Windows 10: External HDD Questions

I am using a HP 860-050na, 16gb ram, 8GB AMD RX Vega GPU. Latest Windows 10 Updates (ver 2004). All drivers are up to date.

Hey all, I have a few questions regarding external hdd usage.

I have 4 8TB Seagate backup plus external drives (also 1 internal ssd and 1 internal 4TB hdd). All the external drives are plugged into there own USB ports and are powered from the wall socket.

The problem I am having is that recently the drives are just shutting down and restarting at random. some days they work fine some days the just shutdown and restart. This usually happens when I am copying files to or from the drives, downloading files or doing some other sort of disk activity. Sometimes all the external drives just stop and restart and sometimes it's just the drives that are being accessed. Mostly it was fine but today I got an error popup saying the drive had errors and had to be checked and fixed which I let complete.

now to the questions

1) I have a lot of important stuff on the drives. How do I know if there are corrupt files on the drives ?
2) Sometimes the drive lights go out when not in use and they kick up when I access the drive, is this normal ?
3) I have a 1000 watt power supply. Is this is enough to power my pc ?
4) I had a lot of crashes with the drives when they were all different formats, since I got them all to GPT its been better, is there a best format for external drives ?
5) Does windows crash the drives if they are all reading\writing at the same time ?
6) Can you have to many drives ?

thanks for any help you guys can give with this.

:)

 

external HDD

Hi,

Usually, this problem occur due to software incompatibility or corrupted USB drivers. For us to better assist you, we would like to clarify the following:

• Have you made any recent changes on your computer prior to the issue?
• Which driver did you uninstall? Have you reinstall the driver? If yes, how did you reinstall the driver?
• Have you check if the external HDD is visible in Device Manager?

If the issue still persists after uninstalling some games, we suggest that you run the troubleshooter for hardware and devices. If you're using the latest Windows 10 version, follow these steps on how to run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter:

• Click the Start button and select the Settings
  icon.
• Choose Update & Security from the list.
• Click Troubleshoot in the left pane of the window.
• Under Find and fix other problems, select Hardware and Devices and click
  Run the troubleshooter.

We're looking forward to your reply.

 

Quirky behaviour with external HDD

Hi,

In response to your questions

• Are all of the external drives from the same manufacturer?

Yes, they are all Seagate SRDO0F1 of 500GB

• Have you attempted to restart the computer that could not read the external drive and also try to connect the external drive to a different port on the computer after testing the external drive on another computer?

Yes to both, neither worked.

• Were there any recent changes made or updates installed prior to the issue occurring?

No. PC-B is not permanently connected to the 'net.

I have used to 'Device manager' to check if there is an identified driver problem - nothing is flagged - and I would not expect one HDD to work, and the other not to, if there was a driver problem

 

External HDDs

Hi i had a seagate freeagent (external) which stopped working so i bought another enclosure and the hdd kept disconnecting/reconnecting in windows 8.1, so i boht another enclosure and also the same thing. Iv tried a different hdd and all hdds work perfectly when plugged directly into sata ports on the board, are there any other steps i can try or do you think iv just been unlucky with enclosures?