[SOLVED] External disk with win 10 problem

[TheDamian58C]

It's hard for me to classify the problem as I don't know whether its software or hardware problem, so apologies if this is posted in the wrong place.
I have had my windows 10 installed on an external drive, and it worked ok. The problem occurred when one day my phone fell down directly onto the usb port (probably disconnecting it) of the external drive during usage. Then the system crashed, and I wasn't able to use that system since. At first it loaded for a very long time to then show me stop code 'critical process died', then I tried to repair the disk using disk cleanup and chkdsk on my other system (win 7), but it didn't help. Is there a way to fix the problem without formatting the disk/losing all the data?

 

[Ralston18]

Remember: anything you do could cause further loss of data. Hold off on doing anything else until more information is known.

First thought: physical damage to USB ports and/or USB cable?

Did the phone hit the USB port on the external drive end or on the host computer end?

Any signs of damage to the affected port? Try another known working USB cable.

Second thought: what were, if any, the details presented with that "critical process died" stop code? Knowing what process that was may be helpful.

Make and model external drive?

Moving your post to storage. There are some real disk drive/storage experts there and more ideas and suggestions are likely.

 

[TheDamian58C]

Remember: anything you do could cause further loss of data. Hold off on doing anything else until more information is known.

First thought: physical damage to USB ports and/or USB cable?

Did the phone hit the USB port on the external drive end or on the host computer end?

Any signs of damage to the affected port? Try another known working USB cable.

Second thought: what were, if any, the details presented with that "critical process died" stop code? Knowing what process that was may be helpful.

Make and model external drive?

Moving your post to storage. There are some real disk drive/storage experts there and more ideas and suggestions are likely.

1. No physical or any other visible damage, it hit on host computer end.
2. The critical process died stop code appeared at a blue screen that said that the computer needs a restart, after which it happened again. The strange thing is that that was the only thing that it said.
3. it's WD my passport ultra 500GB

 

[Ralston18]

Are you able to see a specific stop code error?

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/troubleshoot-stop-errors

The link is not a solution per se - just a reference to help understand why the stop code is important and how knowing that code may further help narrow down the problem.

 

[TheDamian58C]

All it said was 'critical process died', which was strange. Unfortunately I'm not able access that anymore. After I tried fixing it with chkdsk and windows error check, all I get is a black screen or 'preparing automatic repair' when booting, which either never ends or restarts the computer. The funny thing is that I found somewhere that error checking the disk is a potential solution, but it made things worse. I forgot to mention that the drive has two partitions, where one of them (the one without windows) was accessible at a normal speed until I ran chkdsk, now it's extremely slow access and it takes at least a quarter to even show up.

The disk is visible for the computer, but I can't access the files, and it works extremely slowly. I'm still able to run chkdsk on it sometimes, but it ends up taking a whole day to do 10%.

 

[Ralston18]

Pending other thoughts and ideas, I would hold off on any further recovery attempts.

You may end up creating more problems and/or possible damage.

Western Digital 's diagnostic tools may be able to identify some problem but again, running the tool could be counter-productive.

On the original host computer, look in Reliability History to see if there are any drive related errors codes, etc. that started after the phone fell and while the drive remained connected.

Do you have data backups? That is the important concern. OS and apps can be reinstalled. Saving data is the priority.

 

[USAFRet]

Continued chkdsk can turn a marginal drive into a dead drive.

Is there an actual backup of any and all critical data?

 

[TheDamian58C]

Thankfully the files on that drive aren't critically important, yet still somewhat important, but unfortunately I didn't back them up. I will try using the WD diagnostic tool to come closer to the solution.

Can software like EaseUS or TestDisk be helpful in this case?
Can chkdsk make the drive unusable even if I format it afterwards?

 

[USAFRet]

Thankfully the files on that drive aren't critically important, yet still somewhat important, but unfortunately I didn't back them up. I will try using the WD diagnostic tool to come closer to the solution.

Can software like EaseUS or TestDisk be helpful in this case?
Can chkdsk make the drive unusable even if I format it afterwards?

If the drive is physically failing, hammering on it via chkdsk can kill it.
Indeed, any diagnostic thing.

The primary function you need to do is possibly recover your data, to some other physical drive.
Fixing the drive is secondary or tertiary.