External hard drive crashes

[Moochoo]

Hello, I've started having issues with my my seagate external hard drive over the last month. I can connect it, open to view it's files, but whenever I try to open any files it locks up the hard drive and usually freezes window's explorer as well, forcing me to either reboot or log off to restore access. It also freezes task manager. I've noticed that when I view the files, it spikes the disk's active time and it just sits there. I copied the below from task manager a moment ago. I've tried using it on two computers, one uses windows 7, the other 8.1, and both have the same issue. I've installed all updates on both computers and have made sure the driver for the external was up to date.

Any ideas on what the deal is, and how I could fix it?


Disk 1 (D: )

Seagate External USB Device

Capacity: 1.8 TB
Formatted: 1.8 TB
System disk: No
Page file: No

Read speed 0 KB/s
Write speed 0 KB/s
Active time 100%
Average response time 0 ms


Thank you

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Moochoo,

I would advise you to start with something simple like just changing the USB cable. If the issue persists, you can test the drive with a brand specific testing tool. The results will eventually show what is wrong with the drive.
There is a possibility that there is something wrong with the enclosure. You may need to take the drive out of the enclosure, connect it internally and retrieve your data. Just make sure that the drive is not hardware encrypted. Also, keep in mind that this will most probably void the warranty.
You can try to run CHKDSK /R command. Though, if the HDD problems are caused by bad sectors, this process could result in data loss on these particular sectors: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD