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Failing western digital external HDD

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I have a Western Digital 4tb my book, when ever I write video to it the video will get pixelation every so often. When I move it back off the drive it continues to have the pixelation, it's like the drive is corrupting it. Is the a HDD sector dead or is there a issue with the sata to use 3 adapter that is doing this.
 
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I have not, I will when I get a chance. Will be back with the results later today.
 
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Well, that tool would be only a starting point. There are plenty of other HDD health checking tools out there.
 
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Ok, something popped up so I will have to put this mystery on hold until further notice. ETA of about 1-2 days.

Edit: This post is alive again!
 
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Alright, I ran a SMART drive assessment and it passed. Now I am running a extended test to check for bad sectors. Will keep you up to date.
exttest.PNG
pass.PNG
 
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More than likely its your compression your using when you encode. What are you working on?
 
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More than likely its your compression your using when you encode. What are you working on?
I am just running a check to see if I have any bad HDD sectors that could be the problem. Also, the video corrupts with pixelation when I render to it, and drag and drop video to it. It couldn't be compression when I encode the video's because if I render to an internal HDD, they work just fine.
 
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Speed test the drive when you get done scanning it. Transfer a large file and expand the copy windows and note the speed.
 
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Speed test the drive when you get done scanning it. Transfer a large file and expand the copy windows and note the speed.
Will do, also thanks for your help btw.
 
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Here's mine SSD to USB 3.0 Drive

 
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OK, I have found some time.
update end.PNG
write speed.PNG

As you can see, it writes to the external drive pretty quickly. I am truly puzzled... Maybe re-format the disk or what are some of your suggestions?

EDIT:
I have uploaded some videos, the first link is the one with pixelation from my external HDD.
It happens at around 10 seconds

The normal one.
 
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Odd, I have no clue
 

SuperSoph_WD

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Hey there, @Cyber Centaur !

I'm truly sorry for the late reply! I hope we'll get your problem resolved soon enough. :) Judging by the QUICK & EXTENDED tests as well as the transfer speed rate, I'd say there shouldn't be anything wrong with your external WD My Book drive. You can, indeed, try to resolve the issue by fully formatting the external HDD (Just make sure you backup the important files from it somewhere else first). You can even perform a Low-level format a.k.a. WRITE ZEROS using the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics tool that @Jetster shared with you. Just keep in mind that the FULL ERASE writes zeros to the entire drive and will completely wipe it out. It will most definitely take longer due to the large 4 TB capacity, so you should be patient with it.

You mentioned that you save the videos directly to the WD My Book, but I'd suggest you first save them on an internal SATA drive and then copy them through the USB to see if the pixelation would still occur. It could also be some sort of miscommunication between your video recording software and the drive. If you have another external HDD, you could try saving some videos there (the same way you are currently saving them) as well, and check if the problem will persist. If the pixelation appears again, I'd say that the software doesn't like saving files to the external HDDs.

Either way, backup your files from the WD My Book somewhere else beforehand. This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss while troubleshooting.

Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD
 
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Hey there, @Cyber Centaur !

I'm truly sorry for the late reply! I hope we'll get your problem resolved soon enough. :) Judging by the QUICK & EXTENDED tests as well as the transfer speed rate, I'd say there shouldn't be anything wrong with your external WD My Book drive. You can, indeed, try to resolve the issue by fully formatting the external HDD (Just make sure you backup the important files from it somewhere else first). You can even perform a Low-level format a.k.a. WRITE ZEROS using the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics tool that @Jetster shared with you. Just keep in mind that the FULL ERASE writes zeros to the entire drive and will completely wipe it out. It will most definitely take longer due to the large 4 TB capacity, so you should be patient with it.

You mentioned that you save the videos directly to the WD My Book, but I'd suggest you first save them on an internal SATA drive and then copy them through the USB to see if the pixelation would still occur. It could also be some sort of miscommunication between your video recording software and the drive. If you have another external HDD, you could try saving some videos there (the same way you are currently saving them) as well, and check if the problem will persist. If the pixelation appears again, I'd say that the software doesn't like saving files to the external HDDs.

Either way, backup your files from the WD My Book somewhere else beforehand. This is the surest way to avoid any potential data loss while troubleshooting.

Keep us posted.
SuperSoph_WD
So, I've got a couple of questions. Would it void the warranty of the external HDD if I took the HDD out of the housing and put it into my computer? Also, would I be able to do a warranty exchange because of the drive acting up?
@SuperSoph_WD
 

SuperSoph_WD

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So, I've got a couple of questions. Would it void the warranty of the external HDD if I took the HDD out of the housing and put it into my computer? Also, would I be able to do a warranty exchange because of the drive acting up?
@SuperSoph_WD

Hello again, @Cyber Centaur

Unfortunately, taking the HDD out will most definitely void the warranty of your WD My Book, so I'd advise you not to do that. Moreover, these models incorporate a hardware-based encryption that prevents you from accessing the hard drive content without its original external enclosure. :( Here is our Warranty policy which can shed some light on how to handle a WD product, so that you don't void it. As for RMA-ing the WD My Book, you should get in touch with our Customer support first. They would be more than willing to answer all your questions regarding the procedure.

Hope I was helpful. :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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Sorry for a late response. I have traded my 4tb external drive to my friend for 3x1tb internal HDD. He does not do video work so the external drive will be fine for him. Thank you all for your help but I will have to leave this as inconclusive because we could not come to a solution. Thank you once more.
 
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