"File is corrupt and unreadable" on USB drive

[kgb3d]

I recently removed an IDE drive from my desktop PC, put it into a
USB2.0 caddy, and attached it to my laptop. Both are running Windows
XP Home.

Everything seemed fine at first - the three partitions on the drive
announced themselves, Windows appeared to scan through the files to
offer an autoplay (!) and in Explorer I could see the partitions and
navigate through the directory structures, all with no problem.

However, when I click on any file, I get the message 'File is Corrupt
and Unreadable'.

I went straight to Google, but was overwhelmed by the variety of
different problems and solutions that are out there. None seemed to
quite match my situation, although I am sure it is common.

Could anyone with more wisdom than me point me in the right direction
for this specific kind of problem - before I go blundering around with
inappropriate fixes that trash the disk further.

I ran CHKDSK /f on one of the partitions, which announced that the MBR
was corrupt. Unfortunately that made the entire partition unreadable.
However, on rebooting the PC and drive, it was back to square one
(i.e. partition readable but with 'corrupt and unreadable' files).

The drive was originally set as the master on the desktop. I switched
the jumper to act as a slave on the desktop. Could that be a cause of
the problem?

Happy to provide any other information that will help. For what its
worth ... the drive is a Western Digital Special Edition 80GB, the
caddy is a generic IDE to USB2.0 holder.

Many thanks,
Kevin

 

[Andy]

I recently removed an IDE drive from my desktop PC, put it into a
USB2.0 caddy, and attached it to my laptop. Both are running Windows
XP Home.

Everything seemed fine at first - the three partitions on the drive
announced themselves, Windows appeared to scan through the files to
offer an autoplay (!) and in Explorer I could see the partitions and
navigate through the directory structures, all with no problem.

However, when I click on any file, I get the message 'File is Corrupt
and Unreadable'.

I went straight to Google, but was overwhelmed by the variety of
different problems and solutions that are out there. None seemed to
quite match my situation, although I am sure it is common.

Could anyone with more wisdom than me point me in the right direction
for this specific kind of problem - before I go blundering around with
inappropriate fixes that trash the disk further.

I ran CHKDSK /f on one of the partitions, which announced that the MBR
was corrupt. Unfortunately that made the entire partition unreadable.
However, on rebooting the PC and drive, it was back to square one
(i.e. partition readable but with 'corrupt and unreadable' files).

The drive was originally set as the master on the desktop. I switched
the jumper to act as a slave on the desktop. Could that be a cause of
the problem?

No.
I would put the drive back in the desktop PC and see if it has any
problem. If not, then the USB enclosure is the problem.