I recently upgraded from a 6TB hard drive to a new 24TB one to store my data, photos, and videos (not for booting). I used Clonezilla to copy everything over, but I had to do an exact copy instead of a proportional clone due to some issues. This created two partitions, and while I formatted one of them as exFAT and copied my data, it was accessible for a few days before suddenly becoming inaccessible. Now I'm seeing an error saying the volume doesn't have a recognized file system. I'd like to understand why this happened and how to avoid it in the future. Could simply assigning a new drive letter fix this, or do I need to try something else? I also want to mention that this issue seemed to coincide with a Windows Update, and I attempted a System Restore which didn't resolve the problem.
3 Answers
Just a heads up, I've seen similar issues after Windows updates too. Sometimes these updates can mess with external hard drives. If you haven’t tried already, reassigning a drive letter could be a simple fix, but it’s not guaranteed. Just keep an eye on your drive health.
I should warn you, if you got that 24TB HDD for a steal, it could be a counterfeit. Real mechanical drives at that capacity tend to be pricey. It's worth checking its properties for any red flags.
It sounds like maybe the exFAT format is part of the problem. You might want to think about switching to NTFS instead, which is generally more reliable for larger drives. Plus, using a program like Fast Copy could help you transfer the files without issues.
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