External HDD Repairs Very Slow

[The Asker]

Hi everyone.
My Windows 10 PC detected some problems in my external 1TB HDD, and recommended that I start repairs. I clicked the repair button and I'm waiting for repairs to happen, but it's been around 30 mins and the progress bar of the repairs hasn't even started moving ahead. How long do these kinds of repairs generally take, and is there another way I can repair the HDD?

 

[u2desire420]

Cancel it and from an Administrator command prompt run chkdsk X: /R /X where X: is the drive letter. This will take several hours to complete and how long depends on how many bad sectors it has.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there The Asker,

Once you cancel the process, as it is not making any progress at all, you should really back up the data stored on the drive, if it is accessible.

Once you do that, you can test the drive and see what is wrong with it: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
It would be nice if you can post a screenshot of the SMART report.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[The Asker]

Actually guys, let me tell you the problem more specifically. Once I insert the hard drive, my PC slows down in all operations related to the HDD. E.g. Opening 'This PC', accessing the data on the drive, ejecting it, data transfer rate reduces drastically between it and the PC.
I did the scan on command prompt as an admin. Unfortunately, my PC restarted on its own while I was away. I don't know if it was because of the scan being completed, which took around 13 hours, or because of a new update to windows 10. My PC is working fine without the HDD. Could you help me out with this?

One more observation of mine is that the PC works fine with other USB devices. Similarly, the HDD works fine with other devices. I transferred some data from the HDD to my Windows Surface tablet and it worked perfectly. Did the same with my PC and a pen drive. Hopefully this can help us narrow down the problem.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Have you tried the drive on another computer except for the tablet? I still do think that the drive is failing. Make sure you back up all the important data on the tablet.

After that, even though it takes a really long time, you can plug it back in the computer and run some of the tests in the link.
See if there are any pending/reallocated and uncorrectable sectors in the SMART report.

D_Know_WD

 

[The Asker]

Hi there The Asker,

Once you cancel the process, as it is not making any progress at all, you should really back up the data stored on the drive, if it is accessible.

Once you do that, you can test the drive and see what is wrong with it: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
It would be nice if you can post a screenshot of the SMART report.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Thanks for the advice. I downloaded the SeaTools desktop app and ran the Smart Test. The HDD failed in it, because of problem sectors. How do I go about this problem?

 

[D_Know_WD]

These are most probably physical bad sectors. There's nothing you can really do in order to fix them. The drive's condition would continue to deteriorate until the drive fails and becomes inaccessible.

If it is under warranty, you can just contact the place you got it from or the manufacturer's Support and RMA it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[The Asker]

These are most probably physical bad sectors. There's nothing you can really do in order to fix them. The drive's condition would continue to deteriorate until the drive fails and becomes inaccessible.

If it is under warranty, you can just contact the place you got it from or the manufacturer's Support and RMA it.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

The SeaTools app said that if I download SeaTools for DOS, I might be able to repair the sectors. I've downloaded the software for DOS but can't figure out how to get the repairs done. Any idea?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, physical bad sectors(flaws on the platter's surface) could not be really repaired. Anyway, you can try the DOS version out. Yet, you will need to look for a tutorial or something in the manufacturer's website.
I can't really provide links.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD