Hi, a friend of mine has connected his external hard disk WD to my computer and I have put some Kontakt libraries on it.
Also the Roland zenology release from the sister site , and a few other vsts and Drum sample Packs.

After I had all the stuff on his external hard disk we went to his house and connected the hard disk to his PC.
About 70 percent of the stuff showed up briefly but then disappeared.... just like that, they weren't in the recycle bin either.
The available storage capacity is still the same as it was when I disconnected it from my PC .... Nevertheless, the data seems to have disappeared.

It is both a win 10 system.

Oh, and the whole thing happened to us twice.... we were surprised and went back to my place, pulled everything over again because we thought it might have been because I had pulled out the hard disk incorrectly or that there must have been another technical problem.... but it was the same the second time....

Do you have a solution?

 

Last edited: Dec 30, 2023

No solution, you encountered a fake drive.
It's a drive with drastically smaller volume than advertised and a modified volume table that tricks system into thinking that its volume is bigger.
At least those behave exactly like you described.
Data's lost. Get another drive and try again.

 

Create folder with short name like "WD" on desktop and copy everything from external hard drive to this folder.
Format this external hard drive then move everything from folder on desktop to it.
Check this external drive using free software like "CrystalDiskInfo".
Make screenshot and paste here.


Solar explosions, bigeer and bigger magnetic storms.
Giving destructive effects on electronics!
It's starting to happen!
What to do?! What to do?! OMG!
Just don't panic!

 

Here is the Screenshot after formatting .

 

after something like you have run into, I'm not sure I would trust that drive with any important work/data if you haven't figured out why it was happening. Also, were you going to try using Kontakt libs off it? It's a 5400 rpm drive. You might want to consider cutting your losses, before you pile a bunch of stuff onto that disk.

 

A last ditch to possibly save the drive in question.

You'll need to low-level format that external drive. Completely pave it over. Once the low-level is done take it into win10 diskman and partition it. Best to do just one large partition for the entire drive. You will need to know what the OEM stated capacity spec is for this drive to know if your partitioning size data is coming out correct. If the drive is larger than 2TB make it a GPT volume.
Just look up the model number for the drive and check the specs. If the numbers match up then NTFS format the volume and write a few test files to the drive. Take it over to your buddy's house and see that the files are present and accounted for.

 

Last edited: Dec 31, 2023

What model of WD is it?
It's 6TB?
You connect it to AC socket before use?

Portable hard drives up to 5TB had 2,5" hard disk inside and they are powered from usb.
Starting from 6TB they had 3,5" hard disk inside and they needed to be powered from AC socket.
I don't think is something change because 6TB right now can't fit on 2,5" hard disk and 3,5" hard disk is just too much to be powered from usb.
In my opinion 6TB is bad choice because of 3,5" inside.
5TB 2,5" is little less space but way more better choice by now in my opinion.

 

This is pretty much exactly what i was going to recommend. Low level format tool then format as normal. Be patient, Low level will take a long time. Most drives are usually reliable after.(Unless a short or physical damage) I've seen similar a couple times with usb flash drives and usb hard drives over the years. Vanishing files or folders, changing size, etc. LLFT and format after and never had same issue again. Also in cases of a fake drive like mentioned or bad/modified volume table, it should read correct volume size after LLFT.

 

Last edited: Dec 31, 2023