Corrupted external hard drive

[jonspencer]

I've now had two G Tech external drives rendered unmountable and data lost in the last couple of weeks ... I put the first one down to an error with the drive, but now I'm wondering if the issue is with LR or Windows.

Context: LR Classic 10.2, Windows 10, LR catalogue files on the computer, master dng image files on an external drive.

Importing the images from a shoot, all fine, then start editing, again all fine. At some point (possibly after a pause, so the external drive has gone to sleep) I attempt to work on a particular shot, and LR says it can't load the image (the symbol on the thumbnail that indicates the file is missing doesn't appear). Attempts to edit other images have the same result. I can navigate the file structure of the external drive in explorer but not view any files. I then close LR. PC doesn't want me to unplug the external drive. Restart PC and now drive refuses to mount - says it needs reformatting before it can be used. Panic ensues etc etc

I've used this set up for years without issue, but can't cope with it happening a third time. Has this happened to anyone else?? Help!!

[dj_paige]

Software cannot corrupt a hard drive. Hardware malfunctions can corrupt a hard drive. This is not a Lightroom Classic statement, it is how computers operate, and thus applies to ALL software.

[TheDigitalDog]

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@jonspencer wrote:

I've now had two G Tech external drives rendered unmountable and data lost in the last couple of weeks ... I put the first one down to an error with the drive, but now I'm wondering if the issue is with LR or Windows.

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Can't comment on Windows, but it's very unlikely it is Lightroom doing this. 

I was a big fan of G Tech in the past but no longer; I've had some issues on the Mac and wonder if that points to their lack of QC. 

[JP Hess]

I would suspect this is some other hardware issue ratheer than a problem with Lightroom. I have had two external hard drives connected to my computer for years and have never encountered an issue with either one of them. I'm using Windows 10 and LrC 10.2.

[Conrad C]

I have also been editing for years with images on external volumes, with no problems even now. But I have also seen images corrupted by hardware; as the others are guessing it was a hardware problem, specifically a card reader. Switching card readers let the images transfer with no errors.

So in this case I would try trial and error with the components in the data chain, starting with switching cables if you haven’t done that already. If  the interface at the PC is a removable card (e.g. USB 3 card), test with a different port not on that card, if available.

Another thing to look at is power. Hardware problems and data corruption are less likely if the equipment is plugged into something that protects it from damaging voltage fluctuations and other power problems, like a good UPS with voltage regulation.

Lightroom Classic probably reads/writes to storage by calling standard OS commands for data transfer, like any other program. The transfer is then handled by the storage device driver software. That’s why it’s not common for an application to corrupt data on its own. When this type of application has a legitimate data corruption bug with external storage, it would probably be noticed by a large number of users and reported widely, but that hasn’t happened.

[jennah14778402]

Did you resolve this? I've worked as a photographer for 12 years and never had a hard drive corrupt, but have had SIX corrupted over the past year. It always seems to be when photoshop or Lightroom are open. I've tried troubleshooting (wiped computer, replaced computer, tried different hard drives, different cables) and have not been able to fix this. 

[dj_paige]

Check all of your hardware ... hard disk(s), memory chips, card reader or USB cable, SD or other camera card.

[jennah14778402]

I have, I'm really at a loss. It's a new computer (two days old), new hard drive, new cable, it's an external hard drive and the whole drive was corrupted, so an SD card wouldn't make a difference. 

I have noticed that all of the photo files are gone. The jpegs, and the cr2 files. The last two times my hard drive was corrupted, I was using photoshop and lightroom, the program began running slow until it froze. 

[Conrad C]

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@jennah14778402 wrote:

Did you resolve this? I've worked as a photographer for 12 years and never had a hard drive corrupt, but have had SIX corrupted over the past year. It always seems to be when photoshop or Lightroom are open. I've tried troubleshooting (wiped computer, replaced computer, tried different hard drives, different cables) and have not been able to fix this. 

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As mentioned above it is probably not caused directly by Photoshop or Lightroom, although it may be more likely to appear when using those applications simply because they may exercise the drives more than other software and so they might expose any problems sooner. The way Photoshop, Lightroom, and all standard Mac/Windows software work is that they go through standard operating system routines to interact with devices, they don’t interact directly with hardware.

One angle not mentioned but which I listed earlier is: What kind of power are these six failing hard drives plugged into? Directly into the wall? Into a power strip? Into a surge protector? Into a line filter or UPS? I am just wondering if inconsistent power might be contributing to the problem. For example, if the voltage of the electrical supply varies by too much too often, which is more common than many realize, that can degrade electronics and cause premature failure. All of my most critical devices are plugged into a UPS that not only provides battery backup in case of a power outage, but also provides clean power (voltage regulation, line noise filtering, etc.). Any crazy power fluctuations caused by appliance motors on the same circuit, neighborhood power line issues, etc. are smoothed out and the devices get clean, steady power.

[Lauca]

To add to the previous comment : are the EDs connected to a USB hub? If so, is the USB hub powered?

If the USB hub is not powered, you might have power outage on the disk that could result to data corruption.

[jonspencer]

I still haven't pinpointed the cause in my case.  I appreciate the info from others on the way the software works and why the issue is likely to be hardware related.  I belive this has always happened while editing the images not while transfering them from compact flash card to external hard drive.  This means the only drive being accessed (aside from the main laptop drive runnung the software & catalogue) is the external hardrive with it's own power, so I presume it's irelenat which connection I use for my usb CF reader earlier on in the process. 

