HDD data corrupted after hot swap

MalickT · 26th November 2021, 07:56

I have PC case that allows me to hot swap 3.5 inch SATA HDD-s. Meaning changing HDDs while not turning off PC.

I usually spin down the HDD with HDDScan before pulling it out but this time I just forgot. So I pulled my 10TB HDD, replaced with other 6TB HDD and did some file copying. I spin down the 6TB HDD and pulled it out and put back the 10TB HDD.

My drives were labeled "10TB" and "6TB"

Windows did not recognize the 10TB HDD, it just showed a blank HDD. It had not label or drive letter. So I opened up disk management and assigned drive letter: Y. That did not help, Windows said the drive was inaccessible but then a red flag came up on windows telling me that it needs to restart to fix drive errors. I tought ok lets do the restart.

When restarting and booting into Windows, yes, it showed me that it did some error fixing on drive Y.

When Windows opened up the 10TB HDD is shown as: 6TB (Y

and "2,04 TB free of 9,09TB". I remember there was only a 3-4GB of free space left on the HDD! All the files are missing except only 4 files and they are corrupt! They are 0KB in size and one is 5GB in size but still corrupt.

I have run chkdsk Y: /f but no errors where found.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

9537405 MB total disk space.
7387520 MB in 447 files.
432 KB in 37 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
366615 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
2149526 MB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
2441575935 total allocation units on disk.
550278817 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 1.90 seconds (1901 ms).

So what the fun? Lucky that I have backup but I do not wish to do 10TB of copying/restoring.

Any suggestions?

StainlessS · 26th November 2021, 20:43

Even if you could recover drive completely [using eg Testdisk], it would be advisable to recover all files, reformat and copy back.
(you dont know what problems may continue to exist even after recovery, nor if all totally flawlessly recovered).

If you have a known good backup, then I would format/copy/restore [I know its not what you want to hear].

EDIT: Hot-swap sounds like a good idea, but I would be reluctant to do that if it can be avoided.

EDIT: I have [I believe(I'de have to check)], 2 internal hotswap drives in caddies, I only ever shutdown to swap them. [access by 'flip-open' doors.]
(hibernate also a real bad idea to change)

From post below:- "needs special driver level settings"
And probably best untick this box [click for zoom]

QBhd · 26th November 2021, 21:37

Plus Hotswap needs special driver level settings as well as BIOS settings

QB

MalickT · 28th November 2021, 21:28

Im currently restoring my data with R-Studio - this app can restore files larger than 5GB.
10TB HDD scan process took 10 hours, after that it found all my files and now Im just restoring them on separate 12TB HDD. That took another 12 hours.
The reason I restore instead using my backup is because my backup just a little outdated. Some new files were not backed up.

Turning off "Enable Write cache" to avoid problems like this in the future...

StainlessS · 29th November 2021, 16:28

Perhaps you originally did some kind of 'Clone' operation to copy data from 6TB drive to 10TB drive, if so then,
is likely that windows has difficulty telling the drives apart especially when not properley unmounted.
I know little of NTFS, but many moons ago, MS style FAT12 format floppies had a serial number (ID)
which was used to identify a disk. If you took out the floppy, and changed it on eg Atari ST or Amiga
(both with variations of FAT12 {Amiga required additional software}), and then replaced into PC drive, PC could not tell disk had changed and
continued to corrupt the changed disk.
Atari ST floppy drives had a mechanical microswitch to detect disk removal/insertion (Amiga too probably),
but PC only used the serial number so was easily confused.

If original 6TB drive was "cloned" to 10TB, then would likely have same GUID [similar-ish to serial ID] and windows cannot
tell apart if not properley dismounted (this is guesswork).

Anyways, thats my guess although long time since I did any filesystem type stuff [I once wrote equivalent to ChkDisk running on Atari-Amiga for FAT].

So, if you originally used some kind of "Clone" to dupe the drive, suggest you dont do it again. [use Backup option rather than clone]

EDIT:

Quote:

I know little of NTFS

same applies to GPT disks and partitions.

26th November 2021, 07:56	#1 \| Link
MalickT Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 84	HDD data corrupted after hot swap I have PC case that allows me to hot swap 3.5 inch SATA HDD-s. Meaning changing HDDs while not turning off PC. I usually spin down the HDD with HDDScan before pulling it out but this time I just forgot. So I pulled my 10TB HDD, replaced with other 6TB HDD and did some file copying. I spin down the 6TB HDD and pulled it out and put back the 10TB HDD. My drives were labeled "10TB" and "6TB" Windows did not recognize the 10TB HDD, it just showed a blank HDD. It had not label or drive letter. So I opened up disk management and assigned drive letter: Y. That did not help, Windows said the drive was inaccessible but then a red flag came up on windows telling me that it needs to restart to fix drive errors. I tought ok lets do the restart. When restarting and booting into Windows, yes, it showed me that it did some error fixing on drive Y. When Windows opened up the 10TB HDD is shown as: 6TB (Y and "2,04 TB free of 9,09TB". I remember there was only a 3-4GB of free space left on the HDD! All the files are missing except only 4 files and they are corrupt! They are 0KB in size and one is 5GB in size but still corrupt. I have run chkdsk Y: /f but no errors where found. Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required. 9537405 MB total disk space. 7387520 MB in 447 files. 432 KB in 37 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 366615 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 2149526 MB available on disk. 4096 bytes in each allocation unit. 2441575935 total allocation units on disk. 550278817 allocation units available on disk. Total duration: 1.90 seconds (1901 ms). So what the fun? Lucky that I have backup but I do not wish to do 10TB of copying/restoring. Any suggestions? Last edited by MalickT; 26th November 2021 at 08:19.

26th November 2021, 20:43	#2 \| Link
StainlessS HeartlessS Usurer Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Over the rainbow Posts: 10,980	Even if you could recover drive completely [using eg Testdisk], it would be advisable to recover all files, reformat and copy back. (you dont know what problems may continue to exist even after recovery, nor if all totally flawlessly recovered). If you have a known good backup, then I would format/copy/restore [I know its not what you want to hear]. EDIT: Hot-swap sounds like a good idea, but I would be reluctant to do that if it can be avoided. EDIT: I have [I believe(I'de have to check)], 2 internal hotswap drives in caddies, I only ever shutdown to swap them. [access by 'flip-open' doors.] (hibernate also a real bad idea to change) From post below:- "needs special driver level settings" And probably best untick this box [click for zoom] __________________ I sometimes post sober. StainlessS@MediaFire ::: AND/OR ::: StainlessS@SendSpace "Some infinities are bigger than other infinities", but how many of them are infinitely bigger ??? Last edited by StainlessS; 26th November 2021 at 22:54.

26th November 2021, 21:37	#3 \| Link
QBhd QB the Slayer Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Toronto Posts: 697	Plus Hotswap needs special driver level settings as well as BIOS settings QB __________________

28th November 2021, 21:28	#4 \| Link
MalickT Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 84	Im currently restoring my data with R-Studio - this app can restore files larger than 5GB. 10TB HDD scan process took 10 hours, after that it found all my files and now Im just restoring them on separate 12TB HDD. That took another 12 hours. The reason I restore instead using my backup is because my backup just a little outdated. Some new files were not backed up. Turning off "Enable Write cache" to avoid problems like this in the future...