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External Hard Drive too full to open

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  • Computers
  • Storage
  • Hard Drives
  • External Hard Drive
Last response: in Storage
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September 30, 2014 4:21:13 PM

I recently put some things onto my external hard drive that was almost full. I didnt get any warning saying that there is no space available or anything, but now i cant access the hard drive. It shows up as connected to my computer without any problem but when i open it, it doesnt load up and then it will stop working and close that window. I cant make more room on the hardrive because i cant access it. I know it isnt my computer because i tried it on another (brand new) computer and it didnt work on that either (same problem). Any ideas on how i can access it?

More about : external hard drive full open

September 30, 2014 8:38:18 PM

Try this... Start --> Run --> cmd <enter> then when the console window opens, type (without quotes) "chkdsk /f <drive letter>" where <drive letter> is the drive letter of your external drive. For example... chkdsk /f g: (this will check disk g: for errors and fix them) Let me know what your results are.
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October 2, 2014 3:50:59 AM

Tide,
I tried the chkdsk comman but it says "The drive, the path, or the file name is not valid."

D_Know_WD,
Im a little worried about defragmenting. ive never done it before and im worried it might stuff up my hard drive.
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a b G Storage
October 2, 2014 4:11:15 AM


This message most of the time means that the command was entered incorrectly. Make sure you have written it right: chkdsk c: /f
c: is the the letter of the HDD. If your HDD has a letter K: then the command should be chkdsk k: /f

Regarding the defragmentation, I would say that it will not hurt the HDD. You can check some articles up in the internet.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

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October 2, 2014 5:05:24 PM

OK, i did the chkdsk and now it is correcting errors.
UPDATE: OK so after waiting quit a while for those errors to be corrected, the cmd finally finished and im happy to say that i can now access my HDD. Thank you both for helping me.
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a b G Storage
October 2, 2014 11:52:17 PM

Glad that the chkdsk solved your issue. You can do some regular checks on this drive though.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
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