[SOLVED] What exactly happened to my HDD? (File or directory is corrupted and unreadable) (File record segment is unreadable)

[Jason099]

I have two storages, my 512 GB SSD (C: ) for my OS, and my 1TB HDD (D: )for games and anything else. My 1TB HDD is the issue here.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly happened to my HDD or whether it is dying/ dead or if it is recoverable. I'll explain what happened moments before my issue. I was loading up a game called Apex Legends and it started to "loading and compiling shaders" as seen in this post: (25) Loading and compiling shaders every time!! Help? Anyone else facing this ? (On origin and steam both , windows 11) : apexlegends (reddit.com)
It doesn't do this for me ever as the game would straight load to the "Press Continue" everytime other than this time and this is the first time I've seen it since I've played many years ago. I decide to Alt-tab while it does "loading and compiling shaders" and when I tried to alt-tab back, the application would not respond and Origin (where I load the game) would also not respond. I tried Ctrl+alt+delete and task manager would not respond, which I thought was very odd. After 10 minutes of trying to pull out task manager (not responding) I then decide to restart. It said my game was still running as well as origin but I proceeded with the restart anyways. The restart lasted for 10 minutes, then I decided to force shut down by holding the button. Upon restarting, I am now getting "scanning and repairing drive (D: )100% complete" at the start up and it does reach the desktop (not stuck in a loop). Now when I go to "this PC" I noticed that my HDD drive doesn't have a bar that shows how much space I've used and when I click on my HDD (D: ) to get into the folder, it gives me "File or directory is corrupted and unreadable": the-file-or-directory-is-corrupted-and-unreadable.png (366×168) (easeus.com)

I've tried the command line "chkdsk /f d:" (d is my drive) and it is giving me this: file-record-segment-is-unreadable.jpg (357×132) (ubackup.com)

It is giving me "File record segment is unreadable" for pretty much everything and it is about to complete. My questions are:

1. Is my HDD done? Or is there a way to get it to work fine again?

2. Could a simple unplug and replug potentially fix this?

3. Did me forcefully shutting it down by holding down the power button while it was stuck on restarting (for atleast 7 minutes) cause my HDD to die? My only theory to this is that the reason it was stuck on Restarting was because Apex was still trying to "loading and compiling shaders" thus kept my HDD active, I could be very wrong though. Or was my HDD just on its way out (I guess I'll never really know but Just wondering if it may had caused it)

The task manager along with origin and apex (both on my HDD) were all not responsive while my discord and opening Microsoft edge was responsive prior to me hitting restart. What's even more strange is 1 hour prior I was actually playing Apex, then I went to Valorant, and then back to Apex and that was when I got the "loading and compiling shaders". Now, the Origin client and Apex icon on my desktop turned into a white page, which I assume is due to my HDD not accessible. I've gamed with this HDD for about 5 years now since I bought it new. I haven't done many downloads in the past 5 years since I got it, in fact I believe it was only at 300GB used so it dying out caught me off guard. My apologies if this post is a bit lengthy. Appreciate if anyone knows what exactly is going on with my HDD and if I can still use it. I'm just trying to decipher if my HDD is done or if it is still perfectly fine.

 

[Grobe]

1 Probably yes, you need to get a new one.

2 Probably not.

3 No. But the "was stuck" part was probably a result of the HDD didn't behaved in an expected manner seen from the OS.

You can read the HDD s.m.a.r.t. data (health) to verify that the hdd is in bad condition. You can use a software like CrystalDiskInfo for that, copy and paste the result here.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

By all means feel free to test the HDD as suggested above, but judging by the errors Windows is reporting I'd have to say it doesn't look good.
If it was me I'd be treating it as no longer usable and replacing it.

 

[SkyNetRising]

1. Is my HDD done? Or is there a way to get it to work fine again?

Unknown. You have to diagnose it properly.

2. Could a simple unplug and replug potentially fix this?

Of course not.

3. Did me forcefully shutting it down by holding down the power button while it was stuck on restarting (for atleast 7 minutes) cause my HDD to die?

