What to do with dodgy external HD

[samba_0891]

Hi I have a WD external 1 TB HD, i bought it as a secondary backup and dont use it often

Problem is last time i used it i realised that some of the data was corrupt, one file which should have 40GB in it had some thing like 20k bytes and the folder name had change to some random characters like '(&*^&£$' or something,

I dont mind losing all the data on the HD as I have it stored elsewhere, but i would like the HD to be fully working and reliable in the future

shall i reformat it, or is there something more i can do?

Thanks

 

[sminlal]

I'd personally reformat it with a "full" format (i.e., not a "quick" one) which will ensure that every sector is writable.

 

[samba_0891]

OK thx

any idea why the corruption has happened? I' always been very careful with that drive and none of the computer it was connect to have had any similiar problems

 

[sminlal]

It could be a lot of things - disconnected while in use, poor USB connection, static, etc. etc.

 

[WyomingKnott]

What I would do with it: copy all the data off of it to somewhere else, then either put in the E-trash or take it apart to see the shiny bits inside.

I never use a drive that has corrupted data, for fear of losing more.

 

[sminlal]

That's a healthy attitude, but it can be overkill. I'm willing to forgive a drive the occasional transgression or two as long as there's no pattern of failure. But a big reason for that is that I'm pretty paranoid in general and have lots of checksummed backups which I have rock solid confidence in.