I'm a video producer dealing with large media files, and I recently had a problem with my Western Digital My Book Duo 28TB external drive. According to a coworker, the drive started showing a 'no space left' message even though only around 20TB had been used. After that, files began disappearing, getting overwritten, or becoming corrupted. Now it looks like I'm set to lose three full TV programs because the original video files are stored on this malfunctioning drive. I need to know if it's technically possible for a hard drive to act this way or if it sounds more like human error, like accidental deletions or formatting issues. Thanks in advance!
4 Answers
Have you checked if the lights on the device are flashing? What's the configuration like—are you running it in RAID mode with older hard drives? Many users accidentally set up RAID0, which doesn't provide redundancy if one drive fails. It might be worth investigating your setup further to ensure everything is in order.
If files are overwritten, don't despair! You can often recover them using standard data recovery software without needing to go to a professional. Hard drives have many data layers, meaning that even if some data gets corrupted, you might still retrieve usable versions. We once scanned a 1TB drive and recovered around 4-5TB of data—just be aware that some layers might be corrupt.
Yes, it's technically possible for a hard drive to show incorrect space availability and corrupt files, especially depending on the OS and file system you're utilizing. I suggest using a SMART monitoring tool like CrystalDiskInfo or DriveDx to get more insights on the drive's health. This could help pinpoint whether it's a failure or another issue.
First off, I highly recommend consulting a professional data recovery service. If you're in Mozambique, see if they have options in Portugal since you're traveling there soon. Also, always make sure to have backups—buy additional disks for storing your essential files and keep multiple backups of the data you create. Remember, HDDs can be sensitive to shock and different temperatures, while SSDs are faster but can lose data if they're not powered up regularly. So it's wise to mix both types based on how you'll use them.

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