Copied files a few times on same external hard disk: copies corruptedd

On an external USB drive, WD Elements, 4TB (Notebook Medion akoya P8614) some files obviously became corrupted after copying them on the same drive (the files are not copied from another drive, but may be such files can become corrupted also). There was not any error message displaying the copying to be failed. I copied the same archive (zip or rar) a few times to another folder and in the same folder on the same drive and some of the copies have a different check sum (the check sum also differs among the corrupted files, so corrupted files have different check sums, not the same wrong check sum) and WinRAR or other programs show an error message that a file or more are corrupted when I try to unzip some of the copies. The file size stayed the same of all of the copies.

When I plugged in the USB plug of that drive the first times the external drive was not shown, after a few times and waiting finally it was shown. And some time ago with another Notebook (same manufacturer) I had some kind of the same problem: when unzipping / downloading archives to (or on, I do not remember anymore at the moment) a 2,5 external 640 GB drive (A sometimes they were corrupted.

I checked the drives (the 640 GB one and the WD Elements, 4TB) with CrystalDiskMark and CrystalDiskInfo and checked the 640GB drive with HDtune (error scan, the long one, not the "Quick Scan", no errors found.

And I checked the WD Elements, 4TB drive with the extended test (lasting two days and about 12 hours) of Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG, so a program developed by / for WD, no errors found:


And with another older external hard disk, 1TB, some weeks ago I had problems also, the cable USB connection to the Notebook (the same with the P: drive) obviously got interrupted 2 times while copying, I don't know why. May be there is a connection to the cause for the problems above. I did not test my other drives with some copying processes, but may be that happens with all of my drive.

What might cause the corrupted files? And how could I correct it?

Is the 4 TB formatted as GPT?

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2581408

Thank you, Berton,

The Medion akoya P6630 is bought 2011, August and Medion Akoya P8614 (MD 98470) 2012, Jan. Actually I would think that should not be too old.

the Power Options need to be set to NOT shut anything down

I do not use the battery usually, the power supply only.

I have mine set on the When Plugged In feature to turn nothing off, no Sleep, no Hibernation, etc.

Where could I find it? May be there is a connection to that strange sounding setting: https://i.imgur.com/ws0zc5J.png

Is the 4 TB formatted as GPT?

Thank you for the link, never heard of it. I did not formated the drive, may be a (normal, I suppose NTFS) quick format (a full format lasts about 2 days, I assume), I guess, I kept the default (manufacturer) format.
I thought as long as the entire hard disk is recognized (like shown) it is alright. So the wrong format / formating effects the files to may be become corrupt without error message when transferring.

How could I find out the way the drive is formated, whether it is formated with GPT?

Many thanks again.

Hello Doki!

I'm sorry to hear for your problem! :/

Are you trying to move the exact same files, or may be same file types? What happens if you copy paste the same or similar file from the PC to the WD Elements, does it also corrupt?

In WD DLG there is the option for SMART data, clicking on it should export to the screen the RAW SMART values of your WD external, could please post a screenshot of that?

Other reasons for the files corrupting would be a faulty cable, drivers (USB etc.) installed improperly, corruption in the drive's file system, or the files themselves have corruptions that may not show up in the initial copy, but during the transfer.

If a drive is over 2.2 TB to be shown properly it would need to be Initialized in GPT, which is the step before the partitioning and formatting. If your drive has shown correctly, in its full 4TB, and was able to follow copy paste commands, it was initialized in GPT. If you would like, try and reformat the external WD drive and try the transfer again. Do the files corrupt again? Do this after backing up any data from it, as reformatting erases everything!

CK_WD

How could I find out the way the drive is formated, whether it is formated with GPT?

In Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Disk Management
right click on the disk for the extenal then click Properties
then Volumes. It will say Guid Partition Table GPT

Hello CK_WD,

Thank you very much.

Are you trying to move the exact same files

I did not move them (for testing), I always copied them, so the originals (when I tested) were kept. Yes, I copied a single file / the same / identical (by content and same name) / the exact same file copied for example 10 times to the same folder / different folders on the same drive. Some became corrupt, some didn't.

If only there were displayed error messages when transferring failed...

or may be same file types?

Yes, I also copied different types of archives (zip, rar), if I remember it right.

What happens if you copy paste the same or similar file from the PC to the WD Elements, does it also corrupt?

I didn't try it until now. It is not that easy to reproduce the problem all the time. I synchronized in a further try on the same drive different (types of) archives (about 100, 200, I guess) and 1 or 2 or so became corrupted.

In WD DLG there is the option for SMART data, clicking on it should export to the screen the RAW SMART values of your WD external, could please post a screenshot of that?

Yes, I will do it as soon as possible, sorry at the moment, since about 12 hours, a memory test is running on the other Notebook (to exclude the RAM to cause the problem) so I cannot access it now. Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG, CrystalDiskInfo and other programs do not show any errors regarding the S.M.A.R.T. information for that drive.

Other reasons for the files corrupting would be a faulty cable

The Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG shows to test the cable. Is that test reliable?

drivers (USB etc.) installed improperly

The drivers for the USB port / controller or something like that? How could I find out? Is there a program which can test it?

corruption in the drive's file system

Which program could check that? Chkdsk of Win? Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG obviously does not check it.

or the files themselves have corruptions that may not show up in the initial copy, but during the transfer.

Hmmm, that would mean in my case a corrupted file works, can be played, opened properly, an archive can be unzipped without causing an error message of the unzipper program, but after transferring that file (the first time or a further time) the corruption shows its effect (without the same or with another check sum)?

