Windows 7: Corruption in large file transfers to USB drives

[Pleco]

Hi,

I have moved to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 for almost half a year, recently my hard drive was getting full and I decided to move some of the data to usb external hard drives. Both the externals I have are IDE hard drives and both are NTFS. I always use Quicksfv to make a CRC check file before I transfer the file and then run the CRC check after its been copied over to the external drive. I have used these externals in the past with Windows XP and had no problems.

However, on Windows 7 when transferring large files (usually over 1GB in size), I get corruption in the files. The corruption occurs randomly, if I recopy the files again it might be corruption free. This only occurs when copying files from internal to external, if I copy files from the external to my internal there's no corruption at all.
I have tried changing the usb cables, power cable of the externals, using different usb ports but none of it helped. I scanned both externals with chkdsk and I used memtest+ for over 24hours and all the tests passed fine.

Regards,
Pleco

 

[brady]

are you using a usb2+ device on a usb1 port/cord?
Do you have relevant system(dsk) errors after the corruption?
Are you using windows explorer to copy/move the files to the externals? Or other program?

 

[Maguscreed]

My first suggestion is to try disabling your security software during transfers.
Also I would try a different usb cable just in case.

 

[brady]

Like Maguscreed just said, your security software could be running live scan on transferred files.
for example: if your live scan finds something in the file transfer and attempts to quarantine it, I can see that corrupting your move.

 

[Pleco]

are you using a usb2+ device on a usb1 port/cord?
Do you have relevant system(dsk) errors after the corruption?
Are you using windows explorer to copy/move the files to the externals? Or other program?

I'm using usb2.0 externals with the usb ports on my motherboard. No relevant system errors that I know of. I am using Windows Explorer to copy the files to the externals.

 

[Pleco]

My first suggestion is to try disabling your security software during transfers.
Also I would try a different usb cable just in case.

I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows firewall. I have already tried three different usb cables and I even tried different power cables for the externals as well.

 

[brady]

Curious if robocopy would give the same corruption issue

 

[Pleco]

I forgot to mention that I had the same problem on a fresh new install of Windows 7 on a separate hard drive so I know for sure its not the security software that is causing this. I will test copying with robocopy once I get off work.

 

[Maguscreed]

If that's the case it's much more likely we are looking at some sort of hardware problem. Possibly even bad motherboard drivers.

 

[Pleco]

If that's the case it's much more likely we are looking at some sort of hardware problem. Possibly even bad motherboard drivers.

I have the most recent Intel Chipset drivers installed for my motherboard. This problem seems to occur only on Windows 7 so I don't think my motherboard is defective.

I did some searching on the internet and found several people with the same problem, unfortunately they never found a solution.

 

[gregrocker]

Have you tried a clean reinstall to see if the behavior continues? I'd clean reinstall without any tweaking or SFV to see the difference.

As a last resort you could also try a Repair Install, but if you have corruption in the SFV program or from tweaking it might let it back through.

Tips for getting a baseline purrfect reinstall - use the ones which apply: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

 

[NoN]

There's some Ms Hotfixes that might come soon with the SP1:
(that might not be all related, but...)


-Article ID: 976972 - Last Review: December 23, 2010 - Revision: 3.0
You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM
You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM


-Article ID: 982502 - Last Review: June 10, 2010 - Revision: 2.0
You cannot back up a file in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7 if the path length is longer than 260 characters
You cannot back up a file in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7 if the path length is longer than 260 characters


-Article ID: 2283445 - Last Review: August 12, 2010 - Revision: 1.0
The backup process requires significantly more time when you use the Windows Backup utility in Windows 7 if the size of the backup files increases
The backup process requires significantly more time when you use the Windows Backup utility in Windows 7 if the size of the backup files increases

 

[Pleco]

Have you tried a clean reinstall to see if the behavior continues? I'd clean reinstall without any tweaking or SFV to see the difference.

As a last resort you could also try a Repair Install, but if you have corruption in the SFV program or from tweaking it might let it back through.

