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I have a external HDD toshiba hdtb310xk3aa (1TB), and I have used it for a couple of years as storage for a Xbox One (Xbox HDD format), but from a couple of months I formatted it to NTFS to used it in my laptop. And sometimes I'm experiencing some problems with this device (automatic hard drive turn off is on, windows fast startup is disabled):

(1)-When I connect this HDD to the back USB ports of my laptop, it works normally until after a short time it gets disconnected and connected repetitively (I hear the windows disconnect and connect sound in a loop), this does not happen is I connect it to usb port of one of the laptop side (All ports are 3.0).

(2)-It works normally until it starts to slow down and it takes forever to open a file, I mean, it go from loading immediately to do not load at all.

(3)-Sometimes when I start windows, it takes forever to open any program (Even installed programs on my main drive SDD, and always the HDD led is blinking) until I disconnected the device. That's why I first turn on my computer and then I connect the HDD. But, sometimes problem (2) happens after this.

So, when (2), what I do to let me use that drive is to run CHKDSK (CHKDSK D: /f /r /x) with the dismount option because if I don't use that CHKDSK takes forever along with any other program which was not already open (even task manager). This solution let use my device for a while, sometimes is a couple of days, and other times a few weeks, but problems eventually happen again and I have to run a again this "Fix".

Here is the CHKDSK log:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19042.867]
(c) 2020 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\synth_>chkdsk D: /f /r /x
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is STORAGE.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
  118272 file records processed.
File verification completed.
 Phase duration (File record verification): 2.08 seconds.
  44 large file records processed.
 Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 0.00 milliseconds.
  0 bad file records processed.
 Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 1.06 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
  604 reparse records processed.
  133534 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
 Phase duration (Index verification): 6.11 minutes.
  0 unindexed files scanned.
 Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 35.48 milliseconds.
  0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
 Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 1.54 milliseconds.
  604 reparse records processed.
 Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 4.45 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
 Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 71.47 milliseconds.
  7632 data files processed.
 Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 0.82 milliseconds.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
  112890848 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.
 Phase duration (USN journal verification): 0.71 milliseconds.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
A disk read error occurredc0000010
The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters
detected in file 21 of name \$Extend\$RmMetadata\$TxfLog\$TxfLog.blf.
A disk read error occurredc0000010
The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters
detected in file 132F of name \WindowsApps\MSIXVC\B1FE4F~1.XVI.
  118256 files processed.
File data verification completed.
 Phase duration (User file recovery): 1.40 hours.

Stage 5: Looking for bad, free clusters ...
  125889638 free clusters processed.
Free space verification is complete.
 Phase duration (Free space recovery): 0.00 milliseconds.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.
No further action is required.

 976744447 KB total disk space.
 472927640 KB in 107562 files.
     43976 KB in 7633 indexes.
        16 KB in bad sectors.
    214259 KB in use by the system.
     65536 KB occupied by the log file.
 503558556 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
 244186111 total allocation units on disk.
 125889639 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 1.50 hours (5415992 ms).

Particularly "A disk read error occurredc0000010" and "The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters" calls my attention. Every time I run CHKDSK I got those lines. So I believe that maybe repairing that bad cluster could solve my problems, but I don't know. I don't have enough knowledge on the topic to understand how HDD and the Operating system works, so I'm not sure if repairing that cluster could solve my problems, since CHKDSK apparently can not solve them.

I'll be really thankful if someone help me on this, or what software do you recommend me to try? Format the HDD? PS: On my Ubuntu computer I'm not able to overwrite on the disk (put new files there, or renaming existing ones). I'm open also to try software that runs on Ubuntu if necessary.

Thanks for your time!

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First of all, the "free space" that CHKDSK is referring to is different than regular disk space. Every hard disk has some extra, unallocated space that will be used in those situations where bad sectors need to be replaced.

Each sector on the disk is assigned its own number. Somewhere on the disk and invisible to the user, there are extra sectors which are not numbered. These extra sectors are used when a sector goes bad and needs to be replaced.

CHKDSK "fixes" bad sectors by removing the number from the bad sector and assigning it to a spare sector (this is actually done by the disk firmware). If the utility tells you "The Disk Does Not Have Enough Space to Replace Bad Clusters", it’s most likely because the number of bad sectors has exceeded the number of available spare sectors. As that number is usually counted in the thousands, this means that you have thousands of unrecoverable sectors.

The disk is failing. I suggest to immediately backup all the important data from it and replace it.

You will find some advice on the internet to make the disk usable by reformatting it using slow format (not quick). That can make the disk usable in the very short term, but do not trust it any longer. Remember that there are no more spare sectors available to substitute for newly failing sectors, so every bad sector will stay bad and become an unsolvable problem when encountered.

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