External very slow to copy files onto it

I normally copy a folder full of files (9GB) off my Windows 10 pc onto 2 External Drives as backup
Do it weekly and never had a problem.
I copied the folder to one of the extenals today and it took 7 minutes

Started to copy them to the second External straight afterwards and it said 30 mins, then 1 hour and now 3 hours later still not finished
Is the External failing?
Dont understand technical terms sorry.

Hi, try Hard Disk Sentinel (trial) - SSDs too. Good at reporting on communication issues - best report I know of right on its GUI.

How are the disks connected? Are you using the same ports & cables as usual?

You can also run chkdsk X: /scan on the source drive just to check, from an admin command prompt where X is the relevant drive letter.

I will try to make this simpler for you- Long version.

1. Download, install and run this progam:
Download Hard Disk Sentinel

(How did I find that? I used Google to search for Hard Disk Sentinel).

2. Post a screenshot of the result of running that program. That means making an image of what you see on the screen and posting it using the forum like this:


Your image should look something like this:


Make sure you've chosen the drive of interest on the left of that program's GUI.

3. Open a command prompt as admin. (You can use Google to find out how to do that e.g. How do you...)
Example of one way:


4. In the command box type a command like this:


Choose the appropriate drive letter for your situation. Press 'Enter' to run the command.

5. Post a screenshot of what it says at the end.

Hope that's clear enough...

If you have difficulty with this, you might consider asking a friend to help of course.

No response my my post #4? Good luck.