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Forum Discussion
External USB Drive Corruption
There are a number of factors, so not sure where the cause lies. I figured I'd put it out there, as either a warning or for gathering intel!
I had a Seagate GoFlex USB 2.0 2TB drive connected to a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus. I use TotalFinder, Default Folder X, BlueHarvest, MacFuse, Perian and NTFS-3G on my iMac with Mountain Lion. I also access the drive and NAS using Windows ( XP, 7, 8 ) machines.
In Firefox I have a number of download manager extensions, including DownThemAll! and FlashGet.
Occasionally I'd experience 'oddities' accessing the drive, for example not being able to write. In one case, a folder seemingly become stuck and while I could rename it, I could not delete it, Win or Mac, as both OSes insisted the folder was not empty. I had been leaving it until I had time to look at it in more detail. Recently, this came to a head and the drive became totally inaccessible, neither on the Mac nor on a Windows machine. Something apparently pooched the file system.
Fortunately I was able to retrieve most data using Piriform's Recuva (fantastic, awesome software!). A SeaTools check of the drive had a fail condition, and despite any restore efforts of zero writes and sector fixes had no improvement, so I have sent the drive to Seagate for warranty replacement.
I don't know if it was just coincidence that the drive was starting to experience hardware failure, or whether the cocktail mix of my software may have contributed to the issue, or whether the NAS software was also a contributor. It is not the first time something similar to this has happened, with an external drive becoming corrupted. It has happened before.
Anyway, regardless of the cause, this is just a cautionary tale to not trust this configuration, and to keep a backup, or backups, of the backup.
If anyone has comments as to how to prevent these corruptions, hardware failures aside, please share.
Thank you.
I had a Seagate GoFlex USB 2.0 2TB drive connected to a ReadyNAS Ultra 4 Plus. I use TotalFinder, Default Folder X, BlueHarvest, MacFuse, Perian and NTFS-3G on my iMac with Mountain Lion. I also access the drive and NAS using Windows ( XP, 7, 8 ) machines.
In Firefox I have a number of download manager extensions, including DownThemAll! and FlashGet.
Occasionally I'd experience 'oddities' accessing the drive, for example not being able to write. In one case, a folder seemingly become stuck and while I could rename it, I could not delete it, Win or Mac, as both OSes insisted the folder was not empty. I had been leaving it until I had time to look at it in more detail. Recently, this came to a head and the drive became totally inaccessible, neither on the Mac nor on a Windows machine. Something apparently pooched the file system.
Fortunately I was able to retrieve most data using Piriform's Recuva (fantastic, awesome software!). A SeaTools check of the drive had a fail condition, and despite any restore efforts of zero writes and sector fixes had no improvement, so I have sent the drive to Seagate for warranty replacement.
I don't know if it was just coincidence that the drive was starting to experience hardware failure, or whether the cocktail mix of my software may have contributed to the issue, or whether the NAS software was also a contributor. It is not the first time something similar to this has happened, with an external drive becoming corrupted. It has happened before.
Anyway, regardless of the cause, this is just a cautionary tale to not trust this configuration, and to keep a backup, or backups, of the backup.
If anyone has comments as to how to prevent these corruptions, hardware failures aside, please share.
Thank you.
3 Replies
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- I can see how software issues could corrupt the file system, but they seem unlikely to actually do anything that would create the diagnostic fail condition.
I've also had USB drives fail me, once during a backup restore! This was before I had a ReadyNAS btw. So I have also learned the value of multiple backups.
I've never used the USB port on the NAS for backup. Instead I use my older NAS for the main backup (daily), and also use robocopy to create a second backup on PCs (every week or so). (backups shares are done to different machines, since I don't have enough capacity on any single machine to hold the entire Pro-6). I think if I did use USB, I'd probably use a couple of drives and rotate them. - I agree with StephenB--software should not be able to corrupt a hard drive in the way you described.
I have had problems with USB drives when they are connected to a "front port" of a PC, and also with inadequate cables. The "front port" problem potential is simply that these are connected to the PC motherboard with tiny wires which take circuitous routes past noisy devices (fans, hard drives) and the obvious way to avoid these is to connect directly to a mobo port. I've also researched and purchased the most robust USB cables I could find to make sure these external devices (I use 5 or 6 of them) perform at their best. And absolutely you do need to have your external USB drive connected through a surge protection device, and preferably a UPS with voltage over/underflow protection. You may have dirty power where you live, and one clear indication of that will be electronic devices which fail periodically and inexplicably.
You might just be having a run of bad luck, but there ya go re: preventing corruptions. - Thanks for the responses and ideas for consideration.
The drive, and NAS, is protected by a top-tier APC UPS, so it should not be a dirty power issue. It certainly is possible the hardware failures are purely coincidental, nonetheless I will approach managing the drive via Mac OS X and writing to the replacement USB drive with a bit of trepidation. "Twice burned..."
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