Moving files = bad sectors?

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 10:38 am

New one on me. I purchased a 500 GB external (re)drive recently, and moved some files from my hard drive and another, smaller external onto it. Then I discovered after an install froze several times that a new directory was corrupted. Re-formatted, reloaded some files--and had the same thing happen.

I called tech support, where I was told that you should never, ever move files between drives. I did a double-take; after all, this is common stuff, done by just about everybody I know, including myself, for decades, now. The techie did finally agree that it could have been bad sectors--though when I ran chkdsk last night, it seemingly repaired the damage, and made those directories I'd moved onto the (re)drive accessible, once more.

Am I out in left field about moving files onto external drives? I'm not naive enough to think apps that are moved can be automatically run this way, at least in most cases, but the techie seemed to think that caused the bad sectors, which seems to me ridiculous. What do you think?

Hoping that the drive will take more files now, in any case. And puzzled about why it developed bad sectors in the first place.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 11:01 am

My thoughts, and I've dealt with my share of bad sectors, is that it shouldn't be possible to copy anything that contains bad sectors in the first place. I'm thinking so because of floppies. You know, the big ones that got them all the time. You'd always get some kind of read error before any kind of copying would take place. If there was no kind of error output.. I imagine the sector would be copied along with it, possibly damaging the new disk in the process. But I've never seen anything like that. Perhaps this just isn't a floppy drive age any more so maybe there normally isn't any need for such a file transfer overhead.

I'm sceptic still. I guess the wise thing to do is run Scandisk first when planning some major transfer from an ageing disc.

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 12:32 pm

fable wrote:<snip>
I called tech support, where I was told that you should never, ever move files between drives. I did a double-take; after all, this is common stuff, done by just about everybody I know, including myself, for decades, now. <snip>

Don't really have much to add as I'm not really a hardware guy - but ..... that statement is nonsens. Of course you should move files between drives, that's like .... why we have drives. Otherwise you'd only have one big drive instead of several drives. That's what people do when taking back up for heavens sake.

Sounds like somebody didn't feel up to being in their support role that day :laugh:

As for your specific problem, then I don't really know much to help you (as said - I'm not hardware-guy) - however based on my experience; bad sectors are rare these days. I can't remember last time I got hit by bad sectors on hard drives or the like, and well -I use computers a lot.

You don't mention what type of files it was you tried to move, but from a debugging point of view - if the files aren't corrupt, I'd try to mimic the behaviour by moving the files to another drive and see if the same happens. That should narrow it down to the files themselves. Otherwise - it might be the drive which is defect and you should return it (if possible).

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 1:13 pm

Thanks, both of you.

Here are the details:

What I initially did was move several directories without any problem. Then I attempted to install a game--Simcity Societies/Destinations--on that drive, and it froze. I rebooted, tried again, and it happened again. I eventually tried placing it on my hard drive, without any problems. The readme file stated that it should only be installed on an IDE drive. I can't find this info about the drive anywhere, so that could have been the problem.

When I went to delete the partial installation, one directory showed up as corrupted, and all its contents, as well. None of it could be accessed. I tried a reformat based on the first techie I spoke with at that company. I then started reinstalling stuff, and the problem occurred, again. This time, there were two large directories I couldn't access. That's when I called back, and spoke to a second tech guy, who told me on no account should anybody move files between drives, and that I probably had bad sectors

Then I decided to do a chkdsk, and that seems to have recovered whatever I lost. But then I tried moving the recovered material around on the drive--and it's inaccessible, again. Something's up, there.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:42 pm

On further reconciliation I don't really believe it's possible to copy a bad sector. Maybe bad data from a sector, but that shouldn't recur in the form of another read error after fixing it. Xandax, do you reckon this could have anything to do with messed up file headers in the original files? Those can be copied if they're broken just fine. I haven't heard of it, but it is the only thing that comes to mind. In fact, I don't think I have anything else to add from this point. I sure don't know how to fix something like that... or do I. File recovery software, maybe? That's pretty hardcore though, I don't recommend you trying something like that.

I'll let you know if have another brain fart.

(Off topic, but I read some Henry Miller the past week and every bit of English I've tried to write since seems to sound New Yorkish in my head. It's a little disturbing.)

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:00 pm

Tricky, I guess I wasn't clear. It was never said I was copying a bad sector; that's impossible, as you state. The techie was stating that copying files across drives was causing bad sectors on the receiving end.

Tricky · Post by **Tricky** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:09 pm

No, I get that. It's just that the techie is wrong about it, and I was considering him in my first post. In the second I discarded that idea and I tried to figure out why the techie might have thought that. But what it comes down to in any case is that I don't know how to help you.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:09 pm

Shouldn't chkdsk or any similar program mark any bad sectors as such, so they aren't accessed in the future? Because if so, when I used it the first time, the sectors should have been walled off. Instead, in trying to move some stuff around on that drive afterwards, I've encountered similar corruption problems.

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:30 pm

Data corruption like this usually means the copy is being interrupted during the write process. If you can, try an alternate USB port on your computer (or Firewire if it uses that instead) and a different wall power socket. I'd also suggest trying the drive on another computer to see if it's the drive itself.

If none of those solutions produce any other results then it's more likely the internal drive electronics or power supply are at fault. How's the warranty look?

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:59 pm

I've used several externals for a long time now, and I've never really had a problem with files being corrupted...I always just use the space to store things like videos, pictures, or music, and to back up some things like save games. I've never installed anything on my external, for reasons that I'm not too sure about, but I think it was because I heard that you shouldn't install them on external drives (because transferring data over USB probably isn't the best way for programs). I don't know very much about hardware though.

If possible, I would just return the drive as defective and try it with a new one.

fable · Post by **fable** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:58 pm

Warranty should hold--I think it's good for a year, and this is about 6 weeks old. I wonder if I should have turned off the turbo option, which greatly increases speed? That might have slowed transfers, but could have avoided (I think) what Flibble is referring to.

Kipi · Post by **Kipi** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 7:58 am

fable wrote:Warranty should hold--I think it's good for a year, and this is about 6 weeks old. I wonder if I should have turned off the turbo option, which greatly increases speed? That might have slowed transfers, but could have avoided (I think) what Flibble is referring to.

That could be it. What I've heard, turbo mode is faster but doesn't like interruptions (even very minor ones) at all.

Oh, and have you plugged the HD directly to USB port, or are you using some kind of additional cables or USB port dividers (I mean those things that allows you to plug several USB devices to one port)? Those tend to cause interuptions, which would result bad files and directories.

And last thing, I don't think it's the case but gonna ask it anyway, do you have USB 2.0? If not, then the HD may disconnect itself often for short period of times (less than second), but for long enough to cause interruptions in writing and/or reading. Experienced such thing with my old laptop (with USB 1.0) and my MP3 player.

And installing softwares to external HD doesn't cause that, as I do that a lot. I tend to install programms I don't use that much to my external HD so that more space is available in internal HD. And no problems thus far.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Nov 22, 2008 10:50 am

I have USB 2.0, and use a simple cable to connect to the external drive via the port.