Hi.
I have a 2TB WD Elements portable hard drive.
I've had it for about two years. Used very lightly.
Whenever I try to use FreeFIleSync to sync files on this drive, the program hangs and my whole system kind of freezes. I basically have to force quit my pc.
I'm on Windows 10.
I'm wondering if there have been cases where the software just acts funny with some drives, or if I should start to worry about the reliability of this particular drive?
I'll also look for ways to test the integrity and health of the hard drive, but was hoping to get some input here as well, just to try and rule out one or the other.
Thanks
Does FreeFileSync act up with some drives, or is my hard drive dying?
- Posts: 11
- Joined: 30 Oct 2018
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- Posts: 143
- Joined: 8 Mar 2017
Hi adios,
I have two 500GB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 WD Elements Portable Hard-drives. I've had them for about 5 years but they only receive very light use as all I ever use them for is backups. For the last couple of years I've been using FFS to do the backups. Initially I was using USB 2 ports on my computer to use the drives - there are no native USB3 ports on my computer. When trying to do backups using USB 2 I would fairly frequently plug a drive in and get a Windows warning (if I remember correctly) that the drive was unusable and needed to be formatted. I always thought this wrong and did a couple of unplug/replug the drive routines and eventually Windows would mount the drive okay and FFS would process the syncs without issues. My thinking on this was that this was an issue with Windows, not with the drives themselves, and certainly not an issue with FFS.
Earlier this year I got some components for my computer that added USB 3 ports to the box. I also had to install drivers for USB 3 as I am on Windows 7 which doesn't have native USB 3 drivers. So now I always use the USB 3 ports with the WD Elements drives. So far there has never been any fail to mount the drives on first insertion of the drives into a USB 3 port. In fact using the USB 3 ports the drives work flawlessly - which is quite a difference from the occasional variable results I was getting using USB 2.
Personally, in your case, I would suspect that Windows 10 is causing the problems you are experiencing. I wouldn't touch Win10 with a barge-pole. Apart from being a Microsoft Spyware Suite posing as an operating system I read countless numbers of complaints on forums that the latest update to Win10 is breaking things left right and centre.
It could, of course, maybe be an issue with the USB plug or socket malfunctioning when in use. It functions as normal and gets the drive mounted (i.e. so that it is seen by the system as being usable). Then later when you fire up FFS there is a malfunction that might be USB plug/socket based and the drive is no longer useable by Windows and/or FFS.
Suffice to say that I've never experiencing any problems with the WD Elements drives and FFS - the problems as best as I could see lay with Windows.
To test your hard-drives for the possibility of failing try this search for instructions: test failing hard-drive Personally, I've always found trying to test a HDD for failing is a frustrating task - you can never be sure. So, when there is sufficient doubt, I would just replace the drive.
Hope this helps in some way.
I have two 500GB USB 3.0/USB 2.0 WD Elements Portable Hard-drives. I've had them for about 5 years but they only receive very light use as all I ever use them for is backups. For the last couple of years I've been using FFS to do the backups. Initially I was using USB 2 ports on my computer to use the drives - there are no native USB3 ports on my computer. When trying to do backups using USB 2 I would fairly frequently plug a drive in and get a Windows warning (if I remember correctly) that the drive was unusable and needed to be formatted. I always thought this wrong and did a couple of unplug/replug the drive routines and eventually Windows would mount the drive okay and FFS would process the syncs without issues. My thinking on this was that this was an issue with Windows, not with the drives themselves, and certainly not an issue with FFS.
Earlier this year I got some components for my computer that added USB 3 ports to the box. I also had to install drivers for USB 3 as I am on Windows 7 which doesn't have native USB 3 drivers. So now I always use the USB 3 ports with the WD Elements drives. So far there has never been any fail to mount the drives on first insertion of the drives into a USB 3 port. In fact using the USB 3 ports the drives work flawlessly - which is quite a difference from the occasional variable results I was getting using USB 2.
Personally, in your case, I would suspect that Windows 10 is causing the problems you are experiencing. I wouldn't touch Win10 with a barge-pole. Apart from being a Microsoft Spyware Suite posing as an operating system I read countless numbers of complaints on forums that the latest update to Win10 is breaking things left right and centre.
It could, of course, maybe be an issue with the USB plug or socket malfunctioning when in use. It functions as normal and gets the drive mounted (i.e. so that it is seen by the system as being usable). Then later when you fire up FFS there is a malfunction that might be USB plug/socket based and the drive is no longer useable by Windows and/or FFS.
Suffice to say that I've never experiencing any problems with the WD Elements drives and FFS - the problems as best as I could see lay with Windows.
To test your hard-drives for the possibility of failing try this search for instructions: test failing hard-drive Personally, I've always found trying to test a HDD for failing is a frustrating task - you can never be sure. So, when there is sufficient doubt, I would just replace the drive.
Hope this helps in some way.
- Posts: 11
- Joined: 30 Oct 2018
Thanks for your informative reply Radish!
Yeah, I didn't think of the option that Windows could be the problem.
Come to think of it, I didn't even think of ruling out the USB cable, or the port in the USB hub I'm using. I'm using an independently powered (5V 2A) USB (USB 3.0) hub.
Just this morning I downloaded the WD hard drive health check utility and it's running a check on that drive as I type this (will be done in about 4 hours).
So I'll keep testing and not jump to any conclusions yet.
Thanks!
Yeah, I didn't think of the option that Windows could be the problem.
Come to think of it, I didn't even think of ruling out the USB cable, or the port in the USB hub I'm using. I'm using an independently powered (5V 2A) USB (USB 3.0) hub.
Just this morning I downloaded the WD hard drive health check utility and it's running a check on that drive as I type this (will be done in about 4 hours).
So I'll keep testing and not jump to any conclusions yet.
Thanks!
