Files on External hard drive corrupt?

A user brought me an external hard drive unit and asked if I could burn the files contained thereon to dual layer DVD disks.

This drive is an external case bought by itself to install inside a 150gb IDE desktop hard drive. The files have been stored on this external for 3 to 5 years. The drive has been on a shelf and not used in over 2 years. It is a USB 2.0 setup.

The files are picture files and several video files in .avi format.

The user tells me his procedure for using the drive in the past was to plug it into the USB port of an XP computer, power it on and copy data over to it with copy and paste. After the file transfer was complete, he unplugged/ejected the drive properly and powered it off -- every time. The drive was not left on 24/7 -- it probably only had about 2 hours of use per week for about 2 or 3 years.

There is a little over 50gb of data on the drive, so it is not overfilled. It had been stored in a very dusty environment and had a good coating of dust and dirt on top -- as well as dog hair.

I dusted it off and plugged in the drive to my XP machine and was able to access all the files and opened a few of the pics and several of the avi files to make sure they would play in Windows Media player. All was good.

I started copying files off it to my XP computer extra drive and after about an hour, the drive seemed to overheat and went offline.

Since the external case does not have a fan, I supported it up off the desk with a couple of pencils and put a fan blowing directly on it. I have the AC set on 73 F and the desk where the drive is stationed is very close to the blower on the Window AC.

I was able to copy the rest of the files with no issues -- and this did take several hours at USB 2.0 speeds. I unplugged/ejected the drive and powered it off.

I started burning dual layer disks of the copied files on my XP computer and realized this little project was going to take a bit, so I decided to connect the external to a Windows 7 machine I have available and try to copy off some of the files to it. The external had been powered off for about an hour when I tried to hoop it up. It took a couple of attempts to get the drive to recognize. I copied off several gigs of data to the Win7 drive with no issues, errors or shutdowns.

I started on the Win7 machine to burn the files to dual layer disk -- and got messages within the Nero burning program that the files could not be added to a disk project because they were corrupted. What? I tried to open the files and again, got the same message. Confused? These same files had opened fine on XP.

After getting all the files copied to XP and burning them to disk, they now open correctly or play correctly from the DL disks on the Win7 computer. Anyone have an idea as to why XP can make this work and Win7 cannot?

58 views and no thoughts. Perhaps just a fluke thing. I've never seen this before.

I'd move the drive from the external case and put it into windows 7 machine through IDE and see if the file transferred over can be opened and added into compilation in Nero (or see if adding the file directly from the IDE drive to Nero will do it).

Since the windows XP machine already have a full copy of the files, you can share them on the network and see if they work fine on win7 box. At least that will give you an idea if this has something to do with the old IDE drive in the USB enclosure or something in win7 might cause the problem.

Quote from teetee1 : I'd move the drive from the external case and put it into windows 7 machine through IDE and see if the file transferred over can be opened and added into compilation in Nero (or see if adding the file directly from the IDE drive to Nero will do it). Since the windows XP machine already have a full copy of the files, you can share them on the network and see if they work fine on win7 box. At least that will give you an idea if this has something to do with the old IDE drive in the USB enclosure or something in win7 might cause the problem.

B4 going that far it would be easier to start with a drive diagnostic from the maker.

Quote from teetee1 : I'd move the drive from the external case and put it into windows 7 machine through IDE and see if the file transferred over can be opened and added into compilation in Nero (or see if adding the file directly from the IDE drive to Nero will do it). Since the windows XP machine already have a full copy of the files, you can share them on the network and see if they work fine on win7 box. At least that will give you an idea if this has something to do with the old IDE drive in the USB enclosure or something in win7 might cause the problem.

My windows 7 pc does not have an ide connection available to slave the drive. I have not tried sharing the copied files from XP to Win 7 over my network, but they are the same files copied from the same external drive.

As far as running diagnostics, I have an XP machine I can slave the drive into and do that.

Quote from callpocket : My windows 7 pc does not have an ide connection available to slave the drive. I have not tried sharing the copied files from XP to Win 7 over my network, but they are the same files copied from the same external drive. As far as running diagnostics, I have an XP machine I can slave the drive into and do that.

Something to try: Copy a sample of the Win7 files to the WinXP machine. See if those sample of "corrupt" files open on the WinXP machine. I'm curious as to whether they open on WinXP when reported as corrupt on Win7. Again, just a sample of the corrupted files, not any of the same files that are already on the WinXP machine.

Quote from callpocket : they are the same files copied from the same external drive.

Are you *sure*? Try md5sum'ing a couple of them

Could win7 have modified the file-system options to go from synchronous to asynchronous so while you think it's fully copied, the 'copy' buffers hadn't completely emptied? (That is stretching a bit because I can't believe MS would radically change it, but maybe you've run one of those 'performance' apps)

A little more info tonight with another exernal drive. This one was used on an XP machine and then on a Win7 machine -- and the SAME issues with corrupted files that can't be read or copied is the issue.

I have connected this WD external to my XP test box and most of the files can be read, but there are several that will not open and give a cycle reduncancy error.

I moved everthing that can be read and moved to XP extra drive and have now plugged in the USB external drive to a Win7 machine and am now running a disk check on it thru Windows. This is a 1tb drive, so it may take a while and I will report back when it's done. It appears this drive was fomatted in the Fat32 format, so that may have something to do with the problems.

Quote from callpocket : A little more info tonight with another exernal drive. This one was used on an XP machine and then on a Win7 machine -- and the SAME issues with corrupted files that can't be read or copied is the issue. I have connected this WD external to my XP test box and most of the files can be read, but there are several that will not open and give a cycle reduncancy error. I moved everthing that can be read and moved to XP extra drive and have now plugged in the USB external drive to a Win7 machine and am now running a disk check on it thru Windows. This is a 1tb drive, so it may take a while and I will report back when it's done. It appears this drive was fomatted in the Fat32 format, so that may have something to do with the problems.

Are you saying that you have received another hard drive from a different person and it's doing the same thing on your Win 7 equipment?
If so, I would have to question your system more than the hard drive.
The odds of two different drives from two different sources, both exhibiting the same weird glitch is near impossible..

Quote from RockySosua : Are you saying that you have received another hard drive from a different person and it's doing the same thing on your Win 7 equipment? If so, I would have to question your system more than the hard drive. The odds of two different drives from two different sources, both exhibiting the same weird glitch is near impossible..

I agree, I would start to wonder about the USB ports in the W7 system. Try a different USB Port (If front, try rear, etc) Reinstall the drivers to start (Test on your own drives for a while). I assume your not using one of the docs or the same enclosure. USB chipsets have been known to go bad. Good news is it gives you an excuse to add a PCI or PCIE card to get USB3. HDTune or Check Flash would both be good programs to test your drive/port.