Question External HDDs in USB HDD Tray keep becoming inaccessible ?

[Josh_from_NZ]

Hi everyone,

I have a 16TB refurbished external hdd in an orico sata hdd tray connected to my desktop PC via USB, which is full of movies and TV shows, all meticulously organized for the Kodi media app. About a month ago ago I suddenly couldn't access the drive, getting the message "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable". I ran chkdsk / r which took over a day to complete, but finally after finishing and then changing permissions to give myself access again, I was able to open the drive and found I hadn't lost any files (although they were now in the FOUND.000 folder and had to be reorganized).

After this happened, I ran crystaldiskinfo to check if there were any obvious problems, and everything seemed fine. The hdd seems to run perfectly - no long waits when opening it, or odd sounds when turning it on. But I also bought a second 16TB ext hdd which I plugged into the same external hdd tray, and I copied all the files onto this one as a backup to be safe. The files copied fine and maintained a good speed.

Fast forward to this morning, and suddenly both the hdds were inaccessible, with the same "The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable" message for both. I ejected the second one as this was a backup anyway, and ran chkdsk again on the first one, but this time chkdsk / f, not /r. After chkdsk ran I could access the drive again (after again changing permissions to give myself access), and it seems that all the files are still there, although again they are in the FOUND.001 folder, and some are in the system volume information folder

My question is, could this be due to a problem with the hdd tray they are enclosed in, or even the usb cable connecting it to my PC? I'm not an expert, but it seems odd to me that I would get these errors with both of these hdds at the same time, especially when they seem to otherwise be working fine, and crystaldiskinfo says they are both good

 

[cruisetung]

check Event Viewer for errors or warnings

 

[Grobe]

I have a 16TB refurbished external hdd in a orico sata hdd tray connected to my desktop

Searching for images of "orico sata hdd tray" show many different models. Is this a model that can stack several HDD's in one shelf ?

What file system is used in the HDD*s ?

For future reference, please add the following info:

• Full model name of the hdd tray (link to image of a google search is just as good if unobtainable)
• Model name of your HDD's
• If possible - text output of HDD s.m.a.r.t. data (crystaldiskhealth support Ctrl+C for text copy) and then paste to forum and enclose in code tags.
• How are the arrangement of power supply to the HDD's made (you may draw a sketch on this)

Since you have had this case of multiple failures, I'd suspect there is a common issue somewhere - causing the hdd's to loose connection to OS and thus mess up the file system.

• Power supply issue.
• USB hub/port issue.
• Physical bump or shock to the hdd tray causing hdd's to possible stop the platter and retract the r/w head as a protection measurement.

 

[Misgar]

I have a 16TB refurbished external hdd in an orico sata hdd tray connected to my desktop PC via USB

Is there any chance of mounting the hard disk(s) inside your desktop PC? If both drives give problems with USB, the Orico tray might be faulty.

I disable Power Management for all USB Root Hubs in Device Manager. I disable the default setting in Power Options which shuts down disk drives after 20 minutes inactivity. I disable USB Selective Suspend in Power Options.

Anything which powers down an external USB device can (on rare occasions) cause the device to fail when it's "woken up".

I stopped using eleven Seagate and Western Digital 3.5" desktop USB3 drives back in 2020 and switched to internal CMR drives (not SMR). The USB drives reached +55°C in their close-fitting plastic cases. Too hot for my liking. The same drives run 20°C cooler in a well ventilated case.

To my mind the USB tray adds an extra layer of complexity and vulnerability to your precious data. In addition, if a 3.5" USB drive topples over when running, it could suffer a fatal head crash.

It's not worth your sanity continuing with the current situation. You could end up losing all your data on both drives. Try a different USB tray, or fit the drives internally.