Toshiba 3TB USB HDD has become unreliable in less than a year

[wyatt226]

Hi, I bought a Toshiba Portable USB Hard Drives Canvio Connect II HDTC830XK3C1 last summer, a 3TB job. Up until the last few days it's been fast, reliable and conveniently compact.

Now, just before I head off on another deployment, it's becoming unreliable. I first noticed this trying to copy a few GB of data to it, the copy process would start normally then grind to a halt. If left for several minutes, Windows would give up (I don't recall the exact error message).

I can see the drive contents, all the file details load as normal, but trying to play a movie file, for example... it will start the movie after a delay, but trying to seek through the playback causes further delays and it eventually gives up.

I've tried the Toshiba storage diagnostic, that doesn't seem to do anything. I've just tried the Windows disk error checking tool, that did nothing for a few minutes then threw up a USB Device Not Recognized error, and now the drive's disappeared from Windows Explorer.

From what I know of these things, all indications are that the drive is on its way out. I'd like to think that it's something I've done, rather than a one hundred dollar drive just dying in a little over six months.

Before I launch in to getting a replacement and trying to copy my stuff across, can anyone please recommend any other steps I can try? Even if it is a duffer, I'd at least like to find out what's gone wrong so I can avoid repeating a mistake in the future.

Cheers all

Oh, and I should probably mention I'm running a MSI GE72 laptop, Windows 10, everything otherwise working and updated as I can make it. No other USB complaints or anything.

 

[drtweak]

install and run CrystalDiskInfo and then run it with it plugged in. If it says Good then it may be something else mechanical with it. If it says caution or bad then post it back here.

Also I have stayed away from tohisba hard drive for a looong time and i know a lot of people here who agree. They don't make good drives

 

[wyatt226]

I forgot all about Crystal, thanks for the reminder. I fired it up and right away it proclaimed BAD in big red letters 🙁
I've cropped out the info for the internal drives, they report healthy. The Toshiba reports everything is fine except for a red flag on Reallocted Sectors Count, which it gives as 2 /2 / 50 and a yellow one for Current Pending Sector Count at 100 / 100 / 0.
I don't know if all the hex is required. Hope this stuff means more to you than it does to me. Many thanks for looking!

OS : Windows 10 [10.0 Build 16299] (x64)
Date : 2018/02/26 17:52:45

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
+ Intel(R) 8 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
- HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUB0N
- HGST HTS721010A9E630
- TOSHIBA THNSNJ128G8NU
- Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]
- DAEMON Tools Lite Virtual SCSI Bus [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
(1) HGST HTS721010A9E630 : 1000.2 GB [0/0/0, pd1]
(2) TOSHIBA THNSNJ128G8NU : 128.0 GB [1/0/0, pd1] - to
(3) TOSHIBA MQ03UBB300 : 3000.5 GB [2/0/0, sa1]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(3) TOSHIBA MQ03UBB300
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enclosure : TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 USB Device (V=0480, P=0210, sa1)
Model : TOSHIBA MQ03UBB300
Firmware : JP050U
Serial Number : 47RDTFAVT
Disk Size : 3000.5 GB (8.4/137.4/3000.5/3000.5)
Buffer Size : 16384 KB
Queue Depth : 32
# of Sectors : 5860533168
Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
Major Version : ATA8-ACS
Minor Version : ----
Transfer Mode : SATA/300 | SATA/300
Power On Hours : 2471 hours
Power On Count : 145 count
Temperature : 24 C (75 F)
Health Status : Bad
Features : S.M.A.R.T., APM, 48bit LBA, NCQ
APM Level : 0080h [ON]
AAM Level : ----
Drive Letter : G:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 _50 000000000000 Read Error Rate
02 100 100 _50 000000000000 Throughput Performance
03 100 100 __1 00000000154B Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 __0 000000000963 Start/Stop Count
05 __2 __2 _50 000000003FE0 Reallocated Sectors Count
07 100 100 _50 000000000000 Seek Error Rate
08 100 100 _50 000000000000 Seek Time Performance
09 _94 _94 __0 0000000009A7 Power-On Hours
0A 148 100 _30 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0C 100 100 __0 000000000091 Power Cycle Count
BF 100 100 __0 000000000005 G-Sense Error Rate
C0 100 100 __0 000000000004 Power-off Retract Count
C1 100 100 __0 000000000C00 Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 100 100 __0 002800110018 Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 000000000544 Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000018 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 253 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
DC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Disk Shift
DE 100 100 __0 00000000003C Loaded Hours
DF 100 100 __0 000000000000 Load/Unload Retry Count
E0 100 100 __0 000000000000 Load Friction
E2 100 100 __0 00000000011D Load 'In'-time
F0 100 100 __1 000000000000 Head Flying Hours

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
000: 0040 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2034 3752 4454 4641 5654
020: 0000 8000 0000 4A50 3035 3055 2020 544F 5348 4942
030: 4120 4D51 3033 5542 4233 3030 2020 2020 2020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 0000 2F00
050: 4000 0200 0000 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0110
060: FFFF 0FFF 0007 0007 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0108
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F EF06 0004 004C 0040
080: 01F8 0000 746B 7D09 6163 7448 BC09 6163 203F 8123
090: 8123 0080 FFFE 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: A3B0 5D50 0001 0000 0000 0000 6003 0000 0000 0000
110: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401C
120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0021 0000
130: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
140: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0003 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 003D 0000 0000 4000
210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1518 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 103F 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: A3B0 5D50 0001 0000 0001 0080 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 71A5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 0B 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 05
010: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 27 00 64 64 4B
020: 15 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 64 64 63 09 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 33 00 02 02 E0 3F 00 00 00 00 00 07 0B
040: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 05 00 64 64 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 32 00 5E 5E A7 09 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 33 00 94 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 32
070: 00 64 64 91 00 00 00 00 00 00 BF 32 00 64 64 05
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 32 00 64 64 04 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C1 32 00 64 64 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 C2 22
0A0: 00 64 64 18 00 11 00 28 00 00 C4 32 00 64 64 44
0B0: 05 00 00 00 00 00 C5 32 00 64 64 18 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C6 30 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 32
0D0: 00 C8 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DC 02 00 64 64 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 DE 32 00 64 64 3C 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 DF 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E0 22
100: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E2 26 00 64 64 1D
110: 01 00 00 00 00 00 F0 01 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 00 00 5B
170: 03 00 01 00 02 FF 00 15 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 87

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
+0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 32
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 01 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 05 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 32
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08 32 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0A 1E 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 BF 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C1 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C4 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DC 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 DE 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 DF 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E0 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E2 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 F0 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 36

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I can concur with previous remarks about Toshiba drives being unreliable - - - I bought one a while ago - - lasted just over a year with hardly any use. Needless to say I steer clear of Toshiba drives now (and Seagate ones).

Oh, and that "re-allocated sector count" means the drive has bad sectors and they will increase over time until the drive can't even be tested let alone used. I strongly suggest you replace the drive immediately.

 

[wyatt226]

Yup. Luckily 90% of my data exists on an older drive, a WD My Book that's been soldiering on for years. Already consigned myself to a replacement three or four terra drive, just not looking forward to trying to recover any newer information from the Toshiba. Ho hum.

My thanks once again for taking the time on this matter. No more Toshibas for me!

 

[drtweak]

Yea get rid of the drive and a buy a real hard drive from WD/Seagate lol