Yesterday I killed a HDD with a USB cloning dock. The particular dock is WavLink WL-ST334U-BL.
Several things could have gone wrong.
1. The unit was dusty and I didn't appreciate this because when I blew into it after the reboot before using it again when I replugged the HDD back into it, thinking maybe there was a bad connection, there was a surprising amount of dust from that. The HDD read just fine for a few hours when I had first plugged it in before rebooting, however.
2. After coming back from letting it copy during one time (I repeated the copy a few times), I started to lift it from the contacts without thinking because the indicator was showing red (it does that after it idles, but also after you unmount it and the drive is ready to remove) but am skeptical I'd lifted it enough. The OS didn't complain of anything when this happened.
3. Each time I started the copies (I repeated copying the DCIM directory from a phone four times), about 2000~ files, about half or more than that were coming out corrupted. I thought the phone was the problem, so I repeated the copy a few times. Each time I created a new directory and the copy completed but many files were corrupt. On the fourth try, I created a new folder quickly, called "New Folder" and copied into that, but then accidentally hit "Undo" in the right click menu while in the parent directory and to my shock, Windows happily removed the directory while the copy was going.
4. It was at this point that I became concerned about the drive so I made to unmount it but it would not unmount. The copy dialog was stuck doing its thing but not with any files. I logged out. Logged back in, and the drive was now no longer conventional, it had no filesystem. I restarted the PC, same thing.
5. After the reboot, chkdsk had a fit when run on the drive and now the drive is half destroyed or more than that judging by what I can see in OS Forensics.
Assuming the dust didn't do it (the drive was operating fine other than the corrupted files in the copies), and I didn't disconnect it from the contacts while it was running (the OS didn't complain), I specifically want advice about the inability to unmount and what to do in the future when that happens. To my knowledge, restarting is the conventional wisdom in this case. I did do this. Was Logging Out the issue?
__Should I have shut it off by the button instead of logging out or restarting?__
Anyone that has experience with these docks kindly sharing some would be greatly appreciated. Are these docks just bad news? Is this one just bad news? Should I use the button? Is the phone the issue? The also has trouble copying the files to a memory card on a different PC.
Several things could have gone wrong.
1. The unit was dusty and I didn't appreciate this because when I blew into it after the reboot before using it again when I replugged the HDD back into it, thinking maybe there was a bad connection, there was a surprising amount of dust from that. The HDD read just fine for a few hours when I had first plugged it in before rebooting, however.
2. After coming back from letting it copy during one time (I repeated the copy a few times), I started to lift it from the contacts without thinking because the indicator was showing red (it does that after it idles, but also after you unmount it and the drive is ready to remove) but am skeptical I'd lifted it enough. The OS didn't complain of anything when this happened.
3. Each time I started the copies (I repeated copying the DCIM directory from a phone four times), about 2000~ files, about half or more than that were coming out corrupted. I thought the phone was the problem, so I repeated the copy a few times. Each time I created a new directory and the copy completed but many files were corrupt. On the fourth try, I created a new folder quickly, called "New Folder" and copied into that, but then accidentally hit "Undo" in the right click menu while in the parent directory and to my shock, Windows happily removed the directory while the copy was going.
4. It was at this point that I became concerned about the drive so I made to unmount it but it would not unmount. The copy dialog was stuck doing its thing but not with any files. I logged out. Logged back in, and the drive was now no longer conventional, it had no filesystem. I restarted the PC, same thing.
5. After the reboot, chkdsk had a fit when run on the drive and now the drive is half destroyed or more than that judging by what I can see in OS Forensics.
Assuming the dust didn't do it (the drive was operating fine other than the corrupted files in the copies), and I didn't disconnect it from the contacts while it was running (the OS didn't complain), I specifically want advice about the inability to unmount and what to do in the future when that happens. To my knowledge, restarting is the conventional wisdom in this case. I did do this. Was Logging Out the issue?
__Should I have shut it off by the button instead of logging out or restarting?__
Anyone that has experience with these docks kindly sharing some would be greatly appreciated. Are these docks just bad news? Is this one just bad news? Should I use the button? Is the phone the issue? The also has trouble copying the files to a memory card on a different PC.
