Best way to add external storage

I am looking forward to making a lot more video files. Since they are 50 times larger than document files I am considering ways to add external storage to my Windows 10 PCs.

I am experimenting with two 2 TB external hard drives made by JMicron. After I attached them to USB ports on my PCs they immediately appeared in File Explorer; I copied files to them and backed up my System Partition to them. They seemed to be working so I tested them with SeaTools for Windows ver 1.4.0.7. They failed the short generic test and they failed the long generic test 50% of the time. Wow, was I surprised.

Next I tested them with Speccy and they passed. I wish I understood why they failed SeaTools tests and passed Speccy`s test. They also passed the internal test on the drives.

I would appreciate advise on how to select, configure and use external storage devices. Here are some thoughts and questions I have:

• I don't know why but I like 2 TB
• I frequently drop external drives so I think I should use a SSD
• I would like to find a faster DTR than I am experiencing
• what type of connection and configuration options should I use
• what should the temperature be under a normal work load

KCav45

You do not say if the drives are NEW or of what age are they

I am experimenting with two 2 TB external hard drives made by JMicron.

Seatools for windows will test non Seagate drives , but only in a limited test mode and report.
It is possible for the drive to be OK but the test to fail for file errors.
Therefore are you sure the data you copied to them was free of errors in the first place.

Obviously if you copied data from one of the drives you have dropped

I frequently drop external drives so I think I should use a SSD.

or indeed the JMicron drives have been dropped then the result is not surprising
See this for the explanation of the checking of external USB drives with SeaTools for windows
How to use SeaTools for Windows | Seagate Support US

Another consideration is if you have 2TB drives USB connected to a laptop if it is a laptop as in your spec - and the drive is not powered relying only on usb power, especially on a single usb for both data and power, you may well be suffering power shortage during the Seatools for Windows check

Check the drive with a standard windows - chkdsk /f as a starting point
Look at the report especially in connection with bad sectors.

You may also usefully use Crystal Disk Info to confirm the differing results from SeaTools and checkdsk
CrystalDiskInfo – Crystal Dew World

I would not rely too much on Speccy confirming all is OK unless it is supported by chkdsk and Crystal Disc.
If those support Speccy, then I would tend to ignore Seatools. - keeping however a watch on the situation of the report from Crystal Disc and chkdsk -

In respect of dropping drives - if of course it is some manner of a health problem, you have my sympathy of course. If it is carelessness, then what can one say. Even SSD external USB drives do not like being dropped. Yes the risk is lower than with the head and platters of a spinning drive, but there is still a risk to the circuitry board of the enclosure.

Just another take on the adding of storage, I connected 2 x 2TB NAS drives to me Router by Ethernet cable. Then I set up a Public folder on both. Any computer I use, whether Ethernet of Wireless/Wi-Fi that has access to the Router that see the drives in Network allows me to Map that Public folder on them. I store files on them that I want to assure having access to and the nice part is no one computer has to be running, only keep power to the Router and the drives, I don't even have to Map or connect to any other computer.

Thank you for replying to my post Macboatmaster,

I went to the Command Prompt on my notebook and entered chkdsk /f. It said the command could not be executed while the drive was in use and asked me if I wanted to execute the command after I rebooted. I said yes, then I rebooted but I did not see any indication of the command being executed. What should I do?

I am running a Windows 10 on a notebook with my new SSD connected to a USB port. If I point at the Windows Flag icon on my Taskbar it says Start If I right click a menu appears that lists options such as Apps & Features, Mobility Center, Power Options, etc Should I choose one of these options.

to run chkdsk /f
on the 2TB external hard drive you follow this tutorial
Drive Error Checking in Windows 10
following option 3
so if the letter allocated to the external 2TB drive is for example G
the command is
chkdsk G: /f

You then obtain the results using option one on this tutorial
Read Chkdsk Log in Event Viewer in Windows 10
which if the chkdsk was run on reboot is searched under term
wininit.

