I/0 error on external drive.

[jboscolev]

My external drive suddenly started stopping and rebooting itself over and over again. I seem to have lost everything on it. I get an error message: F:/is not accessible because of I/O device error. thank you.

 

[sminlal]

The standard diagnostic procedure would be to:

- try the drive in another port (ie, a different USB port if it's a USB drive)
- try a different cable
- try the drive in a different system

If these fail, some people have reported success by cooling the drive off in the freezer for a day and then connecting it to the system. If you plan to do this and if it works, be advised that the drive may not work for very long so you should transfer all your data off it immediately.

 

[ulysses35]

Just an additional to the above. Before you go shoving your HDD in a freezer, you need to take a few precautions.

1) place the drive and a silica gel pack (usually come in packaging for shoes and
electrical goods) inside a freezer bag - make sure this is sealed 100%

2) place this bag inside a second freezer bag and again make sure its sealed.

by placing the drive and gel pack in a bag you prevent moisture entering the drive itself and potentially killing the drive when you come to power it on.

There is not set time to leave the drive in the freezer - but 12 hours should do the trick.

One final word of caution - MAKE 100% sure that when you power the drive up it is free from any moisture - and if possible blow cold air onto the drive while in use.

While the above may let you recover the data trying this more than once / twice will probably finish the HDD for good.

 

[photonboy]

It does sound like the drive itself, but at the very least try the hard drive by itself in a computer or with another external case.

It would be best to rule out the computer too.

1) Hook up external case to another PC (if NO, then...
2) Insert hard drive as a second drive OR use another USB case, (if no, then...
3) freeze? (never heard about this, but you ARE desperate at this point. The odds of anything working are low as your electronics are fried on the hard drive)
4) RMA (return to Manufacturer)

 

[spongebob]

My external drive suddenly started stopping and rebooting itself over and over again. I seem to have lost everything on it. I get an error message: F:/is not accessible because of I/O device error. thank you.

I once had a similar problem with an external HD - files would corrupted when close to full, and random delayed write failures. The drive worked better for me when I plugged it into one of my CPU's USB ports instead of using a USB Hub.

 

[jboscolev]

Hi Spongebob,

I tried that but it didn't work. What do they generally charge if I bring it to a repair facility like micro-center. Its over its warrenty period so is it worth repairing? I've given up on my data. thankyou for your response.

 

[jboscolev]

The standard diagnostic procedure would be to:

- try the drive in another port (ie, a different USB port if it's a USB drive)
- try a different cable
- try the drive in a different system

If these fail, some people have reported success by cooling the drive off in the freezer for a day and then connecting it to the system. If you plan to do this and if it works, be advised that the drive may not work for very long so you should transfer all your data off it immediately.

thank you for the advice. In a different system do you mean I try try to hook it up to a secondary laptop?

 

[sminlal]

In a different system do you mean I try try to hook it up to a secondary laptop?

Yes. If it's having problems in your desktop, try it in your laptop. If you see the same problems in both places, it really is a drive problem - but if you only have problems in your desktop then the problem probably lies there.