- Dec 22, 2012
- 10
- 0
- 10,510
For reference, I'm running Windows 10 64 bit home premium.
Recently, I decided to do a warranty-replacement on a 4tb Seagate drive I purchased close to 2 years ago. I had previously replaced this drive shortly after buying it, and before that, I was using a Seagate 2tb that seemed to end up developing issues (bought it in august 2012), but I never reformatted and just left it as it was, and have left it virtually unused since then. I decided to use the 2tb as a boot drive and use the new 4tb as my main storage (first time ever trying this setup). I ran Seatools DOS on both and they both passed. I initially installed Windows 7 (I don't have a Windows 10 disc) and upgraded to Windows 10 afterwards. The 4tb was accessible from the 2tb, and I went and copied the generic Windows drives (Documents, Music etc.) over to the 4tb, along with some files I had downloaded onto the 2tb.
I went and transferred all of the files I wanted (about 1.5 TB in total) from the 4tb I'm sending back to the new 4tb. Everything transferred fine, and I was able to access my files/folders on the new 4tb from my old 4tb. After I wiped the old 4tb and sent it back, I came back later today to use the 2tb (and this would be the first time I've accessed the new 4tb with all of my transferred data from the 2tb). When I went to look in the storage 4tb, none of the filers/folders I transferred from the old 4tb were visible. The only things visible were the ones I'd copied over from the 2tb. However, when I'd click on hard drive properties, the "used space" registered as over 1.6 TB. From that, everything was apparently present. But when I'd check the properties of the generic folders I put them in, nothing would show up unless it had the files I copied over from the 2tb I went ahead and rebooted, and after I did that, all of my files/folders I transferred over were seemingly visible. I didn't really access them, but from what I could see, everything was there.
Several minutes later though, I noticed some of the folders were blank again, and for those that weren't, the folders I transferred were only visible in the left panel view. When I'd try clicking them, I'd get an "X is unavailable. If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected etc." error, but clicking on rar files only gave a generic "can't open" message (because I didn't have winrar installed.) Rebooted again, all of the left panels were gone, but the only things still visible were the rar folders I tried opening, under "Recent files."
Here's what I've tried (none of which has worked):
-Checking off "Hidden Items".
-Unchecked "Hide protected system operating files".
-Followed the "Take ownership of a file or folder in Windows 10 using File Explorer" guide here: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/.
-Called up Microsoft Tech support, they did remote access and ran some scan in command prompt that checked the HD integrity (for viruses or something), didn't find anything, offered to format my drive.
-Checked the SATA cables on the drives; both were fine, and one of them (which is likely dead) isn't connected to either. I switched the cables on the drives between eachother, and my computer would shut down at the Windows logo.
-Tried some kind of "-r -a -s -h" command in command prompt after specifying the letter of the 4tb; all I remember it doing was showing some vague listing for 0 bytes and the amount of space free. I specified one of the folders on the 4tb, but nothing came up.
-Installed Winrar and tried accessing the rar files from recently viewed, got a could not access error.
-Tried accessing this HD on another computer. It showed up under "This PC", looked like it had the same amount of space used (just looked at the bar below it, not the properties.) Couldn't access some of the folders due to local user permissions (first time I've gotten this with this 4tb), and of those I could, they were either blank or showed only the files from the 2tb.
Also, after I put my HD back in after checking it on the other computer, I got a "hard drive issues, click here to restart" pane in the lower right. I did, and the computer stayed at the Windows 10 logo for several minutes. The hard drive is still showing the same exact amount of space, and the folders and files from the 2tb are still visible. There's a bootsqm.dat file on the HD now though, and from what I've read, that can be accompanied by a check disk that can potentially wipe a hard drive. I'm not sure if that's what I went through though, it didn't say anything after the check/repair ran.
And again, two things I found really significant I want to reiterate:
-The generic files/folders I can view on the 4tb are the ones from the 2tb. The ones I can't view on the 2tb, I transferred from the old 4tb, but they were visible while I was viewing the new 4tb from my old 4tb.
-For a short period after my first reset since accessing the new 4tb from my 2tb, seemingly all of the files and folders were visible.
I'm going to contact Seagate tomorrow, but I really don't know what's going to happen with this. I feel like this is some kind of bizarre NTFS permissions issue, because none of this happened until after I stopped trying to access the files from the old 4tb (but why the files/folders from the 2tb never suffered this issue, no clue.)
