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External disk fixing takes very long time

Anonymous
2020-01-06T09:47:25+00:00

Hi,

I have Windows 10.

I had a problem with my external hard drive (it said fatal hardware error) as it was not recognized by the system, though found as disk F:. I restarted as sometimes it fixes such bugs.

right at the start of booting, windows started fixing my external hard drive, completing after an hour.

At this point the explorer did not work properly, so I restarted it again. That was about 17 hours ago.

The computer tried to fix my external again, and is stuck on stage 2 where it's progress in a very slow.

write now the message I get is:

Fixing (F:) Stage 2: 92% (372408 of 400908); Total 71% ETA 6:09:27..

17 hours ago it was on 372108, so with this rate it will take months just to complete stage 2!

what should I do??

I would appreciate any help and/or suggestions.

I must add that loosing the files within the external hard drive is not an option, but not using the computer for about half a year is not desirable as well...

My system is Windows 10

Thank you in advance!

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-01-07T14:32:04+00:00

    Thanks Dave,

    I would appreciate to understand what is the risk involved in stopping it.

    As I mentioned, it does not seem to complete stage 2 in the foreseeable future...

    If its okay, can you share with me what exactly does it do on stage 2?

    Maybe there is a point in time when its safer to stop then other. Say, when its counter goes up by one (just an example).

    I completely agree with you that the safest option is to let it finish, but it already finished once, where it took an hour or so and now it takes forever. If it could not fix in the first time - what are the chances it will now?

    What is the the chance of success anyway after so long a processing time?

    Sorry for the mass of questions, it just that the situation where windows denies you from the computer  as well as the disk is quite frustrating

    Thanks again,

    Guy.

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  2. DaveM121 876.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-01-07T14:06:06+00:00

    Hi Guy

    Once that moves on from Stage 2, you can if you wish stop that process, it is just in Stage 1 and 2 you cannot safely stop that . . .

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-01-07T13:16:13+00:00

    Hi Dave,

    since our last correspondence the computer added few more hundreds of cluster to the counting of stage 2, and now shows:

    Fixing (F:) Stage 2: 93% (372951 of 400908); Total 71% ETA 17:03:18..

    where before it showed:

    Fixing (F:) Stage 2: 92% (372408 of 400908); Total 71% ETA 6:09:27..

    it does show progress but I really need my computer. Isn't any way that I will be able to use my computer and that the process, that might take more days or even weeks**,**will work in the background?

    It is working for 44 hours already and though it shows painfully slow progress, its ending time may be in weeks from now :-(.

    What should I do?

    Thanks in advance,

    Guy.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-01-06T10:08:18+00:00

    Hi Dave,

    Thank you for the extremely fast reply!

    Forgive me if the next might be a dumb question, as I never came a cross with such a fenomena before:

    How long a processing of this kind (fixing etc.) is considered normal?

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  5. DaveM121 876.9K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-01-06T09:57:43+00:00

    Hi Guy

    It is not safe to stop a Disk Check in Stage 2, you could corrupt all data on that drive, it sill not take that length of time to check that disk, it has just stalled on a group of clusters and once it passes by that, the progress should get much faster . . .

    To be honest, when that completes, you need to backup that data somewhere, in case that drive is actually failing since you received the 'fatal hardware error' . . .

    The best option, when that drive comes back online is to backup that drive, then form inside Windows, format the drive and then restore the data onto that drive.

    If the format succeeds, then most likely that drive is okay, if not, it is time to think about purchasing another drive . . .

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