External HDD Errors

[ShadowChaser]

So I have an HDD dock that I use all the time, and two hdds that I swap between because my PC's HDD bays are all occupied. Today, while attempting to retrieve photos from one disk and put in into the other, something went wrong when I plugged in my "cold storage" drive, a Toshiba 6TB Performance HDD. Seeing that it wasn't being detected (windows telling me it wasn't recognized and might have malfunctioned), I swapped back to my other disk, a WD Black 500 GB 2.5" Drive. Which also promptly threw the same error when I tried to access it in disk manager:

"The request couldn't be performed because of an I/O device error"

on a rare occasion, I also got:

"Windows could not access the drive because it is write protected" or something, but it went away.

 

My problem is how do I remedy this without reformatting? I watched Linus's video but I'm not sure which is best for me. I would like to save the data if possible as it has my family's photos that have NOT been protected (redundant copies, etc)

[seagate_surfer]

Hello ShadowChaser,

 

You are using a dock and you also tested to known working hard drives on that same device, this point to a problem with the docking station instead. Test your drives in other systems if possible, I would avoid docking/adapters and would connect the drives straight to the motherboard and if the drives doesn't appear then the problems may be related to the hard drives, or use another third drive on this docking, it is very difficult to have three working drives to fail all at once or even another different docking if possible.

[dcgreen2k]

It sounds like the HDD dock is the bad part, have you tried connecting the drives directly to the computer?

[ShadowChaser]

5 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

Hello ShadowChaser,

 

You are using a dock and you also tested to known working hard drives on that same device, this point to a problem with the docking station instead. Test your drives in other systems if possible, I would avoid docking/adapters and would connect the drives straight to the motherboard and if the drives doesn't appear then the problems may be related to the hard drives, or use another third drive on this docking, it is very difficult to have three working drives to fail all at once or even another different docking if possible.

 

5 hours ago, thegreengamers said:

It sounds like the HDD dock is the bad part, have you tried connecting the drives directly to the computer?

I will do that once I get to my next scheduled cleaning period (Node 202s suck to dis/reassemble when modded with an AIO). In the meantime, would switching to another external dock help alleviate the issue? I'm strapped for cash at the moment and don't want to waste any money.

[dcgreen2k]

3 hours ago, ShadowChaser said:

 

I will do that once I get to my next scheduled cleaning period (Node 202s suck to dis/reassemble when modded with an AIO). In the meantime, would switching to another external dock help alleviate the issue? I'm strapped for cash at the moment and don't want to waste any money.

That would probably work.

[seagate_surfer]

18 hours ago, ShadowChaser said:

 

I will do that once I get to my next scheduled cleaning period (Node 202s suck to dis/reassemble when modded with an AIO). In the meantime, would switching to another external dock help alleviate the issue? I'm strapped for cash at the moment and don't want to waste any money.

Yes it should, I would test the dock of course before buying just in case, if it happens to be that the problem is not in the dock station then take it back and ask for a refund. 

[ShadowChaser]

3 hours ago, seagate_surfer said:

Yes it should, I would test the dock of course before buying just in case, if it happens to be that the problem is not in the dock station then take it back and ask for a refund. 

I did just that and the drive is working perfectly. It is also now installed in my case with an internal usb connection so hopefully it will tide me over until I can combine the contents of two drives into one. Is there any specific procedure to doing this or can I just grab a larger disk and copy files over?

[seagate_surfer]

Happy to hear that the problem was not in your hard drives! And yes, there are tool for data migration or disk cloning that offer you ways to move your files besides just placing them manually to another drive, tools like Acronis and EaseUS can be very helpful in these cases:

1. https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/true-image-features/imaging/
2. https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/copy-and-clone-hard-drive.html