Tips for getting a baseline purrfect reinstall - use the ones which apply: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

I have already tried a complete fresh install on a separate hard drive but the same thing occurs. I have never done any tweaking on my Windows 7, I left it on default settings. As for SFV, I downloaded a fresh copy of Quicksfv each time so I doubt it was corrupted itself. I have been using Quicksfv for over a decade now and it has never let me down.

 

[Pleco]

There's some Ms Hotfixes that might come soon with the SP1:
(that might not be all related, but...)


-Article ID: 976972 - Last Review: December 23, 2010 - Revision: 3.0
You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM
You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM


-Article ID: 982502 - Last Review: June 10, 2010 - Revision: 2.0
You cannot back up a file in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7 if the path length is longer than 260 characters
You cannot back up a file in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7 if the path length is longer than 260 characters


-Article ID: 2283445 - Last Review: August 12, 2010 - Revision: 1.0
The backup process requires significantly more time when you use the Windows Backup utility in Windows 7 if the size of the backup files increases
The backup process requires significantly more time when you use the Windows Backup utility in Windows 7 if the size of the backup files increases

I have looked at these hotfixes, but none of them apply to my situation. My motherboard has an Intel P35/ICH9R Chipset not Nvidia. I have Windows backup turned off so the other two patches won't do much good for me either.

 

[Pleco]

I have tried copying with Robocopy, but I still get the same random corruption.

 

[marsmimar]

Hi,

I have moved to Windows 7 Ultimate x64 for almost half a year, recently my hard drive was getting full and I decided to move some of the data to usb external hard drives. Both the externals I have are IDE hard drives and both are NTFS. I always use Quicksfv to make a CRC check file before I transfer the file and then run the CRC check after its been copied over to the external drive. I have used these externals in the past with Windows XP and had no problems.

However, on Windows 7 when transferring large files (usually over 1GB in size), I get corruption in the files. The corruption occurs randomly, if I recopy the files again it might be corruption free. This only occurs when copying files from internal to external, if I copy files from the external to my internal there's no corruption at all.
I have tried changing the usb cables, power cable of the externals, using different usb ports but none of it helped. I scanned both externals with chkdsk and I used memtest+ for over 24hours and all the tests passed fine.

Regards,
Pleco

Can you split those large files into smaller segments? If video files there are free splitters available. This one, for example. If no corruption occurs when large files are split it might help to narrow down the problem. If corruption still occurs it might point to a problem within the files themselves.

 

[Pleco]

The corruption occurs in all file types, and I have copied many different files so they are not the same ones that are getting corrupted. It just happens to be that the larger files have a higher rate of being corrupted.

 

[NoN]

Corrupted Admin rights might have corrupted aswell your files rights. Humm, looks a repair somewhere!

 

[gregrocker]

Have you tried a clean reinstall to see if the behavior continues? I'd clean reinstall without any tweaking or SFV to see the difference.

As a last resort you could also try a Repair Install, but if you have corruption in the SFV program or from tweaking it might let it back through.

Tips for getting a baseline purrfect reinstall - use the ones which apply: http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/125874-re-install-windows-7-a.html#post1086729

I have already tried a complete fresh install on a separate hard drive but the same thing occurs. I have never done any tweaking on my Windows 7, I left it on default settings. As for SFV, I downloaded a fresh copy of Quicksfv each time so I doubt it was corrupted itself. I have been using Quicksfv for over a decade now and it has never let me down.

But how long have you used SFV on Win7? If you've reinstalled to the same problem, then I'd try running for awhile without it. In fact I would not use any file copying program or anything like it at all until you elminate this as causing this as it is otherwise unheard of in Win7.

You should also wipe your HD of all code before trying reinstall as Infection or other corruption cannot be ruled out yet.

 

[Maguscreed]

I actually tried testing this myself on a video I had. 9 gigs of video copied over. Reported as corrupted. I played the video start to finish. There was not so much as one tiny sound hitch or out of place pixel in the entire video. If corruption occurred it was not anything that could be detected by me or the media player.