Failing external HDD (?)--what to do?

[KJC]

I have had this 6TB La Cie external drive for about three years now. It is about half full.

I have probably close to 1 TB of music files (99% of them FLAC), which I play through my Foobar2000 app. For some time now, I have been noticing that in some tracks, there is a one second dropout (a second of silence).

I also have all of my photos (about 2TB ) backed up on this drive.

Here are the latest issues (today!)

Cannot copy NEF files to USB flash drive (practically brand new!). Error messages about hardware failure. The same exact files copy to the exact same drive without issue from a different drive (internal HDD).

Viewing NEF files in Widows abominable Photos app shows that some photos will not generate previews--or the previews look as if they were taken with a 0.001 MP sensor. I usually avoid this app like the plague, but wanted to take a quick look.

Launching RawTherapee and viewing the files leads to RT crashing after four or five thumbnails have loaded. I have never seen this before! This happens for three different folders of NEF files.

Trying to scan the drive with Windows Defender leads to the Windows Defender spash screen and the hourglass...and nothing else.

Can someone suggest how to launch a scan and/or what I should do in this situation!? Is this three-year old drive toast?

Thanks for any suggestions.

EDIT: OK, I found Scan and Repair. App stated that there are errors on the disk...

 

[Austinian]

The symptoms you're experiencing with your LaCie external drives are indications of potential issues with the drive itself or the data stored on it. Given the symptoms you've described, it's possible that the drive may have developed hardware issues or bad sectors over time.

You can use the built-in Windows utility called "Check Disk" (chkdsk) to scan and repair any file system errors on the external drive. Open a Command Prompt with administrator privileges and run the following command: chkdsk /f X: Replace "X:" with the drive letter assigned to your LaCie drive. You can also opt for recovery software to ensure data safety.

Thank you, ChatGPT.

FYI, all:

AFAIK so far mods have not received guidance from the admins WRT probable-AI posts; at this point in time, as long as they don't violate forum rules, I've been letting them live.

My justification is that many of them are no dumber, no older, and/or no more wrong than what we've seen from some probable-human posters. ;-)

If anyone has seen admin info to the contrary, please send me the link.

Edit: If the AI posts get too frequent, I'll reconsider that policy. So, AI posters, don't get too active!

 

[BobKnDP]

The symptoms you're experiencing with your LaCie external drives are indications of potential issues with the drive itself or the data stored on it. Given the symptoms you've described, it's possible that the drive may have developed hardware issues or bad sectors over time.

You can use the built-in Windows utility called "Check Disk" (chkdsk) to scan and repair any file system errors on the external drive. Open a Command Prompt with administrator privileges and run the following command: chkdsk /f X: Replace "X:" with the drive letter assigned to your LaCie drive. You can also opt for recovery software to ensure data safety.

Robotic response or not, chkdsk doesn't "repair" hardware problems on a disk. It prevents data from being written to the bad areas.

If there are bad sectors, back up the data and replace the drive soonest. If you wish to preserve your data.