[SOLVED] WD Harddrive spiking to 100% and bad sectors.

[JVSF]

Hi there!

Yesterday one of my Western Digital internal harddrives ran into trouble. Therefore I reach out to you, the many wise members of this forum, for some help.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

It all started with the computer lagging, and filetransfers going really slow. I then noticed that the harddrive-activity frequently spiked to 100% on the particular drive. Sometimes constantly at 100% over several minutes, and sometimes peaking in shorter intervals.

I ran a diagnostics test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic. The quicktest went fine, but the extended test revealed "too many bad sectors" and failed.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Regarding the bad sectors I guess the only solution (at least long term) is to transfer all the data I can, and replace the harddrive with a new one. Am I correct?

Further, the thing is that I have a lot of important programs installed on that drive that would be extremely time consuming to re-install to a new drive. If the state of the drive allows it, would it be possible to clone the drive to a new one, so I don't have to re-install everything?

Last but not least, Is there anything I should/shouldn't do to be able to keep my data on the drive fully intact? Right now I'm manually transfering important files from the problematic drive to an external harddrive.

Let me know if you need any more info, and any help would be greatly appreciated!

COMPUTER SPECS

- Failed harddrive: Western Digital Desktop Black 4TB (SATA 3.0) 64 MB Cache, 7200RPM
- CPU: Intel Core i7-3970X @ 3.50 GHz 3.80 GHz
- RAM: 32 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 2400 MHz
- OS: Windows 10 PRO (20H2) (19042.746)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce TITAN 6 GB
- Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme9

 

[Quanticriver]

Hi there!

Yesterday one of my Western Digital internal harddrives ran into trouble. Therefore I reach out to you, the many wise members of this forum, for some help.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

It all started with the computer lagging, and filetransfers going really slow. I then noticed that the harddrive-activity frequently spiked to 100% on the particular drive. Sometimes constantly at 100% over several minutes, and sometimes peaking in shorter intervals.

I ran a diagnostics test with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic. The quicktest went fine, but the extended test revealed "too many bad sectors" and failed.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Regarding the bad sectors I guess the only solution (at least long term) is to transfer all the data I can, and replace the harddrive with a new one. Am I correct?

Further, the thing is that I have a lot of important programs installed on that drive that would be extremely time consuming to re-install to a new drive. If the state of the drive allows it, would it be possible to clone the drive to a new one, so I don't have to re-install everything?

Last but not least, Is there anything I should/shouldn't do to be able to keep my data on the drive fully intact? Right now I'm manually transfering important files from the problematic drive to an external harddrive.

Let me know if you need any more info, and any help would be greatly appreciated!

COMPUTER SPECS

- Failed harddrive: Western Digital Desktop Black 4TB (SATA 3.0) 64 MB Cache, 7200RPM
- CPU: Intel Core i7-3970X @ 3.50 GHz 3.80 GHz
- RAM: 32 GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 2400 MHz
- OS: Windows 10 PRO (20H2) (19042.746)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce TITAN 6 GB
- Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme9

Hello

You are correct, the failure of the hdd is imminent and it as long as you have acces the data should he transferred

Concerning your idea to clone the hdd, you can try, but it will probably fail, that being said, i'd still try it

BUT do get all your data off first, as cloning taxes your drive and it might fail completely

 

[USAFRet]

Further, the thing is that I have a lot of important programs installed on that drive that would be extremely time consuming to re-install to a new drive. If the state of the drive allows it, would it be possible to clone the drive to a new one, so I don't have to re-install everything?

This is specifically what backups are for.

Full drive backup would have you up and running in an hour after drive replacement, with zero loss of data or functionality.

Cloning?
If you have garbage at the source, you have garbage at the target.

You could try something like HDDSuperCLone. This will attempt to work around bad blocks and reconstruct the data.

HDDSuperClone | HDDSuperClone

www.hddsuperclone.com

It may or may not work.


Again....this is specifically what proactive backups are for.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[JVSF]

Hello

You are correct, the failure of the hdd is imminent and it as long as you have acces the data should he transferred

Concerning your idea to clone the hdd, you can try, but it will probably fail, that being said, i'd still try it

BUT do get all your data off first, as cloning taxes your drive and it might fail completely

Thanks for your quick reply, Quanticriver! Then I'll continue doing my best to get the data of the drive manually.

 

[Quanticriver]

Thanks for your quick reply, Quanticriver! Then I'll continue doing my best to get the data of the drive manually.

Good luck my friend

 

[JVSF]

This is specifically what backups are for.

Full drive backup would have you up and running in an hour after drive replacement, with zero loss of data or functionality.

Cloning?
If you have garbage at the source, you have garbage at the target.

You could try something like HDDSuperCLone. This will attempt to work around bad blocks and reconstruct the data.

HDDSuperClone | HDDSuperClone

www.hddsuperclone.com

It may or may not work.


Again....this is specifically what proactive backups are for.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

Thanks for your quick reply, USAFRet!

