Corrupt External HDDs except when used on my laptop

[CorneliusM]

Hi all,

I apologise for the crap title and i accidently posted before I even started!

I was given two External usb HDDs both 80gb each, my friend said they were totally unusable on his laptops they were corrupted but using them on my laptop I successfully formatted and am using them as we speak.
I'm just concerned with whether or not I will lose all i've backed up onto these External HDDs because of them not working on my friend's laptops but working perfectly fine on mine!

 

[Anak]

Congratulations on successfully reviving those HDD's.

You could try this to obtain a reliability report on those HDD's:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-cpu-stress-test-prime95.html

I would suggest removing any data that you already have on them, before testing. Some type of copy because the test just might ruin the HDD's.

At the very least back-ups/images/ghosts. I do not think making back-ups would stress them enough to ruin them, but you never know. Your call.

 

[CorneliusM]

Hi Cheers for the reply,

I'll try have that done Friday when I have all day free, I am creating a System Image on a 500gb External HDD for future emergencies, started thinking about just keeping all "valuables" on external HDDs instead of the Local Disk!

Congratulations on successfully reviving those HDD's.

You could try this to obtain a reliability report on those HDD's:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/100352-cpu-stress-test-prime95.html

I would suggest removing any data that you already have on them, before testing. Some type of copy because the test just might ruin the HDD's.

At the very least back-ups/images/ghosts. I do not think making back-ups would stress them enough to ruin them, but you never know. Your call.

 

[Britton30]

Anak, Prime96 is only for stressing the CPU.
This is a good one for HDD testing, HDDGURU > Software > HDDScan > HDDScan_v31.zip
If the 80GB external drives pass the test with no errors, they should be fine. You can also go to the drive makers' site for diagnostic programs specific to them.
Yes a backup/image on external devices is the right way to go.

 

[Anak]

Hi! Britton30, I am open to all suggestions! Yours sounds like a good one. I did not know about it.

Another one is the HDD mfg. for tests. I was thinking about it while posting here, but failed to include it.

I would have rep'ed you, but its too soon.....

 

[Britton30]

Thanks Anak.
Here's some more Drive Utilities Hard Drive Testing Tools - Top 7 Free Hard Drive Testing Tools - Hard Drive Diagnostics