external harddrive dead????

[maggot]

i have a second hand external hardrive,has been fine for 4 weeks,but now when i try moving movies or burning movies on it , it fails,and i get a delayed file write error message come up,also sometimes when i try and open folders stored on it,it says access denied device is not accesable-is it dead??

[redwudz]

Delayed write is when the write was interrupted and the data was not fully transferred. I have this fairly commonly with external drives and USB hookups. I hope you are using USB2.0 if it's USB. USB1.1 is not much good for external devices.

It it happens several times, it can mess up the drive enough so that it's unusable. The drive is probably not dead, but some of the data may be lost. Or the file structure itself may be damaged.

It's similar to unplugging a drive while it's writing.

You may be able to do a disk repair. (Right click on the drive>Properties>Tools>Error checking.

If that fails, I would get all the files off it and reformat and it should be OK again.

Try to find what is messing with the data transfer. Antivirus programs can do it for one. If it's USB, consider Firewire instead.

Never unplug an external drive while it's transferring. Use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' icon in your Taskbar. If it won't let you turn it off, turn off the computer, then remove.

You can also check the devices settings in Device Manager. Look under 'Disk drives' for the drive, then>Properties>Policies. Set for 'Optimize for Performance' if you leave it plugged in all the time.

[maggot]

hi-thak you,have you any links/ tips for reformatting??

[redwudz]

Two ways to do it. You can just right click on the drive and choose 'Format'.

Or: Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management Shortcut>Storage>Disk Management. Right click your drive, delete partition, make new partition, then reformat. This is more through and starts you with a clean slate.

[ofbarea]

Read this link: http://www.bustrace.com/delayedwrite/

Is your case firewire?