Bad Sector or Something else?

[yobumasu]

I've had an issue with a recently downloaded file that can't be transferred on any USB device, IP message file transfer (LAN transfer), or even to another drive on my PC. The file would get stuck at one point every time. When it gets stuck, it would cause loads of problems in my PC like it won't shut down and I can't access other files on that drive properly.

That alerted me and I went on to backup the rest of the files on that drive (WD Green 3TB). I found out that other files has that same issue too and there's some recent (pictures) files that I can't open.

I asked around and they all told me it's a bad sector but upon trying out some tutorials how to fix this, like Check Disk, it says there's no errors found. It led me to think, is it something else that's busted and not my drive?

 

[ragnar-gd]

Besides the physical drive as such, it may be the electronics of the drive (i.e. the drive-controller).
If the affected files seem to change randomly, i.e. one time it's this file, that its not, and another is affected, it could be a problem with your RAM.
Checking with an Anti-virus-CD is cheap and won't hurt, so why not do that? Still, an encrypting trojan is more explicit about it's evil deeds...

 

[yobumasu]

I think I should note that this drive is 4 years old. I suppose that's a good lifespan and I should expect it to fail harder sooner than later, right?

I think the affected files are the ones which was recently modified which probably sits in the same sector of the same drive. I'll take note of that ram issue but shouldn't that affect other drives as well if it's ram? just trying to deduce.

I haven't had issues with virus before that I haven't considered it. Let me do some virus scan on that drive.

 

[ragnar-gd]

I hadn't known you have another disk in your system. If that is the case, RAM can be ignored.
HDDs fail, very often at the start, and then after some years of use.

Bet is on a failing HDD. I hope you did your backup early enough... Good luck!