I was trying to find a file today, and to my surprise, it was missing from a specific folder on my external drive. As I searched through the folder, I also noticed that some images were corrupted and wouldn't open. Thankfully, I had a backup on another drive, so I managed to continue my work without issues. My drive is a Seagate 2TB, about five years old. I'm worried that the drive might be failing. Is there a chance something's wrong with it? Should I consider replacing it soon?
3 Answers
You might want to download SeaTools to diagnose your disk. It's specifically for Seagate drives and can help you determine if there’s an issue.
It sounds like your hard drive might be on the verge of failure. I recommend backing up all your data as soon as possible in case it dies completely. Also, make sure there’s no chance of a virus affecting it.
I really hope it’s not a virus! I ran a scan with Windows Defender, and it shows up clean. But now I remember, my last drive acted similarly before it completely died, so I guess it might be time to start looking for a replacement.
Your drive could be failing, but also check how you’re disconnecting it. Are you safely ejecting it every time? If you're frequently plugging and unplugging it without safely unmounting, that could lead to issues.
I always safely remove the USB or turn off the computer before unplugging, so that shouldn’t be a problem. The corrupted file was pretty recent, too, so I haven't moved it around.
Does this tool work for any Seagate model? Just want to make sure before I download it.