I/O Device error on external hard drive

lis2180

Honorable
Dec 31, 2013
8
0
10,510
Hi all

So I have a WD My Passport external hard drive where I keep all my photos on. My photos was spread out all over my device and I had duplicates. So yesterday I set out to organize all my photos and delete my duplicates. For a little background first I use Lightroom to edit and it "organizes" my orignals in my external for me. I also just setup a password protecting on my hard drive over fear of this new virus going around where people steal your info and hold it ransom. And in doing so I changed my location from Disk E to Disk F (E is now the unlocker and and F is the disk drive).

So went a deleted all my duplicates and transfered files into folders to make it organized. I had to restart my computer for my computer to read and view my photos for some reason. I can't load my catalogs in Lightroom I know it's because I changed the location of it but I don't know how to fix that. And now when I try to access my photos from the external the message " Request could not be preformed because of an I/O device error"

I most likely won't get any help on my Lightroom problem but can someone help with the device error please.
 
Solution
Hi there lis2180,

That is really unpleasant. :(

As the device is currently accessible, I would advise you to back up all the data stored on the drive, until you sort this out. Even when there is nothing wrong with your HDD, you should never keep your important data stored on only one drive. Mechanical drives just fail.

I/O errors(input/output) could sometimes be caused by faulty cables. So, it would be nice if you attach the drive with a different cable to another USB port.
Another thing you can do is to test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool(both short and extended): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=iWbsdJ

@ dextermat Taking the drive out of the enclosure would not help as the device is hardware...

lis2180

Honorable
Dec 31, 2013
8
0
10,510
Ok for some reason restarting the computer solves my disks problems. I don't know why. I'm sure this isn't the last time I will have problems and have to restart the computer to fix the drive. Is there a reason why errors are happening?





 
Hi there lis2180,

That is really unpleasant. :(

As the device is currently accessible, I would advise you to back up all the data stored on the drive, until you sort this out. Even when there is nothing wrong with your HDD, you should never keep your important data stored on only one drive. Mechanical drives just fail.

I/O errors(input/output) could sometimes be caused by faulty cables. So, it would be nice if you attach the drive with a different cable to another USB port.
Another thing you can do is to test the drive with WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool(both short and extended): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=iWbsdJ

@ dextermat Taking the drive out of the enclosure would not help as the device is hardware encrypted. If the drive is out of the enclosure, you will not be able to access the data.

Let us know how this goes.
D_Know_WD :)
 
Solution