Recently, I decided to do a warranty-replacement on a 4tb Seagate drive I purchased close to 2 years ago. I had previously replaced this drive shortly after buying it, and before that, I was using a Seagate 2tb that seemed to end up developing issues (bought it in august 2012), but I never reformatted and just left it as it was, and have left it virtually unused since then. I decided to use the 2tb as a boot drive and use the new 4tb as my main storage (first time ever trying this setup). I ran Seatools DOS on both and they both passed. I initially installed Windows 7 (I don't have a Windows 10 disc) and upgraded to Windows 10 afterwards. The 4tb was accessible from the 2tb, and I went and copied the generic Windows drives (Documents, Music etc.) over to the 4tb, along with some files I had downloaded onto the 2tb.
I went and transferred all of the files I wanted (about 1.5 TB in total) from the 4tb I'm sending back to the new 4tb. Everything transferred fine, and I was able to access my files/folders on the new 4tb from my old 4tb. After I wiped the old 4tb and sent it back, I came back later today to use the 2tb (and this would be the first time I've accessed the new 4tb with all of my transferred data from the 2tb). When I went to look in the storage 4tb, none of the filers/folders I transferred from the old 4tb were visible. The only things visible were the ones I'd copied over from the 2tb. However, when I'd click on hard drive properties, the "used space" registered as over 1.6 TB. From that, everything was apparently present. But when I'd check the properties of the generic folders I put them in, nothing would show up unless it had the files I copied over from the 2tb I went ahead and rebooted, and after I did that, all of my files/folders I transferred over were seemingly visible. I didn't really access them, but from what I could see, everything was there.
Several minutes later though, I noticed some of the folders were blank again, and for those that weren't, the folders I transferred were only visible in the left panel view. When I'd try clicking them, I'd get an "X is unavailable. If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected etc." error, but clicking on rar files only gave a generic "can't open" message (because I didn't have winrar installed.) Rebooted again, all of the left panels were gone, but the only things still visible were the rar folders I tried opening, under "Recent files."
Here's what I've tried (none of which has worked):
-Checking off "Hidden Items".
-Unchecked "Hide protected system operating files".
-Followed the "Take ownership of a file or folder in Windows 10 using File Explorer" guide here: http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/.
-Called up Microsoft Tech support, they did remote access and ran some scan in command prompt that checked the HD integrity (for viruses or something), didn't find anything, offered to format my drive.
-Checked the SATA cables on the drives; both were fine, and one of them (which is likely dead) isn't connected to either. I switched the cables on the drives between eachother, and my computer would shut down at the Windows logo.
-Tried some kind of "-r -a -s -h" command in command prompt after specifying the letter of the 4tb; all I remember it doing was showing some vague listing for 0 bytes and the amount of space free. I specified one of the folders on the 4tb, but nothing came up.
-Installed Winrar and tried accessing the rar files from recently viewed, got a could not access error.
-Tried accessing this HD on another computer. It showed up under "This PC", looked like it had the same amount of space used (just looked at the bar below it, not the properties.) Couldn't access some of the folders due to local user permissions (first time I've gotten this with this 4tb), and of those I could, they were either blank or showed only the files from the 2tb.
Also, after I put my HD back in after checking it on the other computer, I got a "hard drive issues, click here to restart" pane in the lower right. I did, and the computer stayed at the Windows 10 logo for several minutes. The hard drive is still showing the same exact amount of space, and the folders and files from the 2tb are still visible. There's a bootsqm.dat file on the HD now though, and from what I've read, that can be accompanied by a check disk that can potentially wipe a hard drive. I'm not sure if that's what I went through though, it didn't say anything after the check/repair ran.
And again, two things I found really significant I want to reiterate:
-The generic files/folders I can view on the 4tb are the ones from the 2tb. The ones I can't view on the 2tb, I transferred from the old 4tb, but they were visible while I was viewing the new 4tb from my old 4tb.
-For a short period after my first reset since accessing the new 4tb from my 2tb, seemingly all of the files and folders were visible.
I'm going to contact Seagate tomorrow, but I really don't know what's going to happen with this. I feel like this is some kind of bizarre NTFS permissions issue, because none of this happened until after I stopped trying to access the files from the old 4tb (but why the files/folders from the 2tb never suffered this issue, no clue.)
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