Question New Toshiba 4TB Canvio Basics External Drive "needs to be taken offline to perform a Full Chkdsk." What do?

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WhatIsAMobo

WhatIsAMobo

Commendable
Feb 12, 2023
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I feel terrible. It seems like I cant stop winning.

Recently I had an issue with a 2TB drive that I ve had for less than 3 years, where there are bad sectors in it. So I decided to buy a new internal drive, which seems to be doing ok, but the external drive (Toshiba Canvio Basics 4TB) I've got for the backups on some of my drives apparently has some sort of corruption. I ve bought it and received a week or so ago and I didnt know about these errors, because there werent any noticeable signs of corruption. The problem came when today I decided to turn on my PC, and during the Windows loading screen I saw a message saying: "To skip disk checking press any key".

I thought the reason why it happened was because my failing 2TB drive is still connected to the PC (currently only using it for steam/paid games), and I thought it was a sign that it was getting worse, but no. I still have the same amount of bad sectors I had ever since I noticed the drive was failing with CDI.

After some hours passed by, I decided to check the Event Viewer to see if there was any sort of error notifications on this particular incident, and there were! Apparently "Volume I" has corruption for unknown reasons. (
https://imgur.com/46DKHop
View: https://imgur.com/46DKHop
) (
https://imgur.com/xjNCCcG
View: https://imgur.com/xjNCCcG
)

According to the hours that these error notifications were logged with, it was always when I would boot up the computer, only difference is that today I got the "To skip disk checking" message. I havent run CHKDSK because I ve read it does more harm than good when it comes to "repairing" HDDs. I was particularly told that when I brought up for the first time that I had a failing HDD.
Also CDI doesnt show up any issues with this drive, so I dont know what to do/believe.

So far the only thing I have done so far with this drive is backing up one of my drives with the Macrium Image option (around 1.1 TB).

I ll be reading your thoughts and I thank you guys in advance.
 
If you didn't safely eject your external drive, then any data sitting in the write cache would not have been flushed. Next time you connect the drive, the OS will see the "NTFS dirty bit", which will then initiate the CHKDSK prompt.

To avoid this in future, you could choose to "optimise your drive for quick removal".

You could run CHKDSK in readonly mode. This will tell you if the file system damage is minor or severe.
 
WhatIsAMobo said:
the external drive (Toshiba Canvio Basics 4TB) I've got for the backups on some of my drives apparently has some sort of corruption...
I ve bought it and received a week or so ago and I didnt know about these errors
Click to expand...
you bought a used drive that came with errors already being reported?
return it ASAP if you can't use a simple process to repair it back to it's normal state.

you're not making much sense as to which drive is which and which has what exact problem(s).
include an image of your Windows Disk Management with all drives connected.
 
JohnBonhamsGhost said:
you bought a used drive that came with errors already being reported?
return it ASAP if you can't use a simple process to repair it back to it's normal state.

you're not making much sense as to which drive is which and which has what exact problem(s).
include an image of your Windows Disk Management with all drives connected.
Click to expand...
No. Its brand new.
As an update on this situation. I ejected it safely and then plugged it again. The "Scan and Fix" windows popped up and I decided to use the fix. It ran quickly and said there was no other. Error.
Why did I unplug it? Because I wanted to know if another Event would appear on the Event Viewer and it did. Just as soon as it was plugged.

After 20 mins the Scan and Fix was done, I decided to unplug it and plug it again. This time no error showed up on the Event Viewer. Could it all be just that?

Sorry if my post was a little confusing. I have currently 8 drives running. "Volume I" is the New External Drive (4 TB Toshiba Canvio basics) that I m currently wondering if its just some minor corruption. And the 2TB Failing HDD is "Volume E". The second one I just mentioned it as a reason why I thought the Auto CHKDSK thing was triggered during thestartup loading screen, but it was the new Ext Drive.
 
Last edited:
fzabkar said:
If you didn't safely eject your external drive, then any data sitting in the write cache would not have been flushed. Next time you connect the drive, the OS will see the "NTFS dirty bit", which will then initiate the CHKDSK prompt.

To avoid this in future, you could choose to "optimise your drive for quick removal".

You could run CHKDSK in readonly mode. This will tell you if the file system damage is minor or severe.
Click to expand...
I remember ejecting it manually when the PC was turned off just to change it to a different USB Port, because of wire length reasons. Could that be the reason why? I dont have Fast Boot enabled (meaning the PC should have been actually "shut down"). Also I ve had in the past ext drives where they have been accidentally ejected, but it has never triggered an Automatic CHKDSK on startup.

I left a message answering to John above me, could that be the problem? And if so, now that I plugged it with no new Event Viewer errors, is the HDD ok?
 
If you turned off the PC by flicking a switch or pushing the ON/OFF button on the front panel, then this may have caused the problem. Otherwise, a safe shutdown should have flushed the cache, I would think.
 
fzabkar said:
If you turned off the PC by flicking a switch or pushing the ON/OFF button on the front panel, then this may have caused the problem. Otherwise, a safe shutdown should have flushed the cache, I would think.
Click to expand...
I havent done any brute/switch shutdowns ever since I ve got the HDD. Do you think Scan and Fix did solve the issue? It says I didnt have any errors. Also Event Viewer doesnt show up new errors related to the drive as I plugged it in.
 
many external drives can experience this exact situation when/if disconnected improperly or if the system has any type of malfunction, no matter how insignificant it may have been.

i've had probably 20 different drives go through some type of "error" and/or "corruption" report with an option to scan & fix, some multiple times.
usually it is a quick scan and rebuilding of drive structure and the issue is solved with no loss of data.

if you continue to see abnormal files and/or sectors of the disk even though it appears to be working correctly, just format the drive back to a clean state and start over with it.
if it continues to cause issue(s) or isn't reading/writing correctly, return it.
 
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JohnBonhamsGhost said:
many external drives can experience this exact situation when/if disconnected improperly or if the system has any type of malfunction, no matter how insignificant it may have been.

i've had probably 20 different drives go through some type of "error" and/or "corruption" report with an option to scan & fix, some multiple times.
usually it is a quick scan and rebuilding of drive structure and the issue is solved with no loss of data.

if you continue to see abnormal files and/or sectors of the disk even though it appears to be working correctly, just format the drive back to a clean state and start over with it.
if it continues to cause issue(s) or isn't reading/writing correctly, return it.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your insight. I guess there is nothing to worry about now that it got fixed. I ll be checking the Event Viewer in the following days to see if there is anything else to worry about.
This drive shouldnt be seeing any big action soon. I just want it to keep some backups.
 
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