Somebody help! - Sudden massive loss of data from an external driv

[Guest]

I don't know where else to turn so here goes. I have a fairly new Maxtor
External USB drive (200gig) that seemed totally reliable. I am used to
connecting and disconnecting it and I've never had trouble before.

Now all of a sudden I cannot seem to access any of the data on it. I can
see some of the directory stucture but none of the files. All of a sudden I
am getting 'Delayed Write Failed' errors. I have never seen this error
before.

As near as I can remember I put my machine into standby last night after a
very massive data transfer (in the gigabytes) and then unplugged my external
drive as I am accustomed to do when I'm not using it.

Also I am now unable to do the basic disk check for errors. On the other
hand, the disk is still showing approximately the correct space usage.

If anyone has any recovery suggestions, please let me know! I am not going
to try to write anything to the disk until I get some guidance.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per B. Chernick:

As near as I can remember I put my machine into standby last night after a
very massive data transfer (in the gigabytes) and then unplugged my external
drive as I am accustomed to do when I'm not using it.

Also I am now unable to do the basic disk check for errors. On the other
hand, the disk is still showing approximately the correct space usage.

This isn't any help - except for preventing recurrence - but is
there any chance that you forgot to do the USB "Safely Remove
Hardware" thing?

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately yes. What exactly just happened?

Per B. Chernick:

This isn't any help - except for preventing recurrence - but is
there any chance that you forgot to do the USB "Safely Remove
Hardware" thing?

 

[Malke]

Unfortunately yes. What exactly just happened?

What happened is that the disk got corrupted because you pulled it while
Windows was still writing to it. I hope you followed best practice and
*copied* your data instead of *moving* it. Otherwise, the only way to
get the data back is from other external media such as DVD-R or possibly
by using data recovery software on the external drive.

If retrieving the data isn't an issue - you wisely copied instead of
moved - then just format the external drive per the mftr.'s directions
and start over. With external hard drives, I usually don't disconnect
them/turn them off until I turn off the computer just to be on the safe
side. If you don't turn off the computer, then at least be sure you use
the Safely Remove Hardware function in the future.


Malke

 

[Guest]

Yes I copied most of it. There were a few items that I cut and pasted. Even
so, that shouldn't result in total data loss. I've already tried 2 data
recovery programs and they can't see anything, Maxtor's own 'File Recovery
for windows' (it won't even allow me to scan the disk), and File Recover 6.1
(which I'm running a physical scan with and apparently will take some time.)

Is this just dumb bad luck or are USB drives really this unreliable? I've
been using them for years and this have never happened to me before.

Also, if anyone has any favorite recovery utilities they'd like to suggest,
please do.

 

[Malke]

Yes I copied most of it. There were a few items that I cut and pasted. Even
so, that shouldn't result in total data loss. I've already tried 2 data
recovery programs and they can't see anything, Maxtor's own 'File Recovery
for windows' (it won't even allow me to scan the disk), and File Recover 6.1
(which I'm running a physical scan with and apparently will take some time.)

Is this just dumb bad luck or are USB drives really this unreliable? I've
been using them for years and this have never happened to me before.

Also, if anyone has any favorite recovery utilities they'd like to suggest,
please do.

USB drives are usually not unreliable. Of course, the external hard
drive itself may have failed and this may have nothing to do with
unplugging it while data was being written to it. Hard drives do fail
sometimes which is why I like a layered approach to backup; i.e., files
backed up to an external hard drive frequently and then a DVD-R backup
created once a month.

You can test your hard drive with the Maxtor hard drive utility or
contact Maxtor tech support for your next step.

For data recovery, I use Ontrack's Easy Recovery Pro but it is
expensive. R-Studio has been recommended by people I respect and it is
less than Ontrack's app.


Malke

 

[Guest]

Ok. Thank you one and all for your prompt responses. The problem has
somehow automagically gone away. For no good reason (instinct I suppose) I
did a shutdown and a restart and all the files have reappeared. Looks like
USB drives are truely idiot-proof. Once again I have to ask: What just
happened?

(By the way, which Maxtor hard drive utility are you refering to?)

Once again, thank you all.

 

[Malke]

Ok. Thank you one and all for your prompt responses. The problem has
somehow automagically gone away. For no good reason (instinct I suppose) I
did a shutdown and a restart and all the files have reappeared. Looks like
USB drives are truely idiot-proof. Once again I have to ask: What just
happened?

There's no way for me to guess what just happened. Enjoy your good luck
and make sure you are careful about backing up your files. Include
burning data to DVD-R occasionally to create the "layered backup"
strategy and don't *move* files; *copy* them and then go back and delete
if so desired.

(By the way, which Maxtor hard drive utility are you refering to?)

All hard drive mftrs. have free drive diagnostic utilities available on
their websites. You download the utility file and use it to create a
bootable cd/floppy. You need third-party burning software to create the
bootable cd. Then you boot with the media you created and do a thorough
test on the drive to see if it is physically damaged. Since you know you
have a Maxtor, you would look for Maxtor's hard drive diagnostic
utility. In cases where you aren't sure what hard drive you have,
Seagate's SeaTools works well.


