Unable to open some files in D:

Hi,

I am not sure actually what is happening but whenever I try to open or copy/move some specific files in D drive, then the computer stops responding and I get the following error:

The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

It is happening only with some specific files in D drive only. Please let me know, how to resolve this issue?

Is it due to bad sector in the disk etc?

Please let me know if any other information is required.

I would be inclined to run both, chkdsk with the r switch

chkdsk /r

and then sfc

sfc /scannow

you will need to run them both from a command prompt with elevated privileges (Right click and run as admin)

Some other things you could try…..

1 use a live distro of Linux ( Puppy is good) and copy the files to a memory stick (if you can)… it that is successful then I would try renaming them and then copying them back to your D and see if anything has changed.

2 Try running Windows in safe mode and see if they will open Ok without problems

3 Try setting up a new admin level account via control Panel), boot into it and see if you can copy them?

Post back if you need a step by step on any of these.

Let us know how things go.

Regards

paws

Thanks Paws for the reply. I guess I have tried all of the above steps except setting up new admin level account but to no avail. Initially, I was thinking that there is an issue with all the files on D drive. Then, when I boot from Ubuntu Live USB, then I tried to copy whole D Drive into External Hard disk. I was able to copy whole of the drive except some files (approx 10% of total files). These are the files in which I am getting the error.

When everything failed, then I took data backup of C: (there was no issues with this drive) and performed recovery (built in the laptop). I thought it may fix the files in C:. But it also did not fixed the files. Then, I headed to post the issue in this forum.

Anyways, now I am ready to perform all the steps that are mentioned here one by one. Currently, chkdsk \r is getting performed. It asked me to perform the scan next time computer is restarted. I entered Y and restarted the system. As of now, it is 12% complete (this issue is happening on another laptop).

Other thing that I wanted to bring to your notice is that from last few months, I have not opened any file from/to D drive. Then, I dont know why it happened.

Do I need to post the contents of any file/log here after scan?

Looks like you are doing everything just fine

We don't really need to see the logs for chkdsk at this stage.

I'm not sure if you have tried safe mode yet or setting a new admin level user account, but these would be my next recommended steps

It's interesting that your Live distro of Linux (Ubuntu) couldn't open them either….. maybe the files have become corrupted?

Are they all of one or two types…. ie Word docs, or JPG photos or whatever, or do they include all different types of files?

If you are running Win 7 have you tried right clicking on the files and looking to see if previous versions work?

Are they backed up somewhere…? if so can you open the back ups?

Regards

paws

Paws,

I also checked safe mode and booting to a new Admin account but it didn't helped. Also, there is no backup so I can't use previous versions feature. They are different types of files (Images, Movies, docs). Can we do anything now?

Also, I am not sure why they got corrupted in first place. I am afraid that other files can also be corrupted if we don't find out why it happened. If there is any bad sector in the hard disk, can we isolate it or fix it?

Ok all understood,
chkdsk is designed to carry out repairs to your hard drive ( if used with the r switch)  bad sectors etc will be identified and remapped.
 
Its not a bad utility but there are better, it may be worthwhile downloading and running the drive testing utility of the make of drive concerned as this generally is a more in depth scan.
 
Utilities available from here:

http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
 
Start with the quick scan, if it passes continue with the long scan ( you can skip the acoustic scan)
 
It is difficult to say why the files became corrupted…… there could be any amount of reasons… but that's why we have back ups… anything important should be backed up correctly, however, what is done is done….
 
You could try the manual approach with your doc files…. see if different computers will read them ,different versions of Word etc., or Open/Libre Office
 
I have had success with renaming a doc to a zip ( most doc file formats are a collection of files but zipped) and you may be able to open it using Winzip WinRAR etc.,

Its a lot of hard work I'm afraid or you could image the drive and send it off to a data recovery laboratory…… effective but very very expensive!

Regards

paws

check the drives smart data, i'd be inclined to think the drive is failing and why the file corruption especially seeing how a live cd couldn't access them either.

like paws said use the drives manufacturers drive testing software for a full in depth check of the drive.