I bought an external USB hard disk a while ago, and have had lots of trouble with it. The device often doesn't mount properly and the main issue is "Windows - Delayed Write Failure" error messages and the drive failing. Usually windows explorer shuts down too at this time and I have to ctrl-alt-del and run it again to get it back. The problem is that I did manage to transfer some valuable data to the disk, and now I cannot seem to retrieve it, some files and folders come back to my c: drive fine, but others just don't. It always fails on the same files, for instance if I have 10 mp3's in a folder and it fails on 7.mp3, it always copies the 6 before that and then crashes and stops explorer on 7.mp3. It's not just mp3 files, but specific files, seemingly of all kinds. Renaming some file names to having no associated extension or no extension at all (ie x. a) has allowed me to copy over some files that previously brought up delayed write error. However some just will not copy whatever I try.
I need to return the drive to the manufacturers to get a refund within the few days as the warranty is running out. I have tried it on multiple machines both with sp1 and sp2, same issues. Therefore I am not requesting a replacment drive, many people have had this problem with the drive. The drive is a "Lacie 250gb USB designed by FA Porsche" and I am using a usb2 cable with usb2 ports.
I can't open the thing to plug it straight in via ide or I would have already. Or rather, I think I could, but it would most probably show signs that I have done so and void my warranty. Of course, they do not retrieve any data for you when you send back their shoddy drives.
The data is extremely valuable to me and I would greatly appreciate any ideas on what I can do to retrieve it before I send the drive back.
If you still have the usb hard-drive try unpluggin any USB item you arent using when trying to use your usb hard drive. Then with all that unplugged plug the drive in a give it a whirl.
Lacie is one of the worst drives ever made. I have had to recover more data for customers off of lacie drives than any other drive. Royal pain.
Sounds like the drive is pretty much toast. Move what you can, but dont do it in bulk. Move smaller groups of files, and everytime it crashes on you, eliminate the bad file on the next transfer attempt. It takes a LONG time to do this, I know. But if you need ths data, thats what you have to do.
Thanks for your suggestions, but it has ended in the inevitable data loss. I did manage to retrieve most of it in the end, including quite a few of the files that brought up the delayed write error, managed to do this by renaming them mainly. I was left with something like 20gb of mainly video files which just would not transfer whatever I tried. Wondering why video files seemed to have a harder time being copied? Also I'm wondering why all the files that brought up the error did so, it was not specific to any variable that I could pin down, for instance 2 mp3's of the the same data size, same bit depth and resolution, same number of characters in the name and residing in the same directory, one would copy fine the other would error. The same goes for other types of file (.doc .bak .iso .avi etc). I did make sure I had no other usb devices plugged in while trying to transfer the data, and I even went to the lengths of disabling many services and device drivers while trying to transfer. I just don't understand why it is specific to certain files, it seems like it has nothing to do with the usb or ide bus or anything, just the actual adapter in the enclosure, but why allow some and not others? Anyway, I'll never buy anything from lacie again, which reminds me, a friend bought me an external lacie usb cd burner a while back. It was extremely volatile and I doubt I'll ever make as many coasters for the rest of my life as I did using that thing for a few months. In my opinion, avoid Lacie at all costs.
What happened is that you ended up with bad sectors on the drive itself. When a file is written to the drive, the data is typically not written sequentially. Some of it goes here, some goes there, etc. So, if you have a section of the drive that went bad, it will affect many, many files( or at least small portions of them). Sorry to hear about the data loss. I've been there and it truly sucks. I am happy to hear that you will avoid Lacie inthe future though.
