Timeless try a Ubuntu bootable disk >make the disk with ImgBurn and boot from it use the TRY version not the install and when it opens up you can find the drive in that Linux based OS no need to even go near windows. Click on the drive and open it up or scan it.
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what options would l need to use to scan the drive? as lve no problems with creating a live disk to try this (just as long as scanning wont cause issues lol).
Edit:
l tried loading the live disk and it wouldnt pick up my drive. in fact l had to disconnect it to get it to load up when l connected it when booted into the live disk it wouldnt pick up the drive.
Last edited by timeless; 12 Aug 2013 at 15:29.
Sorry, to run the Seatools test you'd need to remove the external from its case and plug it in internally.
If this is not possible then install and run Partition Wizard Check File System
and as John suggested Partition Wizard Partition surface test
a surface test looks to take 30 hours :/ l couldnt get it to go past a certain record annoyingly..
regardless.. l didnt want to spend out more but lve scraped some cash from my budget and grabbed another 3tb drive along with a caddy which should take up to 3TB (would be hell of allot better than using my current method of powering and transferring.
l guess what l could do once lve backed up the data is do a full format which should resolve the issue l assume because if its bad sectors ld assume it would remap them.
thats the sort of thing l have, it was the only thing that allowed me to partition the drive, however lve got my hands on a caddy for the drive that says it supports 3TB or larger drives.
tho l am wondering if the problem is related to my messing around before l got the adapter.. you see for a couple of days l was trying to get the drive to partition, l guess its entirely possible that the last transfers of data happened to cross an area of bad data from when l extended the partition. the best thing l can start with is just running a quick format when l put the drive in the caddy (once l have its data backed up) and if scandisk still has issues then l guess lm going to have to leave the damn thing testing for a while, its just annoying that l have to go through so much effort just to sort out the drive.
Run Seatools Extended test first when drive is in the caddy.
l should be able to do that tomorrow at some point. lm just wondering if it is down to the adapter considering its a cheapie from ebay, might be worth running scan disk while in the caddy just to see what it does..
Sure. The best way to understand the exact condition of a HD is to run the HD Diagnostics followed by full Disk Check.
Let us know how it goes, and any other performance issues you might have.
took nearly 16 hours but finally backed up the drive also quick formatted the drive then ran scandisk.
the drive hasnt given off any errors since the format or at least no errors were picked up by partition wizard, would that be an indication that my issue was related to problems with the file system and not the drive itself? because before ld pick up quite a few errors when running a check wish scan disk, or should l run a full scandisk which includes the second option on the windows scandisk prompt?
my best guess is all the original issues l had when trying to get the drive to initialise originally could have been part of the problem because originally l couldnt get the drive to be recognised. (l need sleep now but if its recommended l could run further diagnostics later and use the search for bad sectors option windows gives now l can scan the drive without errors showing up).
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