Other External products

[FrankJP]

On my Windows XP machine, I have been using Seagate ST9 100801U2-RK for a few years.  A couple of weeks ago, because the drive light kept flashing with the drive making a clicking sound, I disconnected it.  Later I tried tried to run CHKDSK and could not do so until AlanM here told me how to access the drive in Safe Mode.  Then, CHKDSK /F worked and I ran a defrag successfully.

Today, system clean-up software froze while on a temporary file on the USB drive.  I could not access the file via Windows Explorer to delete it.   So, I again went to Safe Mode with Command Prompt, "dismounted" the drive (whatever that means!) and ran CHKDSK /F

Stage 1 of 3 "verify" deleted a couple dozen corrupt attribute records, a few corrupt list entries, and 2 orphan files.  Stage 2 of 3 deleted about 2 dozen entries in index $130.  When it was "44% complete", the drive light started flashing on and off with clicking sounds.  After about 15 minutes at 44%, I hit <ctrl><alt><del> to access task manager.  It said CPU usage was 0%, with occasional flashes at 1%.  I then stopped CHKDSK and rebooted.

Now, Windows Explorer does "see" the USB disk and I can get it to show "folders", but I cannot go to subfolders or files.

Is there any way to get my USB drive to work again?  to be reliable?  Thank you.

Frank

[AlanM]

Can you try SeaTools for Windows?

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=202435&NewLang=en

[FrankJP]

Thank you.  Sorry for the delayed response.  I was waiting for a message to tell me that there was a response.  I had failed to check "Email me when someone responds." 

Anyway, a few hours ago, I saw your message and downloaded and installed SeaTools for Windows.  Then, I ran several options.

S.M.A.R.T. Check was "unavailable"

Short DST, and Long DST both "failed"

Short Generic Passed

Long Generic (with my hitting F8 to fix errors ran for >2 hours.  By the time the status bar / ribbon was about at 40%, it reported 32 errors.  It continued, still reporting 32 errors, until the bar was about 85% complete, and then it reported "fail"

The option for information about the drive seemed to "work" OK Model Number ST9100824A, serial number 3PL09EPX, Firmware Revision 3.06, Max LBA 195371569.  The next four items are Enabled, Enabled, Supported, Enabled (That last Enabled is for SMART, despite the fact that as mentioned above, "S.M.A.R.T. Check was "unavailable".  Next are two more "Enabled" and then "True"  twice for Smart items.  Drive Temperature was 31/88.  Power on hours was 13981.  I do not have copies of the other items it checked.  I clicked on "Save to File" but I do not know where to find the saved file.

Does this help?  Can we "fix" the drive without resorting to formatting it?  If we have to format it, what is the chance that it will soon fail again?

Thank you AGAIN for all your help.

Frank

[AlanM]

The drive sounds like it's on the way out, sorry.

I'd try chkdsk again, but if it can't fix it, you might have to run some searches on google and/or this forum for a third-party software to help with fixing bad sectors, etc. 

Otherwise, there's nothing to do but to try to wipe it and run another test to see if that works.  If not, sorry, it's bad.  You can keep using it (because it's not under warranty; otherwise I'd tell you to replace it) until it fails, but remember to keep backing the data up at all times.