I recently bought a gaming laptop and needed extra storage, so I connected an older 1TB USB drive that had worked reliably in the past. Now files refuse to delete and remain visible, and I can't format or wipe the drive. Windows' repair and error-checking tools either act as though the drive isn't connected or remain stuck for hours. The files on it are empty, so it shouldn't be processing a large amount of data. Is the drive corrupted, failing, or simply taking an unusually long time to respond?
2 Answers
Those symptoms strongly suggest the drive is failing rather than merely being slow. Some storage devices switch into a read-only state when they detect hardware problems, which can prevent deletions and formatting. If there’s anything important on it, copy it off immediately. For future use, replace the drive instead of trying to force a wipe.
You can check its health with CrystalDiskInfo or a similar SMART-monitoring tool. Look at the overall health status and warning counts, especially reallocated sectors, pending sectors, or read errors. If the utility reports warnings—or if the drive keeps disconnecting—treat it as unreliable and replace it.
I don’t have a health report yet, but with the failed deletions, stuck error checking, and formatting problems, I’m leaning toward replacing it rather than trusting it again.