Unless a dodgy card reader / cable / usb hub can somehow cause an error during tranfer which lays dormant until the file is access later on??  

I don't have a UPS - my PC and drive are both plugged into wall sockets, though the electrical installation is brand new. So I guess this is a likely cause, from what poeple have said. Perhaps for you too?  Maybe the new drives we're both having issues with are somehow more sensative than earlier models (or the supply have become less stable).

What's frustrating is that I've never had any issue like this before, doing this stuff for nearly 20 years.

[Conrad C]

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@jonspencer wrote:

I don't have a UPS - my PC and drive are both plugged into wall sockets, though the electrical installation is brand new.

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The age of the electrical system can be a factor, but even with new wiring, there can be problems with something plugged into the same system. A motor drawing a lot of current at startup, like in a refrigerator, dishwasher, or air conditioner, can pull down the voltage too far momentarily which is not good for electronics. Some low quality motors or transformers may introduce line noise or other problems. A few years ago I had one old flourescent desk lamp that, if I flipped its switch, would cause my old Mac Pro to start up, which was kind of alarming…what was that lamp doing to the circuit? I got rid of that lamp.

[trefrog66]

I have been experiencing this issue multiple times in the past 3 weeks. I am using the latest LR and MacOS. 

The drives are all various WD Passports of differing ages. 

I was working on images in lightroom, got the "Loading" message, image never loaded. Restarted LR. Restarted computer. Switched cables. Nothing. Then go to do first aid on the hard drive and couldn't. Was told by Disk Utility that it couldn't do anything and I should back up the drive. Then went through several days working in terminal using rsync to retrieve any uncorrupted data (later got Disk Warrior and fixed the drive).

Bought a new hard drive and had the same issue happen. That hard drive was APFS (the other was MacOs Journaled). So this new hard drive I was unable to use Disk Warrior on. But I was able to rsync my data to another hard drive.

And now I have a newer new hard drive and I'm already experiencing issues with it.

Not sure how to even approach troubleshooting. I'm doing the same processes I've been doing with the same line of hard drives I've been using for 10+ years. The only common issue is that it's happening while using lightroom.

[dj_paige]

My comment deleted.

[jenifermac]

Has anyone figured out this problem?  i see these are really old posts but for the 1st time this has happened to me.  2 drives in 2 weeks.  I'm using sandisk ssd drives.  Both times I tried to open lightroom and I got the catalog corrupted message.  This froze up and wouldn't complete repair.  I shut down and when I rebooted Mac "can't read drive" and it won't show up in my finder.  I've been using external drives to hold my lightroom catalog and images for probably 8 years and I've never had this problem.  Now twice in 2 weeks.

[TheDigitalDog]

Lightroom (software) can't corrupt a HD. Its something else you need to investigate with your hardware. 

[Conrad C]

Lightroom Classic works like almost any other application in that it doesn’t manage files directly, it asks the operating system to do it using the standard OS API. Because of this, it’s unlikely that any individual application will corrupt a volume (unless for example it’s low-level storage management software that talks to hardware directly).

What happens much more often is that it’s a problem with something in the chain. In the last few years I have also seen SSDs mysteriously become unreadable. In one case it was the SSD itself, in another case it was a cable that went bad, and in another one I figured out that it was the enclosure that I had put the bare drive in. In all cases, you need to isolate the problem using good old process-of-elimination troubleshooting along the entire connection chain. In the cases where the problem was the cable or the enclosure, the same SSD became reliable again after changing the hardware connecting it to the Mac.

[coletteu69837663]

Did you ever solve this problem.  It has happened to me with my WD passport. This has happend to 4 drives over the past year.  I too had been using WD and Lightroom for the last 10 years.  Got a new MacBook with M1 chip about a year ago. Not sure if that has something to do with it.  But the drives work for a few months and then in the middle of working in Lightroom it won't open files. 

[dj_paige]

Please read the reply from @Conrad C directly above your reply. Please try the troubleshooting process-of-elimination that he talks about.

[coletteu69837663]

I have done all that. I have change cables changed the connections they are connected to changed computers once they stop working properly they are done. 

[Jacob21847880nwo9]

I brought a brand new G-tech harddrive last spring. It worked perfectly for the first few months with Premeire. I was taking a photo class and had to format it with Lightroom - since the first day I used it with LR it has been crashing and often becomes unresponsive to a point where I can't open any of its files. I find it weird that you seem to have a similiar experience. Have you by any chance solved the issue?

[TheDigitalDog]

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@Jacob21847880nwo9 wrote:

I brought a brand new G-tech harddrive last spring. It worked perfectly for the first few months with Premeire. I was taking a photo class and had to format it with Lightroom - since the first day I used it with LR it has been crashing and often becomes unresponsive to a point where I can't open any of its files. I find it weird that you seem to have a similiar experience. Have you by any chance solved the issue?

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And you've tried resetting the LR preferences?

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/help/setting-preferences-lightroom.html 

The 'concept' that LR let alone any other piece of software is corrupting a drive needs a bit of proof of concept. Thus far, zero.

FWIW, I used to be a fan if G-Tech drives but no more; they are simply not what they used to be. And yes, drives fail.