WD hard drive wont delete any files!!!!!

[pwnzor]

Hello all, I am having an issue with my 500g WD external HDD. The problem is, I cant delete ANYTHING from it. When i try to, it sends me an error that says "cannot delete file, unable to find specified path". I dont understand why, Its not for any specific file, its every single one. Anyone with any advice, I would greatly appreciate it and thank you in advance. Pwnzor

[Sterling_Aug]

Sounds like it lost the drive letter.

Check in disk management console to see what it reports.

[Midknyte]

If you use that external the same system a lot, you should assign it a high drive letter like X: for eXternal. Usb drives usually take the first available drive letter, which can cause conflicts.

[pwnzor]

i checked the management console and it reports healthy and 47% free space. I am going to change the drive letter to X as recommended and we'll see what happens. Any other suggestions?

[Steve R Jones]

If you're using Vista - turn off UAC.

[pwnzor]

No I'm using Windows XP media edition. I did find out last night messing around with it that i can "shift+delete" It helps but that doesn't fix whats wrong. For some reason, i cant complete a full scan or image back up the drive with any programs i.e. partition magic, WD diagnostics it always kicks back an error. The drive is "FAT32" does that matter?

[Midknyte]

Partition Magic can get fussy if you don't run a chkdsk on the drive first.

What is the error you are getting from the WD diags? It's possible that the drive is going bad.

FS type should not matter, but you'd want to use NTFS. FAT32 limits you to a max file size of 4GB.

[pwnzor]

More specifically, what is limited to 4Gb? The size of any one single file? or the transferring of files between one another? I'm a noob when it comes to hard drives. I would have to check on the error message again. Ill post a screen shot here later.

[Midknyte]

yes the size of a single file is limited to 4GB on FAT32.

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

[pwnzor]

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/ceska561/errorscreenshot-1.jpg

or try this...

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/ceska561/errorscreenshot-1.jpg

[Midknyte]

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/eide/2779-701022.pdf

looks like the drive is going bad. the error codes are more for warranty redemption. if it's out of warranty, you can try removing the drive from the enclosure and connecting it directly via ide/sata cable.

[pwnzor]

Thanks for your help. I checked my warranty on the website and it expired 06/11.........its like im dealing with Dell still lol. Im going to call the manufacturer. Ill let you know what happens. Thanks Dan

[uvwx075]

*** Deleted by Sterling_Aug ***

[pwnzor]

Ok i called WD and they needed no explanation what so ever. I told the rep that the drive was failing, he checked with his manager and a minute later said that they would be sending out a brand new drive at no charge. Sweet. So now my question is......how do i transfer my @ 250 gigs of stuff to the new drive? *edit* with out the obv click and drag. is there a way an image will work? a back up of some kind? Thanks fellas

[BipolarBill]

Do a clone, but be sure to use the sector-by-sector method. It's in the options of most cloning programs. Also tell it to ignore errors.

Run CHKDSK after cloning.

[Sterling_Aug]

Check the WD website. They provide a free cloning program or check the stickies for a link to download the UBCD for Windows that includes all the hard drive utilities you could ever need.

[BipolarBill]

You could also try copying and pasting, but it will take forever and it may generate errors.

Here's a good cloning tool.

http://blog.mypapit.net/2007/12/clonezilla-open-source-partition-disk-cloning-solution.html

[pwnzor]

I actually got overzealous and formatted the new drive to ntfs, and started dragging folders to the new drive. I tried a couple things like imaging and such but i kept getting this annoying cyclic redundancy check error. Even as i was dragging the files over from the old drive, the CRC errors continued. I ended up losing somewhere around 1GB of music and a little video. No big deal. My friend is having an issue with a hard drive as well, so im going to try to figure out this cloning method. Thanks for the help guys.

[Midknyte]

That's why you would use something like Teracopy, Totalcopy or Unstoppable Copier. They can be set to ignore errors. The links are in Best of Data Storage.

Be aware that a sector copy can take a LONG time, especially on a bad drive. You might have to leave it running for a few days depending on how large the drive is.