# External HDD I/O device error



## KeyStroke (Sep 17, 2005)

I have an external Western Digital 3.5" HDD (HDD+Enclosure). It ran fine for a few month untill I started getting this error recently when I try to move some specific file out of it:


> Cannot copy <filename>: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error


(where <filename> is the file name i'm trying to copy)

I tried defragmenting the HDD, re-fromatting it and chkdsk, yet I still get this error.

What could be wrong?


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## bonk (Sep 8, 2005)

Howdy,

Try this: Device Manager

To get to *Device Manager* click *Start*>>*Run* type *devmgmt.msc* click *OK*

Click the plus (+) sign next to Disk Drives.

Double-click the drive you having problem with.

Click the *Policies *button and then click *Optimize for performance*.


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## KeyStroke (Sep 17, 2005)

Hello Bonk,

Thanks for your reply, but all my drives are already set to "Optimize for performance"

any other ideas?


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## bonk (Sep 8, 2005)

What format is the drive in...Fat32 or NTFS?


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## KeyStroke (Sep 17, 2005)

It's NTFS, and the drive isn't SATA by the way.


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## KeyStroke (Sep 17, 2005)

I've used Western Digital's diagnostic tool, then the result showed "too many bad sectors". I'm not that good in hardware, can this be fixed through software?


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## KeyStroke (Sep 17, 2005)

Well, after I formatted it, it passed the test. What the hell..?


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## gapstone (Oct 17, 2007)

I have the same problem, however my question is that if I would to format my external harddrive will I lose everything because I do have a lot of information on my WD 500gb external hard drive and I don't want to loose all of my saved data!


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