External portable HDD = - file tranfer freezes half way through!!!

[EMD0NuT]

Hi everyone,

I purchased a 500Gb seagate portable HDD around 1 year ago.

Seagate P/N 9SG2A5-500

I am only recently having troubles with it. The other day, when i went to connect to the PC, it wouldnt show up for a while and then tell me that a reformat was required. I tried connecting it a few times again but still the same notification arrose. I had to reformat it, losing alot of my data - over 50gb to be exact - all my music, movies and files . By doing so, I thought that my HDD may be dead but I still reformated.

After the reformat, I tried again. It took a second to load. I tried to transfer a word document across - worked perfectly. I then again tried a 2GB file across and it froze half way through! I tried a 10GB file across and then failed again!

It seems that it wont take the larger files. I used the NTFS system at 4000kb. The 2GB file got to about 3/4 before freezing, the 4gb file got to little under half way and the 10gb file got under 1/4!!!!

This is a weird phenomeon. Ive tried everything i can think of. It was working perfectly before!

Is my HDD dead?

Thanks

Lyndon

 

[tomatthe]

Download seatools from seagate and test the drive,

http://www.seagate.com/support/external-hard-drives/desktop-hard-drives/

Select the drive you have from that page, then the downloads tab, then seatools.

It sounds like the drive is bad, but running that test can verify that.

 

[EMD0NuT]

by what do you mean my 'drive is bad'?

i also forgot to note that i used a usb and tranferred the same 2gb file within 10 seconds on the same usb port.

 

[Dr_JRE]

When having issues with external drives try this:

When putting data onto the drive, enable write cacheing
and
When transferring data from the external drive, disable write caching.

If you still have issues try running chkdsk /r on the drive.

(to enable / disable write caching: right click on my computer, select manage, select device manager, select your external hard drive, right click on the drive and select properties, select the Policy tab,)

(To run a disk check w/ recovery: Start -> Run -> cmd -> type the drive letter and press enter (example E, type chkdsk /r and press enter .If it asks you anything press Y then enter.)

 

[Skirmantas]

When having issues with external drives try this:

When putting data onto the drive, enable write cacheing
and
When transferring data from the external drive, disable write caching.

If you still have issues try running chkdsk /r on the drive.

(to enable / disable write caching: right click on my computer, select manage, select device manager, select your external hard drive, right click on the drive and select properties, select the Policy tab,)

(To run a disk check w/ recovery: Start -> Run -> cmd -> type the drive letter and press enter (example E, type chkdsk /r and press enter .If it asks you anything press Y then enter.)

This really helped me, in my personal case. Thank You so much.

 

[mirceattl]

When having issues with external drives try this:

When putting data onto the drive, enable write cacheing
and
When transferring data from the external drive, disable write caching.

If you still have issues try running chkdsk /r on the drive.

(to enable / disable write caching: right click on my computer, select manage, select device manager, select your external hard drive, right click on the drive and select properties, select the Policy tab,)

(To run a disk check w/ recovery: Start -> Run -> cmd -> type the drive letter and press enter (example E, type chkdsk /r and press enter .If it asks you anything press Y then enter.)

Thanks a lot for this tip! I was struggling to find a solution for random drive freezing and your suggestion to enable write caching solved my problem!

 

[Agera One]

When having issues with external drives try this:

When putting data onto the drive, enable write cacheing
and
When transferring data from the external drive, disable write caching.

If you still have issues try running chkdsk /r on the drive.

(to enable / disable write caching: right click on my computer, select manage, select device manager, select your external hard drive, right click on the drive and select properties, select the Policy tab,)

(To run a disk check w/ recovery: Start -> Run -> cmd -> type the drive letter and press enter (example E, type chkdsk /r and press enter .If it asks you anything press Y then enter.)

Can I keep it enabled even when copying from ext HDD into system? Because every time changing will be annoying for me or otherwise I'll forgot to change when I'm in a emergency situation ! Help please!

 

[Bernonix]

When having issues with external drives try this:

When putting data onto the drive, enable write cacheing
and
When transferring data from the external drive, disable write caching.

If you still have issues try running chkdsk /r on the drive.

(to enable / disable write caching: right click on my computer, select manage, select device manager, select your external hard drive, right click on the drive and select properties, select the Policy tab,)

(To run a disk check w/ recovery: Start -> Run -> cmd -> type the drive letter and press enter (example E, type chkdsk /r and press enter .If it asks you anything press Y then enter.)

I made an account just to thank Dr_JRE for this one particular tip. Solved my problem, could've cost me a ton to have my data recovered. The thread and the tips might be old, but it was quite useful. Thank you, and kudos to you good sir.

 

[ChuckBytes]

Although an old thread, I'm experiencing the same issues in writing to any one of my 14 external USB drives. Every one of them failing when trying to copy or paste a large file from an internal drive. They are all useless to me unless i can figure out a way to copy files without them shutting down. Sometimes i have to reboot just to get them back on line

 

[RogerBlank]

This is a Disk Management issue. To stop a USB hard drive from freezing while copying data, you have to disable the default "Quick removal" and check the "Better performance" property in the Disk Management. This enables the "write cashing", and in order to remove the drive without losing data, you must use the "Safely Remove Hardware" notification icon to disconnect the device safely.

 

[RogerBlank]

This is a Disk Management issue. To stop a USB harddrive from freezing while copying data, you have to disable the default "Quick removal" and check the "Better performance" property in the Disk Management. This enables the "write cashing", and in order to remove the drive without losing data, you must use the "Safely Remove Hardware" notification icon to disconnect the device safely.

 

[sneak3]

Just wanted to let people know that I was able to fix my issues with external hard drives disconnecting mid transfer when using USB 3.0 ports. They worked fine in USB 2.0 though.

I've been having those problems since windows 7 up till windows 10, which is what I'm currently on.

So what I did first was to disable ALL sort of legacy USB support in my BIOS.
Then I made sure all my cables were seated properly and that drives were fully working on USB 2.0 ports.
After I went into device manager, found my portable drive and under properties > policies, I set them for full performance mode instead of "quick removal", and allowed write cache too.
Finally, in device manager, I uninstalled the intel USB 3.0 extension driver and restarted my computer. Turned it back on, device manager again > checked for drivers changes so it would automatically reinstall the intel USB 3.0 thing an DONE. No more issues at all.