Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive

scopio · 29 Apr 2019

I fitted a new HDD to a PC (not mine) to move folders from primary SSD, all went well until I tried to backup both drives with Macrium Reflect Free.
Whilst the pc had the SSD only I had no problem backing it up to the same new Seagate external drive.
When backing up the SSD and the HDD the backup failed with error “Verification Index Load Failed.” twice and also failed without verify enabled with “ An error has occurred. See the history log for details”. (Don’t know how to copy history log to post). Tried again to backup and had the error “Location is not available. F:\Seagate is not accessible. The parameter is incorrect”.
That made me check the external drive F:\ with chkdsk and it said it was GB RAW. Now here is the weird thing, I had been able a couple of days ago to backup the SSD. Now the external drive F:\ has changed format by itself?
I have connected the same Seagate external drive to another pc run chkdsk and it says system is exFAT and I can access it!

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-29_21-30-31.jpg

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-29_21-34-20.jpg

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-29_21-36-59.jpg

On original pc

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-29_21-29-52.jpg

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-29_22-22-02.jpg

On other pc

What happened from being able to backup the first time successfully on the original pc and trying to backup a second time and now it says it is RAW and is not accessible whilst on the other pc says it is exFAT?
Should I format the external drive to FAT32?
Is it possible to copy the backup that worked to another drive and the copy it back to the reformatted external drive again and will the backup be able to be restored?

Caledon Ken · 29 Apr 2019

Are you going to need to use this Seagate on a Mac? Not sure why it would be exFat. I see a reference to Start.Here.Mac.app in your screen shot.

I would format NTFS and I would redo backup? Use a Quick format.

I guess you could mess around and try copying off and then copying back once format is complete. Then open Macrium, click restore, click the backup image, click "Other Actions" and click "Verify Image". If it passes I would also browse Image and recover at least one file.

As I originally said I would redo. It is faster (avoids the copy off and the copy back) and you can be assured of the output. Under Other Tasks at the top, edit defaults, I always turn on Auto Verify Image. Yes it takes longer but I want to know Image is 100% whole.

I would not format Fat32. Limits properties of files being copied and max file size is 4GB.

scopio · 30 Apr 2019

Thanks @Caledon Ken for your quick response.

No I do not need the Mac configuration.
I will do as you say, format the drive as NTFS which is what I have done before and as you say limits the size of files and as I discovered some files on the machine are 6GB.
I just thought that it was weird that it worked fine the first time and the it showed as RAW in one pc and as exFAT on the other.

As for the backup that was verified I will mess around and do as you suggest.
I will do all this this afternoon UK time and post back with the results.

scopio · 30 Apr 2019

I run chkdsk the offending external HDD connected to the
original pc and the same USB 3.0 port several times, when it registered as RAW
chkdsk will not run as it is not available for RAW drives. When it registered
as exFAT I managed to run chkdsk and the result is as seen in the screenshot
below.

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-30_18-16-14.jpg

Tried to create an image but still it would not verify

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-30_18-19-00.jpg

After trying several times, I formatted the drive to NTFS. Run chkdsk again and strangely Windows chkdsk showed it as RAW whilst Disk Management showed it as NTFS! (see screenshot below)

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-30_18-20-52.jpg

Tried to create an image without verification and it failed immediately

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-30_18-29-19.jpg

By this time, I was suspicious of the USB 3.0 port and decided to connect the external drive to a USB 2.0 port and hey presto! I was able to create and image with verification without any issues!

Weird problem whilst backup with Macrium to new external drive-2019-04-30_18-33-46.jpg

I decided to test the external drive with SeaTools for Windows. I run the

Short Drive Self Test which pssed and at the moment I am running the Long Generic test.

Caledon Ken · 01 May 2019

Not following... Some of screen shots / description is about exFat. Thought you were going to format as NTFS.

While you have run chkdsk on the target have you run on sources?

scopio · 01 May 2019

Caledon Ken said:

Not following... Some of screen shots / description is about exFat. Thought you were going to format as NTFS.

While you have run chkdsk on the target have you run on sources?

Hi Caledon Ken,
I have formatted the external HDD to NTFS. If you look at the third screenshot, reproduced below you will notice that in Disk Management the disk is shown as NTFS. The strange thing is that I run chkdsk whilst the HDD was still connected and Disk Management was still open and chkdsk showed it as RAW

I have run SeaTools for Windows and HD Sentinel tests on the HDD and it passed short and long tests. I have also mounted the image saved on the HDD and examined the contents which are all accessible.
On sources I guess you mean the USB port?
Don't know how to test the USB 3.0 port which is on a card reader which is where the issues manifested as it did not manifest on the front panel USB 2.0 port.

Caledon Ken · 01 May 2019

Sorry I can't blow up your screen shots.

By sources I mean the SSD and HDD you are backing up.

Still something funny with that drive, or electronics or cable, maybe port. Why it would show as RAW.

It is showing Active, like a boot disk.

Have a look at disk with a tool like Minitool Partition Wizard. Or you could scrub the whole thing with diskpart.

scopio · 01 May 2019

Will look at it again with Mintool and test the SSD.

Caledon Ken · 01 May 2019

This Seagate, it has a custom cable right?

I like these enclosed drives for ease of use, compactness.

I don't like these enclosed drives because they are enclosed, some are solder to electronics meaning even if drive is okay you can't access data, and the cables are custom.

I go with the unpackaged hard drives with an enclosure.

Be interesting to see what you find. Wonder how drive got marked Active?

scopio · 01 May 2019

I suppoes an unpackaged hard drive with an enclosure would make sense.
The cable is a custom cable that came with the drive.

As for the drive made Active could be my fault. I formatted the drive and than created a simple volume. Should I have just formatted the drive and not created a simple volume?

Anyway I have tested the SSD on the pc with SeaTools for Windows with S.M.A.R.T., DST and Short Generic Test and it passed all of them. At the moment I am running SCF /scannow to make sure all is OK.