# Delayed Write Failed - External Hard Drive



## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

I've been having some problems with this for some time now. It's got to the point where I cannot put *anything* on the disk without this error popping up. It usually "E:/$mft." that is shown in the error balloon.

I've searched the Internet and haven't had much luck, I looked at different theories none have worked. I've also E-Mailed Microsoft and got a hotfix that would apparently fix it but it just "fixed" it for an hour or so.

The External Hard Drive is a 250GB SeaGate FreeAgent External Hard Drive. The hard disk itself is only 2 months old and only has about ~25GB of space taken up. When I reboot my computer when the drive is turned on, there are always chkdsk's coming up and retrieving lost files. That appears every time I turn on my computer.

I've searched these forums but most of the things that have been posted I have already tried or heard before and they haven't changed anything.

If you want any more info, feel free to ask. I want to get to the bottom of this because it's getting quite annoying.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I mainly use the drive for music and family photo's and important documents that I may need.


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## markomus (Aug 2, 2007)

The popular answer I'm seeing on other forums is to turn of disk caching on that drive. Under System Properties, select Advanced tab > Settings (in Performance) > Advanced tab > Change (under Virtual Memory). Find your external drive and turn caching off. See if that does the trick.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

markomus said:


> The popular answer I'm seeing on other forums is to turn of disk caching on that drive. Under System Properties, select Advanced tab > Settings (in Performance) > Advanced tab > Change (under Virtual Memory). Find your external drive and turn caching off. See if that does the trick.


Thank your for your response, however when I checked that, it wasn't turned on. Do you think formatting the drive would do anything?


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## markomus (Aug 2, 2007)

Yes. It will wipe out all the data. 

But before you just go and do that, you might want to take a gander at the company's installation instructions and make sure you're device was properly installed. They have a dandy way of doing it--very different than what I've ever seen before.

Take a peek here: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...toid=bcd8d59424b8e010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

Click on the installation instructions flash version for a really cool interactive graphical display of what you should see when installing your device. Note: It doesn't actually install anything, it just simulates the installation program so you can see what you should have seen when installing it.

Hint: If you didn't have to restart your computer before using your device, then it was not properly installed. The software to install the device was originally on the drive and should have run from there. It might still be there and you could run it, if you can find it. If it has been accidentally deleted, you might need to contact Seagate and find out which program you need to download from them to properly install your hard drive.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

It was installed properly. The drive has been working fine for 2 months and has suddenly been acting weird with this error for the past month. It got to a point recently where the drive wouldn't load (I couldn't see it My Computer or in Disk Management). A few days before that, I had taken all of the data off of the External and it is now on my main hard drive.

And no, I don't think I did have to restart my computer. The disk was FAT32 but it suddenly changed to NTFS. Also, from the instructions booklet that I got with the drive it says Plug in and it will automatically install the drive. The only files that are on the drive are "System Volume Information" and "Recycler". I've tried uninstalling the drive, rebooting, then installing the drive, rebooting and then retrying that way but I still get the same "Delayed Write Failed" error.

EDIT: There's a tool which can test your hard drive (From the SeaGate site) to see if there is anything wrong with it. I'm going to run that and see if there actually _is_ anything wrong with the drive itself.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

Sorry for the double post - but I've just got the error:

Windows - Corrupt File

The File or Directory \System Volume Information is corrupt and unreadable. Please run the Chkdsk Utility.

I'm going to run that now and see what comes up.


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## Littlembd (Oct 27, 2007)

I also just bought the same product. I tranfered ALL my music to it and then tested it to see if my iTunes could find it. Everything worked. I deleted the files from my old hard drive because I need the space. The next day I get the Delayed Write Failed notification and all my files a gone. I am very upset!! I don't want this to happen again and how can I get my music back!!


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

From what I've read this drive comes with some automatic backup and archiving tools. I would check your system for these tools and make sure that this drive is not trying to automatically create some kind of backup - also if you have any kind of performance monitoring software I would check it for errors you might find something in there to lead you in the right direction. Most Microsoft operating systems come with Event Viewer nowadays, that's a good start!

