can any computer geeks explain this?

[The111 0]

Posted to another tech forum, didn't get any replies.

I have a 250GB Maxtor external HDD that I use for storing audio and video on, among other things. However, the data on the drive seems to keep going bad (for lack of more technical term), and I have to reformat and repopulate the drive. Fortunately, I keep all the data backed up on DVD-R's, so when the drive screws up, it's more of a nuisance than anything else, but I would still like to solve this problem.

I'll admit don't know much about the intricacies of data storage, but I have noticed something that I think is significant. I have about 110GB of mp3's in 1600 folders (one folder per album). I have stubbornly been trying to keep all 1600 folders in the same folder. I.e. "F:\Music\Artist - Album", so there are 1600 sub-folders in the F:\Music folder. I describe this as stubborn because I have noticed that the more items listed in the folder, the longer it takes to even open it and browse the contents. I eventually noticed that when the drive starts acting screwy and certain folders/files become inaccessible or worse (recently several hundred folders DISAPPEARED!), the problems always arise within my "mega-folder" (the one with 1600 sub-folders). I have many other folders on the external HDD besides the mp3 one I just described, but the problems always arise in there.

Is there something fundamentally dangerous about putting so many subfolders in the same folder? Is this what is causing my repeated data loss? Should I break them down into groups of a few hundred sub-folders each?

Thanks for any insight anyone may have...

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[brianfry713 0]

Hmmm... I don't have any clear answers for you, but it's probably a Windows issue. Check out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table
I'm sure it depends on what version of Windows you're using, but the massive size of the drive could be creating problems. You could try creating multiple partitions on the same drive at a more managable size or try to get Windows working with this. I think the load time of the drive/folder contents is proportional to the amount of items in the drive/folder, so splitting them to different folders/drive partitions would speed up the content listing. You could organize them by genre / type of music or split them up alphabetically if that's convient, you probably had to do that to fit them on DVD-Rs.

Good luck

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[labrys 0]

Got any idea what file system the HDD is using? That changes the number of subfolders it can handle

Owned by Remi #?

[The111 0]

NTFS

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[The111 0]

Makes sense and I was planning on trying that this next time around anyway. We'll see what happens...

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[StreetScooby 5]

My thought exactly, the FAT table may be getting too large. Depending upon the operating system (NT or windows), you may want to use an NTFS file system. Otherwise, break them up, maybe into multiple drives (e.g., F:, G:, H:).

We are all engines of karma

[AlexCrowley 0]

scan the disk for bad sectors.

The reason it takes more time to open usually is because of how the OS displays things, it can't display something it hasnt seen.

The more files, the more time it takes to read each individual folder name and cache it.

If you're using a relatively modern OS it's not a system limit that you're hitting, it's a problem with the drive - if it's intermittent then it could be a platter issue.

With these jumbo sized multiplatter hard drives there are a lot more things that could go wrong then the old style single platter workhorses that lasted for decades.

Maxtors usually have a decent warranty, so maybe you can get a replacement. I can't remember if there were reported issues with Maxtors but I know that several vendors had issues with their >200GB drives in the last year.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[The111 0]

Quote

If you're using a relatively modern OS it's not a system limit that you're hitting, it's a problem with the drive

I was afraid of that. I'm using XP and NTFS. I will have to check the warranty on the drive when I get home. I know last time I reformatted there were bad sectors, and I was hoping the drive was smart enough to just somehow fix them or block them out in the format process. Don't know if that's a reasonable thing to think or not...

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[AlexCrowley 0]

It's pretty hit and miss, which is why you're having intermittent problems when the OS attempts to write file info to a bad sector. The bad sector may not be the true issue, and is merely a symptom of something else failing on the drive.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[labrys 0]

Chkdsk should be able to find and flag bad sectors. Try formatting and then chkdsk before restoring the stuff from DVD. NTFS and XP shouldn't have issues with 1600 subfolders.

Owned by Remi #?

[labrys 0]

More info:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx

Owned by Remi #?

[AlexCrowley 0]

yup chkdsk should, but if there's a warped platter or head misalignment then each pass may report bad sectors differently.

Usually these things start out as rare failures, then intermittent, then common, then failing as the damage gets greater and greater.

sometimes it can be diagnosed simply by removing the case lid and spending some time listening to the drive run. Greater noise, grinding, knocking are signs of the problem becoming major, but if you're somewhat used to your computer system it can sometimes be easy to spot abberant noises at an earlier stage.

TV's got them images, TV's got them all, nothing's shocking.

[labrys 0]

I absolutely agree.

Owned by Remi #?