Malke

 

[sean]

I would strongly advise you to backup everything you have on the drive
and run a drive test utility on it - allmost certainly it has
developed bad sectors and should be returned under it's warrenty.

Sean Moore
www.easyrestore.co.uk
Professional Data Recovery

 

[Poprivet]

I don't know where else to turn so here goes. I have a fairly new
Maxtor External USB drive (200gig) that seemed totally reliable. I am
used to connecting and disconnecting it and I've never had trouble
before.

Now all of a sudden I cannot seem to access any of the data on it. I
can see some of the directory stucture but none of the files. All of
a sudden I am getting 'Delayed Write Failed' errors. I have never
seen this error before.

As near as I can remember I put my machine into standby last night
after a very massive data transfer (in the gigabytes) and then
unplugged my external drive as I am accustomed to do when I'm not
using it.

Also I am now unable to do the basic disk check for errors. On the
other hand, the disk is still showing approximately the correct space
usage.

If anyone has any recovery suggestions, please let me know! I am not
going to try to write anything to the disk until I get some guidance.

I glanced at most of the responses here, and they're all reasonable IMO.
However, I didn't see where you Restarted the computer. Did you?
Try connecting the USB Drive, Power Off the computer for 30 seconds or
so, and then restart it. Check the drive. Working OK? Might be.

Otherwise you may have to try pulling the drive from the box and install it
inside your computer as a slave in order to get the data off it.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Poprivet]

Yes I copied most of it. There were a few items that I cut and
pasted. Even so, that shouldn't result in total data loss. I've
already tried 2 data recovery programs and they can't see anything,
Maxtor's own 'File Recovery for windows' (it won't even allow me to
scan the disk), and File Recover 6.1 (which I'm running a physical
scan with and apparently will take some time.)

Is this just dumb bad luck or are USB drives really this unreliable?
I've been using them for years and this have never happened to me
before.

I don't think they are unreliable at all. I think you did the wrong thing
by pulling it while it was still trying to work. Who knows where the heads
were when you did that? Always follow the rules and best practices.
And try that Cold Boot I described earlier.
Pop`

 

[Poprivet]

Ok. Thank you one and all for your prompt responses. The problem has
somehow automagically gone away. For no good reason (instinct I
suppose) I did a shutdown and a restart and all the files have
reappeared. Looks like USB drives are truely idiot-proof. Once
again I have to ask: What just happened?

You did what you needed to do from the beginning: those are NOT idiot
proof. Once again, follow the rules. Use the Safe Removal tool. It's
there for a reason. RTFM also comes to mind <g>

Pop`

 

[Poprivet]

I would strongly advise you to backup everything you have on the drive
and run a drive test utility on it - allmost certainly it has
developed bad sectors and should be returned under it's warrenty.

Sean Moore
www.easyrestore.co.uk
Professional Data Recovery

I disagree with "allmost certainly"; it simply needed to have all the memory
allocations and storage tables straightened out, which the reboot
accomplished.
That said, it's still a good idea to run chkdsk on drives once a year or
so or whenever there have been problems. "Bad" sectors can sometimes be
fixed.
That said again, thanks for reminding me I need to run chkdsk on my C
drive again; it came up with 4 bad sectors about a month ago so I've been
running it more often, watching to see if more sectors go bad.

Pop`

 

[Irradicant]

I propose you to try ARAX Disk Doctor. This powerful tool will recover
your drive, Im pretty sure in it
http://www.disk-doctor.com/

 

[Malke]

I propose you to try ARAX Disk Doctor. This powerful tool will recover
your drive, Im pretty sure in it
http://www.disk-doctor.com/

fsck off, spammer


Malke

 

[Guest]

I have a similar(?) problem. A botched download created the "Delayed Write
Failed" message (ZEN Nano Plus player) and disabled access by USB. Any way to
disable this OS response after the fact? Ludwix

 

[dobey]

Have you tried connecting the drive to another PC.

I had an odd experience with an external drive and XP 64 bit. I had used the
drive before, but after not using it for about a month, I connected it and
it came up in windows as an unformatted HDD.

I blanched a bit because there was several hundred gigs of data on there.

I rebooted and tried again and it came up as it should.

Maybe there is some problem with the drive itself.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I did. This is a thumb drive. The incomplete/corrupt file makes the
computer wait to the download completion. Hence, USB is unusable (no reformat
possibility). Test on another similar computer results in the same "Delayed
Write Failed" message. I even tried it on an Apple computer - different OS.
Showed the drive, which then vanished before action was possible. Odd...
Thanks for responding

 

[dobey]

How old is the drive? Flash drives, (I assume it's this type), have a
limited number of writes - quite a lot, but still not endless.

Sounds like something is fux0rd...

 

[Guest]

It is a flash drive. Rarely used, almost empty on 1G memory. Botched download
is locking the USM. No "local" formatting on this player.