SimpleSave 1.5tb Cyclic Redundancy Check Error

[tlstrieg]

I have a SimpleSave 1.5tb external hard drive and recently received a "Data Error: Cyclic Redundancy Check" error message from Windows 7, followed by a message telling me that I must format the drive if I want to use it.  The drive is probably about two years old, and has run well up to this point.  I'm running it under Windows 7 Home Edition.

I've tried connecting it to another computer (a laptop), and I get the same error message.

Is there a way to recover from this problem without reformatting the drive?

[Hanspuppa]

Hello tlstrieg, A "Cyclic Redundancy Check Error" can be caused by one or more different issues.

Most of the time, it is a hard drive failing, but could be just corrupted data on the drive. On an external hard drive, even the USB cable can cause these, but not likely.

Below is a link that may be helpful.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Other-External-products/Data-error-cyclic-redundancy-check/m-p/48519

Since the hard drive may not be accessable, you may not have a viable option to reclaim your data. This is why I always keep a redundant backup of all data that I don't have disk for.

You might try some of the suggestions on the link above, but be aware that you may loose all you data, but reclaim you drive.

I have experienced this issue in the past when the external hard drive just had corrupted data, and managed to salvage the hard drive, without the data, by deleteing the partition and reformat the drive, then copying my data from my redundant source. I learned from experience that redundant backups do have their place. I keep three redundant backups of my critical data.

Hope you manage to sort this out  and save you data.

[tlstrieg]

Thanks Hanspuppa.  I appreciate your prompt response and your advice.  The great computer gods in the sky must have been watching over me on this one, because I did a complete backup of the drive less than a week before it crashed, and I've been able to restore that data onto a new external HD.

I'll check out the link you left and see if I can salvage this drive.

And I'll certainly take your advice about scheduling regular backups in the future.  As they say, "Once burned, twice shy."

Again, thanks for your assistance and advice.

Tom

[tlstrieg]

Just a quick update on this thread.  I was able to restore my Norton 360 backup to a new external drive, and then I re-formatted the Simple Save drive successfully.  I don't know how long it will last until I get another cyclic redundance check error, but I'm only using it for a secondary backup drive.

Thanks for the assistance and advice.

Tom