Good luck
Josh


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

midnight51 said:


> From what I've read this drive comes with some automatic backup and archiving tools. I would check your system for these tools and make sure that this drive is not trying to automatically create some kind of backup - also if you have any kind of performance monitoring software I would check it for errors you might find something in there to lead you in the right direction. Most Microsoft operating systems come with Event Viewer nowadays, that's a good start!
> 
> Good luck
> Josh


I haven't seen any of these 'tools' anywhere when I've been using the drive. They aren't on the drive itself and I can't find them anywhere else.


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

Please check your event viewer and report back to us.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

midnight51 said:


> Please check your event viewer and report back to us.


I don't know what you mean by event viewer, I've looked at Disk Management and things like that and it says the drive is healthy and working correctly. Then that error pops up and the drive goes missing or stays there but isn't accessible.

Where do I find this 'event viewer'?


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

The Event Viewer is located in your Administrative Tools. You can access this via the control panel. When you open it you're going to wanna check Application and System for any warnings or errors.

Regards 
Josh


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

Another thing you should definately try if you have access to another PC, a friends, a spare or whatever.. is to plug the unit into the other PC and copy over some data to see if you get the same results.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

midnight51 said:


> The Event Viewer is located in your Administrative Tools. You can access this via the control panel. When you open it you're going to wanna check Application and System for any warnings or errors.
> 
> Regards
> Josh


OK, I've just checked using Event Viewer. Application was fine, however system was another story, there were a lot of errors. Mainly from yesterday when I tried to scan the hard drive. I ran a chkdsk and before the chkdsk could finish the drive itself must have got the error and the scan finished all of a sudden and windows booted normally.

I've looked on the windows website and I'm going to run a few tests that have been suggested. It might be a dirty disk. I'll get back to you ASAP.

EDIT: Just finished the chkdsk test and it says that there were no problems found.

EDIT 2: Just ran chkdsk /r E: and it did the scan fully this time but a the end it came up with this: "An unspecified Error Occurred." Any ideas?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

This is caused by a hardware/connection error.

Usually it is an indication that the disk is failing but can be caused by other things - especially with a USB drive.

Delayed write is where the computer buffers the write operations to the drive to make it more efficient. 

With USB drives (and any others), if you lose the connection before the writes are COMMITTED and receive a reply from the drive that they have actually been done, you will receive this message and the disk will be likely be corrupted.

With IDE drives it usually means that the buffer in the drive itself is faulty.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

So do you think something is wrong with the drive itself?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

If you have a spare IDE connector, try it on there.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

I do not have any spare IDE Connectors.

EDIT: I just remembered. I have an old computer, I don't know how old, but do you think the connector out of that would work?


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## DaveBurnett (Nov 11, 2002)

Try it


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

Just got the tower out. I guess it's that old it doesn't even have a USB port.


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

To do this what you're looking for is an IDE cable it will be connected to your harddrive in the tower and also connected to the motherboard. To test this you'll need to remove the chassis around the external harddrive and remove the harddrive inside and connect it to your new pc via the IDE cable.

At least that's what I'm gathering...


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

There's no way I'm getting the cover off of the external...


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

Sorry for the double post, but -

I've started up my External again, I put about 3GB on to it and it came up with the error. The error disappeared so I tried to put another file on it, it worked, the file was written onto the hard drive. I don't know why it did it. It hasn't done this before.

EDIT: Now it won't write at all again.


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

You can try to switch the USB cable between the device and your computer... that's almost the same, the only thing it wouldn't rule out is the internal converter that converts the IDE to USB.

Other then that as Dave suggested it sounds like you have a failing drive. Try to contact the manufacturer and see if you can get it replaced or explain to them your problem.

Hope all goes well.


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

I still have the receipt from the store that I bought the device from. I'm sure that they'll exchange it. It's still under warranty anyway.

I'll buy another USB that fits the drive. I don't know if it would be hard to find though. If that isn't it, I'll be looking for IDE connectors.


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## midnight51 (Oct 21, 2007)

If it's still under warranty I wouldn't bother... odds are good that the drive is defective. Where did you buy it from? You might be able to take the drive in to the store you purchased it from and have them test it in front of you to try to recreate the error ensuring that the drive is indeed defective.

Good luck
Josh


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## _Lewis (Aug 14, 2007)

PC World. 

I was going to take it n and see if they would test it but I've heard people who have the same problem just get it returned saying that the drive is fine. I may take it in next week when I'm off work and see.

Thanks for all your help guys!


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