I bought a new SATA SSD and USB enclosure to transfer files from my ASUS TUF F15 FX506HF. After copying files over, videos showed dead frames and solid red, green, or blue blocks during playback, and some photos were corrupted too. The original files on the laptop still work correctly.
I tested copying a known-good file to the SSD and back, and it was still corrupted. CrystalDiskInfo reports the SSD at 100% health with no reallocated or uncorrectable sectors, and temperatures stay around 39–42°C. I also tried a different enclosure, a second SSD from another brand, multiple USB ports, another cable, and a full format. The problem continues with SATA SSDs, but an old HDD connected through the same general setup copies the same files correctly.
What is the best way to determine whether the files are actually changing during the transfer, and where is the likely fault?
4 Answers
Since two SSDs show the same behavior while the HDD works, the common point may be the USB-to-SATA bridge, its UASP driver, power delivery, or a compatibility issue between the laptop and SSD controllers. Drive health software can still report a healthy SSD even when the enclosure or transfer path is corrupting data.
Try a different known-good USB-to-SATA adapter or enclosure with a different bridge chipset, preferably one that can switch between UASP and standard USB mass-storage mode. Also update the laptop's chipset, USB, storage, and BIOS drivers. Hash files after copying so you can confirm the result instead of relying only on video playback.
Use Robocopy for a controlled test instead of drag-and-drop. For example:
robocopy "C:Source" "D:Destination" *.* /E /COPYALL /DCOPY:T /V /Z /MT:1
Afterward, compare hashes for several files. Running with /MT:1 removes multi-threading as a variable, while /V and /Z make the copy process easier to inspect. If the hashes differ, test the SSD while connected through a completely different adapter or directly through another computer. That should help separate an SSD problem from a laptop USB-controller or enclosure problem.
First verify whether this is file corruption or just a playback problem. Compare the source and destination with SHA-256 hashes. In PowerShell, run:
(Get-FileHash -Path "SOURCE_FILE" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash -eq (Get-FileHash -Path "DESTINATION_FILE" -Algorithm SHA256).Hash
If it returns True, the files are identical and the issue is probably the media player, graphics decoding, or the display path. If it returns False, data is being altered during the transfer or while being written to the SSD.
A full format and normal SMART results do not prove that every write is reaching the NAND correctly. If the files fail hash checks through multiple adapters and on another computer, return both SSDs as defective or suspect the source system's storage path. If they only fail through this laptop and enclosure combination, focus on USB drivers, UASP, BIOS settings, and the adapter chipset rather than the video files themselves.
The cable is still worth testing with a known-good short cable, but because the same cable and port work with an HDD, the bridge, power behavior, or UASP interaction seems more suspicious than the cable itself.