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Interruption of data transfer of large folder to hard drive

Anonymous
2022-10-22T19:08:21+00:00

I have a 1 year old Western Digital 12TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive that I use to back up all my critical data. Had a planned backup for a 400GB folder today and plugged the hard drive in. I copied and transferred the folder over and left to let it so it's thing.

However I came back 10mins later to an error message. "Error 0x800701b1. An unexpected error is keeping you from copying this file...."
For some reason my wireless mouse had failed at the same time, and my PC had hanged/lagged? I almost had to force shut down my PC. Eventually got my mouse and PC running again and tried to eject my HDD but found that in the period my PC was hanging, my hard drive had ejected itself.

I eventually plugged in again. And then transferred the folder into the drive in chunks.

  1. Has anyone here seen anything like this before? What happened here? What should I do :(
  2. Have I lost data from my original 400gb folder due to an interrupted transfer+ an improper ejection of my drive?
Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-10-22T20:30:25+00:00

    I don't think this is that straightforward :)

    Windows 10 by default for years now switched to quick removal for all removable drives. That means you can pull it without ejection. Yes, it may pop up the dialog on next connection.

    0x800701b1 appears to be more related to device was lost. Which could simply be a USB port, cable, case, or drive issue.

    Windows can act weird with drive issues. Things can get really slow if you connect a drive that's not connecting properly or that it can't understand.

    But, it could also be a computer or OS issue as it had a problem that it recovered from but caused some things to happen.

    Needs to be narrowed down more.

    You can definitely transfer in chunks but you have to be sure you got everything. Depending on how many files, you might be able to right click on the root folder and use properties or you may need a 3rd party application or something. And do that on both sides and compare file count. However, if the external drive has a different allocation unit size then the sizes could be off which makes size not necessarily good to use when otherwise if they're same then they should be identical in size.

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  2. DYARI BARHAM 34,186 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-10-23T21:49:09+00:00

    Hi Tonyyya,

    Usually, it happens midway through the transfer after putting an extra load on the CPU. I am afraid that there is no available tool for that purpose, however, you can check them manually. Since you are able to get into data inside the hard disk and transfer them, they probably have not been affected or corrupted. Do you see any abnormal errors during the transfer process?

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-10-23T15:05:37+00:00

    Hi dashdotdot, thank you for your reply. Appreciate it.

    May I ask what did you mean by "I don't think this is that straightforward :)"

    Also the gist I am getting from your answer is that my original folder should be unaffected?

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-10-23T15:03:12+00:00

    Hi Dyari, thank you for the reply.

    Regarding copying all 400GB at once, would the error occur immediately upon transferring or midway during transfer? I am worried it could be an issue unrelated to folder size as the error only showed up as the download progressed up to the 25% mark.

    On the other hand is there any way to check folder reply? I just need to confirm if my original folder is completely intact.

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  5. DYARI BARHAM 34,186 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-10-22T20:05:57+00:00

    Hi Tonyyya,

    I'm Dyari. Thanks for reaching out. I will be happy to assist you in this regard.

    Obviously, it is not good to eject USB and external hard drives improperly, but since your files are still there and you are able to transfer them again, they seem to have not been corrupted or lost.

    If you copied all 400GB at once, it probably put an additional load on the CPU, causing the computer to perform slower and freeze. Try to copy your files folder by folder or at least fewer gigabytes than 400.

    If possible, try to use cloud storage like OneDrive for saving your data:

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-...

    Please let me know if you need further assistance and keep me updated.

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