Single Drive Disconnecting and Reconnecting

bnthomason · 30 May 2021

Hello! I have a drive that keeps disconnecting and reconnecting. It used to do it once every week, then once every day, and now, once every hour, and the speed of disconnection is increasing.

It a Seagate 4TB Backup Plus Desktop Drive.

I'm using windows 10 Pro

Specs:
Windows 10 Pro Version 20H2
Asus Prime Z-270A
Intel i7700K-High Performance Edition

I am sure the reason the drive has been disconnecting and reconnecting is because the drive is old and about to fail. However, I don't think I have time to copy all the files over, even if just the important ones.

Is there a way to backup all the files on another hard drive? Or send the drive in for professional backup methods? The drive still works... for now.

dalchina · 30 May 2021

Hi, you could check it with Hard Disk Sentinel (usefully functional after trial) - best report I know of.

Naturally you can copy the files or whole partitions. Success depends on the state of the drive.

Given the way it's behaving, I suggest you consider copying (not moving) files in smaller blocks in the hope that a copy operation isn't interrupted. It could be less messy to transfer files in smaller blocks to a different folder each time- if you had transferred a LOT of files successfully, then one copy was interrupted - into the same set of files - you could have a messy situation to resolve unless you were very disciplined.

Robocopy, Teracopy are popular.

RickC · 30 May 2021

An external drive is just an internal drive with a) a USB-to-SATA circuit board and b) a connection cable. You mention disconnecting/reconnecting, not spinning down so this suggests a power issue rather than platter damage, possibly with one of these two components.

Have you an alternative USB cable you could try? Have you tried alternate USB ports?

If it is the USB-to-SATA circuit board beginning to fail then you can always try cracking open the drive's enclosure and mounting the bare drive in either a caddy or inside a PC.

Hope this helps...

dalchina · 30 May 2021

And you can try a different port on your PC.

bnthomason · 31 May 2021

Health is at 21% capacity, according to the Drive. Now, I can't even copy my video files off of it. I have important things on there, I waited too late to buy the new hard drives (Not really my fault tho, I couldn't convince my rep payee to buy them soon enough).

Any brute force way to get the data off?

dalchina · 31 May 2021

If you mean Hard Disk Sentinel reported problems (weak sectors? communication problems? bad sectors? lifetime? - no screenshot...) and the drive itself forgetting any other aspect of the hardware is defective, then you would need professional recovery techniques and services. (Expensive)

If you can't consistently access it, or the disk surface is failing and data is corrupt- and you have no backup...

spunk · 31 May 2021

If you have had the drive for a year or less you can send it to Seagate and they will replace it with a refurbished drive for free. Check the warranty status. If it is not under warranty, you can disassemble the enclosure and remove the HDD. As the USB controller may be failing. You can attach the drive to a USB Adapter, Dock, or another Enclosure with a power adapter. When powered up, put your ear next to the drive. Does it spin up and stay up, or does it make a clicking or scraping sound. If the later, the drive has failed. If the drive is up, you can download DiskGenius in my signature. This software has a lot of the tools that Hard Disk Sentinel has, and a lot more.
Select your drive go up to the toolbar to Disk and select View SMART Status, which gives you an overall snapshot of the health of your drive. if you get a Green Good button, then the drive is Healthy. You can also do View or Repair Bad Sectors.

Anonymous007 · 02 Jun 2021

Hi there, I'm gonna cut straight to the point, you can either:

1. If you have had the drive for less than 30 days, you could probably contact the place you bought it from, and get a refund, on the basis that it doesn't function properly.

2. Check if you have any bug fix updates in Settings>Update and Security>Windows Update, or in that same page, try checking for new drivers, in case it is a problem with your computer.

3. Test the drive on other devices, like a spare laptop or something, if it doesn't work then, you should probably go for option 1, and get on a call with Seagate Customer Service.

To recover your files, you can take it to a tech shop, where a specialist will probably be able to extract the information, although this is why people always recommend to have a backup of everything.

Thanks for reading, bye.