What could be corrupting my image files ???

Were it not for my file synchronization program, Synchredible, I may have never been made aware of this situation; however, the synchronization process scans through the entire image collection and copies any differences in content from the source drive to the back-up drive and provides a notification of any problems.

The affected files, sometimes only a single file and sometimes a dozen or more, more often PSD files, but occasionally jpegs, will hang any program that tries to open them; the little blue circle will go round and round until either the program freezes or else a warning dialogue pops up with an option to abort.
The problem has been with mostly PSD and the occasional jpeg; thus far, I have not found any RAW files that have been affected.

Any attempt to copy an affected file to a different location, sort of as a quarantine until I can get this figured out will result in this :

How old is the hard drive? Ever run software to check the drive for errors?
Might want to try something like Crystal Disk

Regards,

110yd

110yd wrote in post #18318896
How old is the hard drive? Ever run software to check the drive for errors?
Might want to try something like Crystal Disk

Regards,

110yd

Thanks for the idea !

The drive is a 1TB Transcend StoreJet external that is around two years old and has always been in the same location (as in not being jostled around from one place to another).
I have been led to believe that the actual drive contained within is a Seagate 1 TB 2.5-Inch SATA III 5400 RPM 8MB Cache Notebook Hard Drive (ST1000LM024).

No, I haven't checked for errors, but I will do that probably today.

Thus far, I have been deleting these problem files, as they just seem to lock everything up when trying to do anything else with them; just out of curiousity, I wonder if these files might be rescue-able ?

Virus can cause this type of problems too.
I would recommend you to install MalwareBytes (free version no need to purchase) and scan your laptop for virus.

Crystal Disk will at least give you a tool to see the Health status of the disk. It is the first tool
I reach for when trying to diagnose this type of problem. I have had new hard drives with 5 year
warranties fail, in under a year.

Good luck,

110yd

I had something similar. The problem was bad RAM. memtest x86 didn't find the problem, but HCI Memtest did. Run both, give them both at least 12 hours - HCI only found my RAM problem after running around 14 hours.

The range of problem is large. It could be a bad disk, a bad CPU, a bad cable, and probably other things too.

You're lucky this mirroring program didn't just copy the corruption to the backup disk - you can't be sure that it hasn't in some cases. This is why using proper backup software with an incremental backup feature is essential if you want to be sure your data is well protected. This data has to be kept offsite and offline, ie not only in your house, not only in cloud backup, etc. A hard disk at work or a friends house is ideal.

Some online backup systems provide incremental backups. However it's theoretically possible for a virus or cryptoware to deliberately delete your online backups. Incremental, offline.

110yd wrote in post #18319197
Crystal Disk will at least give you a tool to see the Health status of the disk. It is the first tool
I reach for when trying to diagnose this type of problem. I have had new hard drives with 5 year
warranties fail, in under a year.

Good luck,

110yd

Thanks, everyone !
Is this the Crystal Disk you are referring to; and, if so, the choices are somewhat confusing to me, for 64-bit Win 7 Pro which of the downloads is the one I want ?

http://crystalmark.inf​o/download/index-e.html

I do have the free version of Malwarebytes and thus far it always has given a clean bill of health.

Yes that is the version that I currently run.
Standard edition-CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.5

Regards,

110yd

110yd wrote in post #18320155
Yes that is the version that I currently run.
Standard edition-CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.5

Regards,

110yd

Thanks !

Have you done the two overnight RAM tests I suggested? They're as likely as a bad disk, maybe moreso.

With HCI memtest it only tests 2GB of RAM, so you need to run multiple instances. eg if you have 16GB of RAM, and 1.5GB of RAM is taken by the OS you have 14.5GB of RAM you can test. 14.5 / 2GB = 7 @ 2GB and 1 @ 0.5GB.

tim wrote in post #18321293
Have you done the two overnight RAM tests I suggested? They're as likely as a bad disk, maybe moreso.

With HCI memtest it only tests 2GB of RAM, so you need to run multiple instances. eg if you have 16GB of RAM, and 1.5GB of RAM is taken by the OS you have 14.5GB of RAM you can test. 14.5 / 2GB = 7 @ 2GB and 1 @ 0.5GB.

Thanks !
Due to some unforeseen circumstances on another machine I haven't yet had a chance to test the RAM; I have 8-GB.

The problem files have thus far only been on the one external drive, and very few of them at that.

If it were memory problem, would it confine itself to the one drive ?

BuckSkin wrote in post #18321693
Thanks !
Due to some unforeseen circumstances on another machine I haven't yet had a chance to test the RAM; I have 8-GB.

The problem files have thus far only been on the one external drive, and very few of them at that.

If it were memory problem, would it confine itself to the one drive ?

It's possible, but unlikely. Since memory testing is relatively easy and free it's worth doing.

I got hung up in some other projects and figured I should provide an update to this situation.

All evidence pointed toward the external hard-drive in question having some issue or other that was causing the problem.

I made certain everything was indeed backed up to another source and wiped the drive clean, then re-formatted, re-installed the data, and started over.

All was good for a few days and then it got worse than it was before.

So, I put it out to pasture and started using a different drive and no more problems so far.

I have made one executive decision; all external hard-drive purchases in our future will be separate hard-drive enclosures with their own power supply and removable 3.5" hard-drives.

I believe 95% of the reason for the little molded-case external drives not living as long as they should is due to them being starved for electrical power and thus always being overheated.

Thanks for reading.

BuckSkin wrote in post #18318935
Thanks for the idea !

The drive is a 1TB Transcend StoreJet external that is around two years old and has always been in the same location (as in not being jostled around from one place to another).
I have been led to believe that the actual drive contained within is a Seagate 1 TB 2.5-Inch SATA III 5400 RPM 8MB Cache Notebook Hard Drive (ST1000LM024).

No, I haven't checked for errors, but I will do that probably today.

Thus far, I have been deleting these problem files, as they just seem to lock everything up when trying to do anything else with them; just out of curiousity, I wonder if these files might be rescue-able ?

being external it could be a lot of things, bad cable, bad usb hub, interference (when transferring or moving files) from other devices near by

get crystaldiskinfo or other smart information reader.

BuckSkin wrote in post #18318935
Thanks for the idea !

The drive is a 1TB Transcend StoreJet external that is around two years old and has always been in the same location (as in not being jostled around from one place to another).
I have been led to believe that the actual drive contained within is a Seagate 1 TB 2.5-Inch SATA III 5400 RPM 8MB Cache Notebook Hard Drive (ST1000LM024).

I've not been thrilled with the Transcends - I've used 3 & 2 failed prematurely , and two assistants have lost two within a year as well. They were attractive because they were shock proof & whatnot but I'm staying away from them...at least in the South Asian region!