If a drive is over 2.2 TB to be shown properly it would need to be Initialized in GPT

Sorry, I am not quite sure to understand, so when a drive is bigger than 2.2 TB it might not be shown properly on Win 7. And if it is not shown properly (that would have been very good because I would have noticed it and could have corrected it, but without a message according to anything being connected to a failure of that drive I would not have noticed anything) I would have to initialize it in GPI (whatever exactly that means. I do not have any idea of all of that, sorry). Does that mean, if a drive bigger than 2.2 TB is shown properly (so the entire size of the drive is shown, may be 3,6 TB "real" size of 4TB) there should not occur any problem then?

If your drive has shown correctly, in its full 4TB, and was able to follow copy paste commands

Yes, it was shown fully, the full "real" size (about 3,6 TB or so) at least, depending of the program showing the drives. And yes, all commands / processes appeared / appear to work correctly without any doubt. The behavior of the drive appears / appeared to be the same like usual / like it is with any other drive.

...it was initialized in GPT.

How could I find out now how it was / is initialized?

If you would like, try and reformat the external WD drive and try the transfer again.

Hmmm, yes, well, well, that is a good idea...but may be...so copying / moving all of the files stored on that drive would last about 2 and a half days (running 7/24, without interruption) on the second Notebook (USB 2.0) doing nothing but this and without checking the files after transferring, but without checking the files after transfer (and checking them absolutely would be necessary). With checking (by check sum or content) the files, I assume, it would last about 1 or 1 and a half days longer. Then initialize the drive with GPT, I do not know how long it lasts, then format (quick or full) the drive. Full format lasts about 2 and a half days. Then copy / move back the files to the drive, about 4 days with checking the check sums / contents after. Presumed there do not occur any problems, hesitations. With USB 3.0 it might last half the time, I could imagine.

And I do not know whether all of my other drives bigger than 2.2 TB of size are effected also. Actually I would have to grant they are effected. I have about 7, 8 Western Digital 4TB drives and other drives bigger than 2.2 TB. Even if all of these processes only last 6 days - I would not think so - (running 7/24) for a single drive it would last about 50 days (running 7/24) for all of these drives. And I could not use these drives (properly). And even if the problem would not occur anymore while testing after these processes are done I could not be sure the problem is gone. May be it is caused by anything else.

Many thanks again.

Oops, a new post, sorry, I missed it:

In Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Disk Management
right click on the disk for the extenal then click Properties
then Volumes. It will say Guid Partition Table GPT

I will look at it immediately after the memory test has finished.
Many thanks.

Doki said:

I did not move them (for testing), I always copied them, so the originals (when I tested) were kept.

This is good to know you didn't move the files. :) How do you know then the files got corrupted? What type of files are they?

Doki said:

Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG, CrystalDiskInfo and other programs do not show any errors regarding the S.M.A.R.T. information for that drive.

I understand they don't show errors in the results, but I would like to see the WD DLG SMART values. :)

Doki said:

The Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG shows to test the cable. Is that test reliable?

To which test of WD DLG are you referring to? The main ones are Quick and Extended. WD DLG has multiple error codes, some of which may apply to the physical connections. Generally speaking, the most reliable test for the cable is changing it with a known-working one.

Doki said:

The drivers for the USB port / controller or something like that? How could I find out? Is there a program which can test it?

For the drivers you can find in Device Manager, wherever there is a yellow exclamation mark, it means the drivers are not up to date.

Doki said:

Which program could check that? Chkdsk of Win?

If a file system is corrupted it would usually result in other problems, as well, the worst which would be the drive becoming in RAW format. Do you have any other issues with the drive?

Doki said:

Hmmm, that would mean in my case a corrupted file works, can be played, opened properly, an archive can be unzipped without causing an error message of the unzipper program, but after transferring that file (the first time or a further time) the corruption shows its effect (without the same or with another check sum)?

This was only a theory, thinking out loud. The checksums themselves, if they mismatch, indicate that the transmission is not corruption-free, so I would suppose the checksum mismatches are only on the corrupted files? How did you calculate the checksums?

Doki said:

Sorry, I am not quite sure to understand, so when a drive is bigger than 2.2 TB it might not be shown properly on Win 7. And if it is not shown properly (that would have been very good because I would have noticed it and could have corrected it, but without a message according to anything being connected to a failure of that drive I would not have noticed anything) I would have to initialize it in GPI (whatever exactly that means. I do not have any idea of all of that, sorry). Does that mean, if a drive bigger than 2.2 TB is shown properly (so the entire size of the drive is shown, may be 3,6 TB "real" size of 4TB) there should not occur any problem then?

Yes, almost. MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table) are two different ways of storing the partitioning information on a drive. Their methods are different. Since technology advanced and larger HDDs were created, these which were above 2.2TB, no matter the Windows you are using, need to be Initialized in GPT (generally), in order to be correctly and fully seen by the system. Or else you risk for instance a 3TB drive to be displayed as 800GB. All because MBR has limitations in the distribution of sectors on the drive. You could check how your drives have been initialized in diskpart.

1. Open the Start Menu, type diskpart, press Enter
2. Type list disk, press Enter

When you find the drive it would say either GPT or it will be blank (no GPT). But if the drive is correctly shown in Disk Management (e.g. 4TB=3.6TB "real" size), then it is GPT.

Doki said:

How could I find out now how it was / is initialized?

Every storage device is first Initialized before Partitioned and then formatted. It can't function otherwise.

Doki said:

With USB 3.0 it might last half the time, I could imagine.

Yes, it should.


My advice, change the cable, see what happens when you copy paste from teh system to the WD drive. Your first post was a bit fuzzy, how many drives do you have, and is the WD Elements the only one having this problem, only when you copy paste from it to it?

On Advanced format - includes actually a separate software for the older OS (WD Align Windows software utility):
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CK_WD