Author Topic: Odd computer problem, external drive  (Read 1112 times)

Brad Johnson

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Odd computer problem, external drive
« on: December 04, 2017, 10:45:04 AM »
I'm trying to transfer a folder from an external (platter style) USB drive. All folders but one react properly and transfer fine. One folder, unfortunately the primary one I want, is giving me fits. When I click on the folder in Explorer it goes into the green progression bar mode where it's cataloging contents. It crawls. Seriously crawls. Like takes fifteen-or-twenty-minutes crawls. Not only does it crawl it essentially locks up Explorer. There's only about 3 GB of contents (music files) so it shouldn't take more than a minute or two.

I tried doing a click-and-drag transfer. It started at about 20 Gb/s and immediately slowed to about 300 K/sec. I figured it was just a fluke so I left it all weekend to to it's thing. Come back this morning and none of the files transferred, not even those that appeared to have been successful while I was sitting here watching it on Friday.

I ran a disk check. Nothing. I defragged the drive. Nothing. It's limited to the one folder I want (of course) and the rest of the contents appear to transfer fine. It did it on both my home machine (Win 10) and my office machine (Win 7 Pro).

Thoughts?

Brad
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
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Ben

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2017, 10:51:11 AM »
First guess is bad sector(s), sadly, right where you need them to be good. One thing to try is to run one or the other of the Linux live distros to see if you can access and pull the data that way. I used to have about 50/50 luck with that at the old job. If you can't get everything, you might be able to at least pull some of the files.

On that thought, have you tried pulling individual files, or just the whole folder? Sometimes one or a few bad files will keep everything from transferring if you just do a folder drag. Try and copy a few random individual files within the folder and see if they will transfer.
"I'm a foolish old man that has been drawn into a wild goose chase by a harpy in trousers and a nincompoop."

Brad Johnson

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2017, 11:03:31 AM »
Thinking of running an old-fashioned CHKDSK /R to see if Windows can find and correct any bad sector issues. Opinion?

Brad

*edit to add* Went ahead with the CHKDSK /R. It's finding a ton of bad clusters, sometimes multiples per file. I guess I found the problem. I hope at least some of the data is recoverable. It's SWMBO's music. The drive is a backup but the machine the files originated from went Tango Uniform years ago. She wants it on a thumb drive for use in her new card and I really don't want to have to spend all weekend ripping CDs.

Brad
« Last Edit: December 04, 2017, 11:16:59 AM by Brad Johnson »
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

lee n. field

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2017, 11:20:12 AM »
I'm trying to transfer a folder from an external (platter style) USB drive. All folders but one react properly and transfer fine. One folder, unfortunately the primary one I want, is giving me fits. When I click on the folder in Explorer it goes into the green progression bar mode where it's cataloging contents. It crawls. Seriously crawls. Like takes fifteen-or-twenty-minutes crawls. Not only does it crawl it essentially locks up Explorer. There's only about 3 GB of contents (music files) so it shouldn't take more than a minute or two.

I tried doing a click-and-drag transfer. It started at about 20 Gb/s and immediately slowed to about 300 K/sec. I figured it was just a fluke so I left it all weekend to to it's thing. Come back this morning and none of the files transferred, not even those that appeared to have been successful while I was sitting here watching it on Friday.

I ran a disk check. Nothing. I defragged the drive. Nothing. It's limited to the one folder I want (of course) and the rest of the contents appear to transfer fine. It did it on both my home machine (Win 10) and my office machine (Win 7 Pro).

Thoughts?

Brad

do a chkdsk with the option to check the entire surface for bad sectors ("chkdsk <drive letter> /x /b").  Or Seatools for Windows (Seagate hd diag, works on most drives, not sure about usb though).

is it trying to copy a multitude of very small files?

If you get bad sectors, and you do want that data, I'd try gddrescue from a linux live cd, to clone the entire drive to a new one.  There is a nice GUI available for it now.  This is what I use when I need to attempt a data recovery for someone.

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lee n. field

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #4 on: December 04, 2017, 11:24:02 AM »
Thinking of running an old-fashioned CHKDSK /R to see if Windows can find and correct any bad sector issues. Opinion?

Brad

*edit to add* Went ahead with the CHKDSK /R. It's finding a ton of bad clusters, sometimes multiples per file. I guess I found the problem. I hope at least some of the data is recoverable. It's SWMBO's music. The drive is a backup but the machine the files originated from went Tango Uniform years ago. She wants it on a thumb drive for use in her new card and I really don't want to have to spend all weekend ripping CDs.

Brad

https://www.gnu.org/software/ddrescue/

https://launchpad.net/ddrescue-gui

I usually use this from this utility disk: https://partedmagic.com/.  Which he charges a crippling</sarc> $11 for.  (Seriously, I find the Parted Magic disk very useful.)
In thy presence is fulness of joy.
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Brad Johnson

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #5 on: December 04, 2017, 11:53:59 AM »
do a chkdsk with the option to check the entire surface for bad sectors ("chkdsk <drive letter> /x /b").  Or Seatools for Windows (Seagate hd diag, works on most drives, not sure about usb though).

is it trying to copy a multitude of very small files?

If you get bad sectors, and you do want that data, I'd try gddrescue from a linux live cd, to clone the entire drive to a new one.  There is a nice GUI available for it now.  This is what I use when I need to attempt a data recovery for someone.



It's running a CHKDSK /R as I type this. Bad clusters in almost every file. It's a Seagate drive so SeaTools might actually work. If the CHKDSK doesn't net something usable, that'll be the next step. It's running about two files per minute at this point. At this rate I figure it will take the better part of 24 hours to complete.

I found out the drive rode around in the trunk of her car for the better part of a year so damage from heat and vibration isn't surprising. The extent of damage is a bit more than expected, though.

Brad
« Last Edit: December 04, 2017, 01:10:40 PM by Brad Johnson »
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

lee n. field

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #6 on: December 04, 2017, 02:00:16 PM »
It's running a CHKDSK /R as I type this. Bad clusters in almost every file. It's a Seagate drive so SeaTools might actually work. If the CHKDSK doesn't net something usable, that'll be the next step. It's running about two files per minute at this point. At this rate I figure it will take the better part of 24 hours to complete.

I found out the drive rode around in the trunk of her car for the better part of a year so damage from heat and vibration isn't surprising. The extent of damage is a bit more than expected, though.

Brad

If that's what you're seeing, if it was in my hands to do, I'd give up on the chkdsk right now.  It ain't gonna fix anything, it only confirms what we suspected.  You got everything except that one folder?  Is it worth trying to get that one folder?
« Last Edit: December 04, 2017, 07:23:19 PM by lee n. field »
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Brad Johnson

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2017, 02:10:49 PM »
It will be a couple days before I have time to mess with it so I've left it running in the background (I figure I might as well let it finish if there's no priority reason to stop it). Prob Weds morning or so I'll be able to have a go at it with the suggested options.

Brad
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

Brad Johnson

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Re: Odd computer problem, external drive
« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2018, 02:13:05 PM »
Quick revisit for a final update...

After running CHKDSK /R for the better part of four weeks (not days, weeks) it finally finished. Even with that, and with the help of a buddy I didn't realize was a dedicated Linux/Unix junky, all the files associated with that part of the drive were so corrupted they were unrecoverable. Educated guess is that the drive was mishandled while powered up, bouncing the heads of the platters in a couple of places.

Brad
It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB