Topic: External Hard Drive Wont Read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Help!!!!!!

[Kaz]

One word of caution, Kaz, DVDs are not the most reliable form of long term storage, particularly RW types.

Looks like External Hard Drives arn't reliable either Rik  what can I do 

[sam]

Looks like External Hard Drives arn't reliable either Rik  what can I do 

multiple backups everywhere.

I just had my 3rd hard disk fail in two years at work - but then again I do thrash them.

[Rik]

Hi
OK Iv ran Chkdisk on the hard drive took 17 hours said it had mended some clusters couldn't read it, it was t0 fast, anyway now I have looked at the drive there is nothing showing on the drive, but when I look at properties it says Used space 136,772.904 bytes FREE space 69,376,835,582 bytes Capacity 206,009,775,488 bytes but it's a 500GB hard Drive ? what do I do?

Some space is used by the filing system. However, if you've recovered all you want to, then re-format and don't slect the quick format option.

[Rik]

Looks like External Hard Drives arn't reliable either Rik  what can I do 

What Sam said, Kaz, multiples are your best bet.

[Kaz]

Do you think that when I've reformatted the drive and all looks good, that I can trust this hard drive or will it have any defects with the cause of the corruption?

[sam]

depends what the check disk says - if it has bad blocks then I'd not trust it. Is it still under manufacturer's guarantee?

[Kaz]

I have done a Check disk and all is ok I have formatted the drive (long format) I have back all 500gb back  79.8 used it's now showing up on my list have renamed it and put some files on it as well all seems o be ok so I'm going to put a backup on it ans see what happens I wont put anything that is important to me for a while and Ill see how it goes

[Simon]

Well done, Kaz! 

[Kaz]

I have now ran a diagnostic on the hard drive with SeaTools from http://www.seagate.com you can use this on ANY external hard drive it doesnt have to be seagate or max take a look it would be use full to anyone else that has this problem the only thing it can't do it is fix your hard drive if it's not a seagate or maxtor hard drive.

You can do quick diag or an in-depth one I did all and left it running all night, everything came up OK 
I have now split the drive into 2 partitions so if It goes again (touch wood not) I wont loose all stuff I still have a 2 year guarantee left on this drive so 'Im not going to put anything on that's important for a while, but anything could happen at any time, by the way I have backed up all my pictures to DVD

 :ithank:to you all who helped very much appreciated as always

[Rik]

Glad you've got there, Kaz, it sounds to me like the file system got corrupted, are you using FAT or NTFS?

[Kaz]

Glad you've got there, Kaz, it sounds to me like the file system got corrupted, are you using FAT or NTFS?

NTFS Rik

[Simon]

Rik, wasn't there a thing on Netters about certain Seagate drives?  I'm wondering if Kaz has one of the dodgy ones?

[Rik]

There was, and it's possible. Kaz, can you get the model and serial number of the drive using the Seagate software? NTFS is usually a robust filing system, so it may be one of the faulty drives you have there.

[Kaz]

Mine isn't a seagate drive it's a Medion I have 3 of them and never had any trouble with the others?

[Rik]

That's just who makes the case it's in the HD will be from one of the big names, Kaz.