That can cause file system corruption. Not physical damage.

 

[Jason099]

1 Probably yes, you need to get a new one.

2 Probably not.

3 No. But the "was stuck" part was probably a result of the HDD didn't behaved in an expected manner seen from the OS.

You can read the HDD s.m.a.r.t. data (health) to verify that the hdd is in bad condition. You can use a software like CrystalDiskInfo for that, copy and paste the result here.

By all means feel free to test the HDD as suggested above, but judging by the errors Windows is reporting I'd have to say it doesn't look good.
If it was me I'd be treating it as no longer usable and replacing it.

Unknown. You have to diagnose it properly.

Of course not.

That can cause file system corruption. Not physical damage.

I’m thinking I might just straight replace the HDD. Based off the replies and my own research, I’m convinced it is done. I don’t have any important files on it that I want to recover anyways. That being said, I do have a few questions about replacing the HDD.

1. Do I need to tweak anything in the windows settings to let windows know I don’t want to be using the HDD anymore? Like since the letter D was set do I have to uncheck anything or unassign the letter D? Or can I just straight up unplug it from my case without having to touch any settings?
I’m wondering this because I’ve never done this before and not sure if I need to do anything to windows before taking away the HDD.

2. This question kind of links to the first in terms of doing something to windows first before removing HDD. Will I need to uninstall the programs that were on the HDD from my Uninstall Programs tab under control panel? I still see some of the icons under Uninstall Programs that belong to my HDD which is confusing me since if my PC can’t recognize the drive, why do they still appear there? What will happen if I uninstall them? Or will unplugging my dead HDD make these programs completely disappear?

3. I’ve noticed that there are still Icons of the games on my desktop that are from my HDD. The Icons are currently blank white and when I right click them, it takes 5 minutes + for a drop-down menu to show. Whereas when I right click the icons that are on my SDD, the drop-down menu is instant. Why is the drop-down menu for icons on my HDD slow to appear? Will unplugging my HDD make these icons disappear?


4. All in all, my computer feels a bit buggy ever since this HDD issue appeared. Such as right clicking the icons for drop-down is slow to appear. Opening up File Explorer and going to This PC and right clicking the HDD, the drop-down menu there is also slow to appear. One time after many restarts in my trouble shooting attempts, after right clicking an icon that was located on my HDD my screen turned to a blank white with my windows apps that I have opened only appear on the bottom left and the entire task bar was gone and desktop icons gone with only white at the back. Every time I start up my computer it would give “Scanning and repairing drive (D: ) 100% complete”(I can eventually log in though to get to my desktop). I assume every time windows starts its detecting that my HDD has issues and it’s trying to repair it every time, that might be why I’m getting this message? It would look something like this: windows-10-scanning-and-repairing-drive-c-stuck-at-100-750x430.jpg (750×430) (howtofixwindows.com) Could the HDD be causing these buggy issues or is there something else that may be causing it?

 

[Grobe]

1. Do I need to tweak anything in the windows settings to let windows know I don’t want to be using the HDD anymore?

That should not be neccesary.

Will I need to uninstall the programs that were on the HDD from my Uninstall Programs tab under control panel?

If the program files are still accessible by the file system, then yes it's a good idea to uninstall. If the program files was installed to a location that is now unavailable, then the uninstaller program cannot proceed - and most probably many pointers, leftover files in the user profile and other leftover from those programs will still remains.

I still see some of the icons under Uninstall Programs that belong to my HDD which is confusing me since if my PC can’t recognize the drive, why do they still appear there?

Because they're not uninstalled, just the location where the programs was installed that are no longer around.

Why is the drop-down menu for icons on my HDD slow to appear? Will unplugging my HDD make these icons disappear?

Because the OS still tries to look for what content of the files that the links are pointing to.

4. All in all, my computer feels a bit buggy ever since this HDD issue appeared.

That is expected behavior when there are a lot of pointers and registry entries pointing to non-existing targets.

Consider a reinstall of the OS.