite tbh - it's highly recommended, the guy(s) behind it are respected, and it provides an .iso for CD burning (commerical..ie. you have to pay for it (if you get it from them.ahem))

pdogs

I wonder if I can burn it to CD and boot from there

If you want the Maxtor iso go to:
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Maxtor/menuitem.3c67e325e0a6b1f6294198b091346068/?channelpath=/en_us/Support/Software%20Downloads/All%20Downloads&downloadID=113