Windows 10: Hard drive is corrupted and unreadable what to do? Please Help!

Thank you for being so kind to let me know what it means! Now let's hope that it doesn't fail me now!!!!

✌️️

 

@Superfly and anyone else who would like to chime in,

I did the chkdsk /f /r E: and my hard drive is still not accessible. Also, a reminder I did the chkdsk /r E: last time. I guess there is something more going on with my drive then I know. When I boot from the Kyhi drive I was able to access it and view the files with no problem. The only thing is there are some lost files or misplaced files. At least that is good news. My question is, why am I able to access this drive via a bootable drive like Kyhi then through regular Windows?





I am going to do one more diagnostics with another tool to make sure I did the diagnostics correct the first time, but it looks like no other way to access it unless I do a complete reformat, which I will do as soon as I get my new hard drives and I get everything transferred etc. Anything I am missing or anything new I can try please don't hesitate to share!*Smile

What is the best diagnostic tool that you would recommend? @Superfly earlier you mentioned about crystaldiskinfo. @Superfly and everyone, do you guys think I should use that or anything else you can recommend I would appreciate it.

Thank you!

 

Also, I just want to make sure. When disconnecting an external hard drive, Is it better to just shut down the computer and just unplug it or should I turn on the computer or if the computer is already on to just safely disconnect it and then unplug? What would be the recommended option?

 

Did the drive lettter chage? I note you ran it on F: this time?

I like crystaldiskinfo, others may be better versed in hardware diagnostics than me and may differ in opinion, but that one works me.

 

Yes, when I did my reboot I plugged in a few hard drives at the same time, which I never do, and Windows reassigned them. So the F: is the correct one.

Thank you for your input on crystaldiskinfo. I'll give it a try.

When you disconnect your hard drives, do you turn off the computer first then disconnect or do it when the computer is on and select safely remove?

Thank you again my friend!!!!!!!

 

You are welcome... pity chkdsk did not completely repair the corruption.

The correct way of removing a device is to eject it first (via right-clicking on the drive icon - like one would do with a DVD or mounted iso.)

 

If the PC is powered on, using Win10's "Safely disconnect and eject media" first, then disconnecting the external HDD while the PC is still powered on is fine. Or shut down the PC and then disconnect the external drive. Either way, is safe.

One important thing to do after removing power to an external hard drive, is to wait at least 5 seconds before moving the drive. This gives the platters in the hard drive time to stop spinning.

EDIT: By the same token, if one needs to power a computer off to do a fresh power on boot for whatever reason, it's a good thing to wait at least 5 seconds before powering the computer back on. This gives the hard drives time to stop spinning before powering on again, and gives the computer's power supply time to cycle down. No sense in a user creating a power flux like condition manually by powering off and immediately powering on again.

 

Thank you and for your advice! Agreed! The one great thing that chkdsk did was it corrected some folders where I was able to access them via Kyhi bootable drive. So, there was still good that came out of it. Well, onward to formating, once I get my new hard drives. So, maybe I can still come across a solution.

 

Thank you again mck for your advice, time and assistance. That is good to know and I will definitely be more conscious about waiting 5 more seconds.

Going back to our recent discussion, do you think I should get a dual docking station rather than the single? Thermaltake vs Inatek? I know that Thermaltake is more of a name brand, so I was thinking about them, but it does look like that Inatek has good reviews.

 

@mck

Is this the one you have? Should I get this one over the Inatek?

Amazon.com: Thermaltake Sata HDD USB Docking Station: Computers Accessories

 

I use the Thermaltake myself on my production PC. Haven't had any problems with it since I upgraded to Windows 10 over a year ago. HTH,
--Ed--

 

Thank you Ed for your input. I appreciate your time and assistance. It looks like I am gravitating towards that one.

 

Welcome. Regarding a dual docking station, I personally prefer getting two single docking stations. Being a troubleshooter type, I like having two in case one goes bad I can still use the other one. With a dual docking station, if it goes bad, that's it. I've also heard about some folks having problems with dual docking stations, but since I've never owned one I can't confirm that one way or the other.

I like Inatek products. I used an Inatek 4 port PCIe to USB3 expansion card and it worked great in my self built Win7 PC for years. The motherboard in that Win7 PC died so that PC is not usable anymore. I helped a friend buy an Inatek single drive USB3 docking station and it has worked very well with no problems at all. So I've had good experiences with Thermaltake and Inateck products.

 

That Thermaltake docking station looks like it uses USB2. Do not buy a USB2 docking station as it will have really slow data transfer rates compared to USB3 docking stations. USB3 docking stations will work fine plugged into USB2 or USB3 ports. I recommend insuring that the docking station has USB3, UASP and can support large capacity hard drives. (I bought my Thermaltake docking station years ago when USB2 was the norm which is why I have it.)

I would buy this Inateck one:
Amazon.com: Inateck USB 3.0 Hard Drives Docking Station for 2.5 Inch and 3.5 Inch HDD SSD SATA (SATA I / II / III), Support UASP and 10TB Drives, Optimized for SSD: Computers Accessories

If you want to backup external drives, then suggest buying two docking stations. $26 for a second one isn't bad. Just skip eating out one day *Smile.

 

@mck again thank you for the wonderful advice. Thank you for making it clear. Ok, you sealed the deal. I will get the Inatek one.

You mentioned about using USB3 connections. I built my computer around the end of 2009, so my motherboard has only USB 2.0 slots, with that said, can I still use USB 3.0 PCI or PCIe Cards that you mentioned? Are thy backwards compatible? If so, would using a USB 3.0 PCI or PCIe be faster in a USB 2.0 slot than using the USB 2.0 PCI or PCIe card etc or does it matter?

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Not sure if you meant internal drives, because from what I see you can't fit a regular external drive into these. If you can clarify further I would appreciate it.

Thank you so much again.