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I get "Data Error. Cyclic redundancy check" when I try to initialize the External Hard Drive.

Anonymous
2011-09-08T05:01:00+00:00

Original title: Data Error. Cyclic redundancy check

I have an external usb hard drive that used to work. Now it shows up as uninitialized. When I try to initialize the disk I get "Data error. cyclic redundancy check" How can I fix this and access the files already on the disk?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2011-09-08T18:45:26+00:00

Hi,

  1. Did you make any changes to your computer prior to the issue occurring?

Follow these methods and check if the issue persists.

Method 1

I would suggest that you check the status of the drive using disk management and reassign the drive letter, check if it helps.

Change, add, or remove a drive letter

**http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Change-add-or-remove-a-drive-letter**

Method 2

If the above step fails then I would suggest that you backup data on another external drive using other computer and later format the drive on the Windows 7 laptop and check if it helps.

Create and format a hard disk partition http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Create-and-format-a-hard-disk-partition

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-03-12T22:31:49+00:00

    unfortunately none of those options work if you cant even initialize it because it has no drive letter! the above answer does not answer the actual question.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-12T20:11:40+00:00

    Check any of these windows forums, all you ever get is "stupid canned answers for beginners" that do not address the actual question.  Anyway, I have the same problem, and my best guess is that the drive is toasted.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-09T14:02:55+00:00

    Same problem here.

    Have an older laptop with 2 spin-drives in raid

    • Upgraded to windows 10 (kept nothing)
    • Cloned over to an SSD

    . Replaced one of the hard-drives with the SSD

    Boots up fine, machine is now running on the SSD. The remaining disk (which i planned to format and just keep for storage) does not appear in explorer - and when i try to reach is with disk partitioning and formatting, the initalization (regardless of MBR or GPT) fails with "Data Error (Cyclic redundancy check)"

    Any solution to this yet?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-06-19T12:08:17+00:00

    Have you been able to get it to work? I have the same problem here...

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