Here comes some noob questions:

I have previously backed up 90% of my important files to two other hard drives. The backup has been done manually though by copying the folders. Does manuall and full drive backup differ in any way if you have copied the whole drive manually?

I have for instance a copy of the Programfiles folder that I did manually. Could I just be copying that folder back to a new drive and things will work?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for your quick reply, USAFRet!

Here comes some noob questions:

I have previously backed up 90% of my important files to two other hard drives. The backup has been done manually though by copying the folders. Does manuall and full drive backup differ in any way if you have copied the whole drive manually?

I have for instance a copy of the Programfiles folder that I did manually. Could I just be copying that folder back to a new drive and things will work?

A little backstory on the construction of the data on this?

It is a secondary drive, but you've installed some applications to it?
How was that done...manual install, or something else?

Why these applications on the second drive? What size/make is the OS drive?

 

[JVSF]

A little backstory on the construction of the data on this?

It is a secondary drive, but you've installed some applications to it?
How was that done...manual install, or something else?

Why these applications on the second drive? What size/make is the OS drive?

I have my OS installed on a 512 GB SSD (C drive). So yes the faulty drive is a secondary 4 TB 7200RPM drive (D drive).

I use my computer for music production, motion graphics etc, and that implies having huge sound and video libraries. As well as a lot of add on software for the main programs I use.

I have for example Adobe After Effects and Ableton Live (my main motion graphics and music software) installed on the C drive. All the add ons (vst plugins) take up quite some space and is installed on the D drive. I want to keep my OS drive clean, so in addition to the stuff above, games and other software is by default installed to the D drive.

My music libraries that I use for music production is several TB's, so therefore I need dedicated drives for it. (I have a 1 year old 6TB WD internal drive that I also have installed, but that's another story.)

The music libraries, video libraries, and other important files are for the most part backed up on another harddrive. My concern is mainly the software (vst-plugins) installed on the faulty D drive. Mostly installed with an installer, but some instances manually.

Let me know if I need to clarify something more, and thanks for helping me out!

 

[USAFRet]

If and only if you can keep the full folder structure exactly the same on some new drive...then the copy might work. And of course the drive letter, D.
Any deviation, and the applications installed on the C drive will look for resources that are no longer int he right place.

This is why full drive backup images work well for this. Somewhat like a clone, but an Image to be stored away and updated as needed.
In need, simply recover from that Image. You then have exactly what it was when you made that Image. My main systems do an Incremental image every night, between midnight and 4AM. So no more than 24 hours at most.

And...programs on 'other drives' do NOT have to be in a folder called "Program Files". Literally, any folder name works. You just have to tell it when you install something.

My games via Steam that live on the G drive (secondary SSD) are in a folder called SteamGames.
My Lightroom and Painstop Pro plugins live in a folder labeled "Plugins" or "LR_Presets", on a different drive,

 

[Krotow]

Indeed it is the case when backups become in a worth of gold. It will become much worse fast. Copy all what matter from that drive ASAP while it is still possible. Documents, pictures, etc. Do not touch "Program Files", "SteamLibrary" and other software or technical folders - you will reinstall them later anyway. Except probably those VST plugins. And get a new drive instead.

 

[JVSF]

If and only if you can keep the full folder structure exactly the same on some new drive...then the copy might work. And of course the drive letter, D.
Any deviation, and the applications installed on the C drive will look for resources that are no longer int he right place.

This is why full drive backup images work well for this. Somewhat like a clone, but an Image to be stored away and updated as needed.
In need, simply recover from that Image. You then have exactly what it was when you made that Image. My main systems do an Incremental image every night, between midnight and 4AM. So no more than 24 hours at most.

And...programs on 'other drives' do NOT have to be in a folder called "Program Files". Literally, any folder name works. You just have to tell it when you install something.

My games via Steam that live on the G drive (secondary SSD) are in a folder called SteamGames.
My Lightroom and Painstop Pro plugins live in a folder labeled "Plugins" or "LR_Presets", on a different drive,

Thanks for your reply! I have now luckilly managed to manually copy over all the files I need from the faulty drive to a new one. I'm thinking of trying to do a full drive backup/clone the harddrive now that the files are safe on another drive (so I don't have to reinstall all my plug-ins.). Do you have any tips on how I should proceed doing that? I'm aware that the drive might fail, but it's worth a try I think.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for your reply! I have now luckilly managed to manually copy over all the files I need from the faulty drive to a new one. I'm thinking of trying to do a full drive backup/clone the harddrive now that the files are safe on another drive (so I don't have to reinstall all my plug-ins.). Do you have any tips on how I should proceed doing that? I'm aware that the drive might fail, but it's worth a try I think.

The above mentioned HDDSuperClone.
Or the standard Macrium Reflect.

 

[JVSF]

Thanks everybody for taking the time to help me out @USAFRet @Krotow @Quanticriver ! The next question is what drive to replace it with, but I guess thats a topic for another thread on this forum.

New thread: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/looking-for-the-best-hdd-2021-any-recommendations.3682734/

All the best, Jonas