If the drive is a spinning hard drive as you indicate it is then you can also scan on chkdsk using
the chkdsk /r
which checks for and locates bad sectors - copying the information from the bad sector and replacing it in a good sector, marking the original sector as bad to prevent further information being written to it.

You never actually indicated - unless I have missed it in your reply if the drives were new or used.

I succeeded at running chkdsk on my external SSD. The drive passed but there were some file corrections

without knowing what the corrections were it is impossible to advise
send the results please
that is why I posted - how to get them
see my post 7 please - results in event viewer.

[QUOTE=Macboatmaster;2251020]

You do not say if the drives are NEW or of what age are they

[QUOTE]

The drives are new, purchased from WISH. The drives were manufactured by JMicron. I have written to JMicron and asked what software to use to analyze the internal workings of the drives. The invoice does not give detailed specifications so here are the specifications for each drive from Speccy.

Drive 1, 1 2IB drive

JMicron Generic SCSI Disk Device
Heads 16
Cylinders 243,201
Tracks 62,016,255
Sectors 3,907,024,065
SATA type SATA-I 1.5Gb/s
Device type Fixed
ATA Standard ATA8-ACS
Serial Number 090523FB22005CC08BGA
Firmware Version Number FB2OC43C
LBA Size 48-bit LBA
Power On Count 1048 times
Power On Time 0.8 days
Speed 5400 RPM
Features S.M.A.R.T., APM, AAM, NCQ
Max. Transfer Mode SATA I 1.5Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode SATA I 1.5Gb/s
Interface USB (SATA)
Capacity 1863 GB
Real size 2,000,398,934,016 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
Status Good
Temperature 37 °C
Temperature Range OK (less than 50 °C)

S.M.A.R.T attributes
Attribute name Real value Current Worst Threshold Raw Value Status
01 Read Error Rate 0 100 100 62 0000000000 Good
02 Throughput Performance 0 100 100 40 0000000000 Good
03 Spin-Up Time 0 ms 253 253 33 0000000000 Good
04 Start/Stop Count 1,068 100 100 0 000000042C Good
05 Reallocated Sectors Count 1 100 100 5 0000000001 Good
07 Seek Error Rate 0 98 98 67 0000020000 Good
08 Seek Time Performance 0 100 100 40 0000000000 Good
09 Power-On Hours (POH) 20h 100 100 0 0000000014 Good
0A Spin Retry Count 0 100 100 60 0000000000 Good
0C Device Power Cycle Count 1,051 100 100 0 000000041B Good
BF G-sense error rate 0 10
C0 Power-off Retract Count 961 96 96 0 00000003C1 Good
C1 Load/Unload Cycle Count 1,293 100 100 0 000000050D Good
C2 Temperature 37 °C 148 148 0 0000140025 Good
C4 Reallocation Event Count 1 100 100 0 0000000001 Good
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 1 100 100 0 0000000001 Good
C6 Uncorrectable Sector Count 0 100 100 0 0000000000 Good
C7 UltraDMA CRC Error Count 0 200 200 0 0000000000 Good
DF Load/Unload Retry Count 0 100

Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
Disk Letter F:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number 0022E034
Size 1863 GB
Used Space 144 GB (7%)
Free Space 1718 GB (93%)


Drive 2, 2 2TB drives

VendorCo ProductCode USB Device
Interface USB
Capacity 1953 GB
Real size 2,097,152,000,000 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
S.M.A.R.T not supported
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #1, Partition #0
Disk Letter H:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number AA570EF8
Size 1953 GB
Used Space 17.7 GB (0%)
Free Space 1935 GB (100%)



VendorCo ProductCode USB Device
Interface USB
Capacity 1953 GB
Real size 2,097,152,000,000 bytes
RAID Type None
S.M.A.R.T
S.M.A.R.T not supported
Partition 0
Partition ID Disk #2, Partition #0
Disk Letter I:
File System NTFS
Volume Serial Number D9BA2B05
Size 1953 GB
Used Space 150 MB (0%)
Free Space 1952 GB (100%)