strange data corruption issue when backing up to external USB drive

Hello,

Recently I bought a Seagate 3TB STBV3000100 USB drive to use as a backup drive.

I had an incident in 2008 (on a different computer) with data corruption that taught me to always test new hardware like crazy & verify everything I copy (I always make MD5's of anything I copy & verify afterwards, now).

So, the first thing I did when I got this drive was to copy 100GB of data & compare, and I noticed a few files were corrupt.

I had a hard time reproducing the error (I can copy 100's of GB without error) but eventually it happened again (on 3 different usb ports).

So, I tested the PC I'm using - 24hrs of Windows memory diagnostic (inc. the "advanced tests"), copied almost 1 TB of data back and forth on its internal drive, ran Prime 95 overnight, etc - I think the system is OK. Haven't had any issues with it.

So, I sent the drive back and got a (new, not refurbished) replacement. Same issue!

This time, tested it on 2 other computers - same issue on them as well!

The odds that all 3 computers are flakey seems just as unlikely as getting 2 drives with data corruption issues. I'm not sure what to think.

I'm curious if anyone has had a problem like this & suggestions on how to narrow down what is going on.

more info...
I'm testing at USB 2.0 speeds, all computers were Win 7 64bit, Seatools reports no problems

When I compare originals to the files with error, I see all sorts of strangeness: some times, the bad file has large chunks of NULLs instead of correct data. Another time, I saw parts of a different file (that had been on the disk recently, but was deleted) in the middle of the file. Another time, just random gibberish. It's never just a few bytes wrong, it's always 10+ MB of bad data...

I found this thread:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...ng-large-files-copied-to-external-ntfs-drives
with people suspecting an issue with Windows 7 64bit or Intel's drivers, but I have trouble believing that either would have such a huge problem...


Thanks!

 

I purchased one of the same and had the same issue. . . . thinking I received a bad hhd bought a new one to transfer what was not corrupted. I had 2.6tb worth of media Lost about half of it on the first drive. When I trasferred the non corrupted media from the first disk to the replacement disk I lost about the same percent again. Im running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601. I have done some digging and found this on another forum. Not sure if its the same thing but it might be a problem. Any help on this issue would be great. I was transferring it all at once on both attempts.


http://social.technet.microsoft.com...ng-large-files-copied-to-external-ntfs-drives

 

I thought I was crazy with the merged data from other files into the copied version. For instance. . . . the movie Devil and in the middle it turns into Iron Man. . . which was deleted previously.

 

Sent the drives back, bought a Toshiba and put it in a USB case. Works great, no issues.

I think Seagate has huge data corruption issues with their external drives. Scary stuff. I won't be buying Seagate again (this is strangely not the first time I've had Seagate drives cause corruption! I regret giving them a 2nd chance)

 

Thanks for sharing your find.

That doesn't fare very well for Seagate externals, at least that particular production run. I been up in the air between selecting a new Seagate 2TB external and Toshiba. With this news i might be better off taking my chances with the Toshiba because nothings more disappointing then having to do a return within days of a new purchase, and what's to say that the same brand replacement isn't going to puke out as well.

EASTER

 

The few times I've had corruption like that it's always turned out to be memory failures on the mainboard, or having not formatted properly or matched the HDD capacity with the interface chip and the filing system & OS.

When I transfer important data to a new storage medium, I tend to keep the old stuff around for a while.