External hard drive problems

robd831

Hi,

I am trying to run a disk check and defrag on an external powered hard drive (belongs to daughter). I then intend to run Malwarebytes and or Zonealarm through it to check for problems or viruses.

It connects to my XP desk top via a usb2 cable, powers up, is seen by my computer.

I am able to open up the drive, view properties to get to the tools and it starts to run the disc check ( to scan and repair). It gets to phase 4 and freezes. This also then causes my PC to stop and I need to restart it to get it going again :mad:.

It also won't run defrag, as it says that disc scan has been started and needs to be run first !!!!

The PC is a Dell about 4 years old and the hard drive is a Iomega, 2 years old.

Is the usb port the hard drive is connecting to switching off the powr? If so how do I prevent this?

Does anyone reckon the problem is with the hard drive?

Is there another way to check is the is any viruses or problems with the external drive, as she may have downloaded a virus onto her laptop before copying pictures and uni work onto the drive.

Thanks for any tips that you can give. :T

robmar0se

robd831 wrote: »

Is the usb port the hard drive is connecting to switching off the powr? If so how do I prevent this?

Does anyone reckon the problem is with the hard drive?

Hi, the chkdsk on an external hdd should execute okay, so the problem could be power, faulty cable of faulty drive.

Are you able to access the drive through Windows Explorer on your or any other PC? I ask only so that you could backup/save what you need from the drive.

What i would do to eliminate problems, is to extract the drive and load it as an internal drive first.

Next I would check what disk management indicated (control panel/admin tools/ computer management/ disk management), hopedully it would see the drive and tell you it is healthy. If not then report back.

As the chkdsk may be very slow, if there are extensive problems on the drive, I would make sure via control panel/power settings that the system wouldn't go into sleep or hibernate modes.

Run chkdsk driveletter: /r - if after an hour or so on stage 4 with no activity either % increasing , corrupt files/clusters reported - then you must assume that the drive is faulty.

If you were not able to backup/save the date earlier, then there are disk recovery programs that you may try to recover the data. But first see if the above works if not, then many will be able to tell you abouit their experiences with hard drive recovery programs.

robd831

Thanks Robmar0se,
I will try another PC tomorrow, and try the disk management aspect.
Just been for a curry and feeling a bit stuffed :beer:
Will report back if any further problems.

closed

If the hard disk is faulty, a defrag (which is usually pointless anyway) is not a good idea.

If the data on it is the only copy of the work, copy (not move) it off asap.

Your machine might run better with avast free and windows firewall instead of ZA, if it running sluggishly.

robd831

Robmar0se,
Connected it back to my PC this morning and I can hear it spinnig and my PC clicking , it sounds lik they are up to something !
However, I can't see it is Exploreror in the compuer management. I don't have access to another pc or laptop until later today.
I think I may let it run through whatever it is doing and check on it later.....

robmar0se

If you can hear it clicking it invariably means it is failing. It is best to switch off as you may be doing more harm. However the prognosis is not good.

robd831

Robmar0se,
No the drive is spinning and humming and the pc is gently also whirring ( as it does when Zonealarm does a scan), sorry no clicking or grinding noises it all sounds normal.

I still can't see it in my computer (explorer) or is it because it is ruming checkdisc from yesterday?

robmar0se

Oh I thought you said it was clicking, well thats good anyway.

No it wont be doing a chkdsk - you'd know it if it was.

Another way is to go into BIOS when you start (often the DEL or F2 key), and see if the drive is recognised - I'm assuming here that it is a sata drive - you should see the name of the manufacturer and the size - if BIOS can't see it nor will windows.

If there then goto control panel/admin tools/computer management/disk management you should see it there. If its there and not in my computer it may mean that the the file indicies are damaged, you may get some joy with recovery tools such as undelete and other disk recovery tools - http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwdatarecovery.HTML

I have to go now, but perhaps others will give you some more advice if this condition exists.

robd831

Just spent four hours trying too get it to wok only to find out you can put the cable into the drive upside down :eek: and therefore windows won't see it. I feel stupid.
It is currently on 2% of stage four of five, I will give it a while and see what happens.
Everytime I tried to copy the files to my pc hard drive it just stopped responding and needed to be switched off and started again :mad: