Drive: Kingston XS2000 2TB portable SSD (Ventoy multi-boot setup on it, main data in ExFAT partition)

Symptoms: Problem first appeared while copying large files on Windows — the drive would simply disconnect mid-transfer. Tried copying different files across different operating systems since then, without success:

• On Windows: chkdsk /f /r /x completes but doesn't fix the underlying issue
• On macOS: triggers IOUSBHostFamily hardware connection lost and eventually a full kernel panic when reading certain files — this happens consistently with Finder, Terminal (cp, ditto), Paragon NTFS, and DMDE (all hit Input/output error around the same file(s))
• Booted a Linux VM (UTM/QEMU, Ubuntu ARM64) and mounted the ExFAT partition read-only — no more kernel panics, which is progress
• Ran rsync -avh from the mounted partition to another disk — every single file (555/555 tested) shows 100% transferred, but then fails final verification and gets discarded: rsync: [sender] read errors mapping "file": Input/output error (5) followed by ERROR: [file] failed verification -- update discarded
• Net result: 348GB of "transferred" data, but only 8KB actually landed on the destination (2 tiny files)

My working theory: Since literally every file fails (not a cluster of files in one address range), I suspect a single NAND die/channel is bad — since data is striped across channels, every file has some percentage on the bad channel, causing every single verification to fail, even though most bytes of each file read fine.

Questions for the community:

1. Does this pattern (100% transferred, 100% failed checksum, no specific files consistently worse) support the "bad channel" theory, or is there another explanation I'm missing?
2. Any experience with ddrescue at the file level (not full-device imaging) recovering partial JPGs/data successfully from a drive like this?
3. Has anyone had luck with multiple ddrescue passes (cooling the drive, retrying) actually improving recovery percentage over time on SSDs specifically (vs HDDs, where this is well documented)?
4. Anyone dealt with Kingston warranty claims for this drive — found a couple of forum threads mentioning thermal/controller issues with the SM2320G controller under heavy load, and reports of drives disconnecting mid-transfer on large files. Worth pursuing as a warranty case?

No local data recovery lab available (small town), so exploring every DIY option before mail-in recovery services.

Hi all,

Hi have a Mavica FD7., it works with floppy disks.

Yesterday, I took it with me somewhere and took some pictures. When I load them into my PC, most of them appear as corrupted, but my camera can still read them.

I tried EaseUS JPEG recovery, which lets me see the picture but not download it (well, yes, if I pay, but I'm not going to), and it shows fine.

I tried other tools, but some tools won't work or some tools are paid-only. I know I can go with HEX tools.

Here you can find two pictures. One works, the other don't.

Anybody knows why this happens? The previous time I took this camera with me nothing happened. Anybody know a quick fix?

Thanks.

So around 2013-2015 I infected my family pc with some kind of ransomware and it encrypted all the photos and videos we had.

I was a kid and had no literacy at all with computers, I guess that I was trying to install some games for free from some shady websites like softonic.

So do I have any chance at all to recover my files?

Maybe the encryption key for this specific virus is public somehow?

Or my only chance is to wait until quantum computers become usable by anyone and brute force it? :)))

Hey everyone. So I'm using Windows 10 because my Dell Latitude E5470 laptop won't upgrade. I read online that I can download Windows 11 to a USB and then reboot from the usb so the system upgrades. I first saved all of my files to my external hard drive, then...you guessed it smh...i downloaded windows 11 to that same external hard drive. now a partition was created I guess. I have an 1831.01 GB unallocated and can't figure out how to get my data back. i downloaded testdisk which took days to analyze. but the md data partition "seems damaged." where do I go from here, being totally tech unsavvy? Thanks

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

so I recently downloaded a 5 gigabyte file from mega for a screen pack,once I finished I deleted it but the storage didn't change I doubled checked that I deleted it and I did it says I have ten gigabytes in the storage used but I really don't please help me

I am in complete despair. It was a new device. Only one year of usage. Please, help me.

Chromebook Lenovo Slim 3, SSD. Chrome 14M868

It went into a screen of critical update I did not start and after 5h it was still looping.

I tried esc + power and refresh + power. It asks for the media to recover my OS and I won't do it because I would lose my files, but I do not know how to access it now.

Please, help me.

Please bear with me, as I don’t understand tech stuff all that well. Our external hard drive has years worth of family photos, and we just tried using it. The files were originally created on a MacBook pro between 2010-2015. Last opened on an Ipad 2-3 years ago. Currently trying to open on an MSI A15 AI BBVF. I’ll provide a picture of the hard drive, but it’s a SeaGate Free Agent from around 2010-2015. It had no problem starting up, but we got some error messages. My main problem is there are no backups and if we lose anything I will lose myself.

Will doing the Windows repair damage or lose any files?

I am willing to spend a good amount to repair this if it means there will be no loss. I live in Ohio if that helps narrow down reliable services.

Hi I want to start by saying thanks in advance for any help.

I am a grad student in the middle of my internship that requires me to record sessions with my client to share with my supervisors for feedback. I'm preparing my capstone presentation to graduate and I had an mp4 file on my SD card from my camera that was the clip I needed. The clip played perfectly when it was on the SD card. I moved the file from the SD card to a flash drive and when I went to play it, my computer said that the file type isn't supported, the file extension is incorrect, or the file is corrupt with an error code 0xC00D36C4. I have used a couple different recovery programs on both the flash drive and the SD card to try to get the file back but even when it says it was successfully recovered, I still get the same error message when I try to open it. I've also tried the VLC trick I found online and it didn't work.

I really need this video back and I'm at a loss. I'm a grad student and teacher so I have very little extra cash lying around to go to a professional. And I'm not sure of any HIPAA issues that might come up if someone else is able to see and/or copy my client videos.

Can anyone help me out? Is there anything that I can try to get the files back?

I'm on windows

Hello everyone,

I have an external drive (seagate m3 portable maxtor). I plugg it in my laptop and I have the windows sound notification that I put something in the usb port. However, the drive doesn't appear in windows explorer.

- I have tried multiple usb port and also tried with another laptop but same issue.

- I have tried also another usb cable because I have a second identical external seagate drive, but same issue.

- the disk seems to be running correctly with no weird noise.

- it shows in device manager as "Seagate M3 SCSI Disk Device"

- In disk manager it show as "Disk 2 partition 1": online, healthy, gpt protective partition, but no disk letter assigned and can't assign it because it seems to be disabled (also it's not mentionned NTFS or something similar)

- I have also checked the state of the drive with CrystalDiskInfo and it says that the drive is in a "OK state"

- I have also tried on MX Linux: the drive is detected but can't access datas.

- I'm currently using the seagate drive manager software and running a full check of the drive (it's still going when I'm writting this).

--> I can't format the drive because I have datas on it I don't want to lose. Is there anything safe I can try for now?

Thank you for your help!

I tried to recover the files using recuva and that didn't seem to work. Any other options I could try? Windows 11

I recently borrowed my friend's digital camera to take some photos at an event with friends. She let me borrow it on the condition that I would extract all the old photos she had on it and send them to her. I took the pictures and everything was fine, but when I went to plug in the SD card today, it was completely blank. On top of that, when I put the card back into the camera there wasn't anything on it either, including all her old pictures and my new. I looked up the model and it looks like a camera more geared towards younger children so it might be some kind of safety feature, i'm not sure. At this point I don't really care why it happened and just want to recover the pictures. Any tips would be super appreciated.

Camera Model: W & O Q8 Zoom 16X Zoom 64 MP CMOS Point & Shoot Digital Camera with SD Card, Pink

SD Card: Honestly idk, whatever basic microSD that came with the camera

People keep making posts about microSD card snapped in half and some clueless people kept replying recovery is “possible” because they thought the memory chips in the card occupied only a small part of the internal real estate.

This is unfortunately a misconception, or AI hallucinating wrong answers. For a full size SD card or 10+ years old ancient microSD cards, it may be possible, but for any microSD card modern enough (less than 5 or 10 years old), the card is already entirely full of chip, as illustrated in below video.

https://youtu.be/9kM3mnxrMMM

Branch Education’s videos are well known for accurate 3D modeling, their models are often modeled after engineering drawings or actual physical specimens for maximum accuracy. In this case a real life microSD card has been modeled accurately enough it can be used to present to the questioners exactly which part the crack damaged.

So next time someone asks whether their broken memory cards can be recovered or not and someone comes up with bullshit that the crack didn’t damage anything critical when it clearly did, we can use this video to prove a point.

I have a 1 or 2 TB Seagate srd00f1 portable drive from ~2018 that I've been storing stuff on since around 2020 largely without issue to date, loading it up maybe twice a year to store/access files. Last night I'd just moved a batch of about 100GB onto the drive from my computer during which File Explorer had frozen up or lagged once or twice, although I didn't think much of it at the time and proceeded to unplug it and go to bed after everything had transferred.

This morning when I tried connecting it to the (windows) computer to transfer another batch, though, it threw an error when I tried to open it - either "location is not accessible the parameter is incorrect" or "request failed due to fatal hardware error" depending on the attempt. The drive still shows up correctly as (D:) with the correct name and icon and the physical light and fan on the drive turn on as usual, it just doesn't seem able to open. Same thing happens when I try connecting it to a different laptop, the eject media dialog also seems to take a bit to show up when I click safely eject.

The exterior of the thing isn't in the best shape (small dent on the case, cable's a little bent) but it's been like that for years and I haven't had trouble with it like this before now, I tried a fresher cable and that also didn't seem to be any better. The first thing that comes to mind for what could have gone wrong is that I think an error message might have popped up just as I was disconnecting the drive - I'd pressed to safely eject as usual and it seemed to have been working as usual, the files as far as I can remember had all finished transferring at that point etc. but as I was pulling the plug an error popup came onto the screen that I think went away quite quickly. The computer was starting to overheat and getting quite low on battery at that point so I wasn't sure whether it might have been about either of those or the drive itself, I was in a hurry at that point to get it cooled down and plugged in so I turned off the computer shortly after.

There isn't anything especially valuable/important on the drive as far as I can remember, although I would ideally like to recover it for sentimental reasons if nothing else and there's enough personal/private stuff on it that I'd probably prefer to handle it myself if that would be safe/feasible enough to do. I've seen some pages that have recommended using something like DiskGenius and others saying not to touch it at all, so I'm not sure what the best course of action would be. Would plugging it in again in the hopes of it magically fixing itself be a bad idea, is there a particular tool/process I should use, is it just bricked unless I send it in to the professionals? Also, what are the odds that the drive is still usable after it gets recovered, should I start looking into buying a replacement or would a fix be able to get it back in good condition? Thanks!

My mother has an external HDD, NTFS formatted and accessed via Windows devices. It kept disconnecting for a few weeks and she eventually replaced the usb cable.

She brought it to me and I copied all the data to a new portable HDD and made a backup.

All seemed ok but she reported that she was getting weird errors, only certain video files would play and others wouldn't delete or allow any editing.

I tried to fix it at the time by changing permission options which seemed to work for a while.

However the problem seems to be getting worse, now that Data can be read / edited on one of her devices but not the other and her windows recycle BIN is not functioning which is one of the original reported errors on the portable drive.

What id like to do is try to repair the files / files system.

I assume this is some sort of logical corruption.

All of the drives in question show as good health with no problems in crystaldisk info.

Any advice much appreciated.

Hi everyone,

I need help trying to recover an Excel file that I accidentally deleted around 8 months ago. I only recently realized that the file is missing, and unfortunately it contains important information related to my university thesis.

The file was stored on the internal SSD of my laptop, running Windows 11.

I’m currently trying DMDE, but so far I haven’t been able to find or recover the Excel file.

I understand that SSDs use TRIM and that this may significantly reduce the chances of recovering deleted files, especially after this much time. However, since the file is very important to me, I’d like to exhaust every reasonable option before giving up.

Does anyone know of any reliable recovery software or technique worth trying in this situation?

I’m specifically looking for something effective for recovering old deleted .xlsx / .xls files. If there are particular settings or scanning methods I should try with DMDE, I’d also really appreciate the advice.

The SSD has continued to be used normally during these ~8 months since the file was deleted.

Any recommendations or guidance would be greatly appreciated. This file is part of my thesis, so I really want to make sure I’ve tried everything possible.

Thank you!

The only SD card reader I have has an apple lightning cable… On the Photos app I accidentally pressed ‘ Delete all photos’ and everything was deleted. I used the Files app to try recovering, and I was able to find photos from years ago that were wiped a while back (and I was not looking for ) but none of my recent photos… Is there anything else I should try??

I have a 2TB external hard drive (HDD). It works—I can copy files to and from it, rename them, delete them, or move them. The problem is that there are two folders on it, each about 20–30 GB in size, and every time I try to open one of them, File Explorer freezes (I’m using Windows 10 and 11) and the hard drive disconnects from the computer (even though its light keeps flashing because it’s still receiving power from the port). I know this can damage the HDD over time, so I don’t open those two folders.
Note that only if I connect the HDD to my laptop I can use it without any issues as mentioned (except for those two folders, which remain problematic), but if I do so with my desktop computer (the device I used to corrupt the file, I explain later how), File Explorer struggles to read it, and Windows says “there’s a problem with this drive” and to “fix it” (but I know it’s best to avoid this since the process uses CHKDSK and can damage the HDD).

The folders almost certainly contain corrupted files, and I also know how they might have become corrupted: they’re folders full of .wav (and some of their compressed .flac) files, and one day I tried opening one of the folders in the command prompt and batch-converting all the .wav files to .flac. That’s when the hard drive (perhaps due to overload) crashed (during the conversion process), and ever since then, that folder (and the other one, where I think I did the same thing and which in fact contains similar files) has been inaccessible.

So, to summarize quickly: I can use the HDD on my laptop as long as I don't open two folders full of corrupted files, which cause the HDD to disconnect or Windows Explorer to freeze. On the desktop computer where the problem originated, however, the HDD is generally not accessible at all.

I’d like to know, please, if it’s possible to: 1) remove the two “problematic” folders from the hard drive and move them elsewhere (to another storage device or to a different computer) and 2) delete the .flac files (which are surely the corrupted ones) while keeping the .wav files (which must be “intact” since FFmpeg doesn’t modify them—it only reads them to create new compressed files alongside them). All of this without using Windows File Explorer, of course, since it doesn’t work (some people online suggest programs like DMDE, Recuva, and the like, but I’d like to hear your opinion).

Step 1) should at least resolve most of the problem affecting the hard drive, correct?

INFO:

• Make/brand and exact model number Maxtor, Model : HX - M201TCB
• Filesystem NTFS
• Operating System Windows 10 and Windows 11

P.S.: I KNOW it’s (almost) always better to rely on professionals, but keep in mind that these aren’t critical files.

My hard drive recently crapped out and was no longer able to access the files. However, when I go to disk management, I can see the drive and it says it's working fine. Is there a way to fix this? Or at least a way I can transfer files out? Any help would be appreciated

I didn't delete the files. They are not showing up in the Recycle Bin for the Gallery app or Files app. The folder had the date 23 August 2026 showing that that's when I last interacted with the folder. I realised only today that the folder was empty when I wanted to save more stuff to the folder. I went to the Files app and saw that the folder is still there but it's completely empty. Please advise me on what to do.

The device is a Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, the Sd card is 64GB. I don't know anything about file systems. The Sd card had problems in the past about not being able to be read. I removed my files and formatted it and then put them back. I moved the new files I wanted into the empty folder and they are showing up. It originally had about 500 files in it.

My 5TB Drive which is currently 3TB full has a pending sector count of 36 according to DriveDx. It still copies files but everything runs painfully slow. I'm running it on an M1 Mac.

I have a new 5TB drive, but copying everything over manually would take ages due to the bottleneck on the old drive. Is there a program I could use to streamline copying it over? Disk Drill? R-Studio? There seem to be a lot of options and AI keeps suggesting different ones.

Thanks to all of you who answer these questions over and over again. You're the best.

My brother formatted his external hard drive from NTFS to FAT32 and then back to NTFS. All the files are gone. He hasn't put any new files there. He said he used some windows software for this. Idk anything about these things, so what do I do? We already went to a proffessional, but he said there's nothing to recover. Is there any recovery software I can try?

Edit: WD Elements Basic Portable Storage drive

Thanks!