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I'm having a problem I've never seen before in which Windows (8.1 x64) corrupts hard drives almost immediately. The hard drives remain largely functional, but after a week or so the hard drive crashes.

chkdsk shows An error occurred while examining files and directories. for every or almost every directory in the hard drive. This occurs across two different test drives. I have reformatted both drives in a full format in both NTFS and exFAT and the problem persists.

What could be causing this problem?

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  • What do the smart readings show for the two drives?
    – DavidPostill
    Mar 31, 2015 at 5:36
  • SMART marks all is "OK" in the get status for every drive. Operating system not stored in these external drives, but the operating system itself doesn't seem to crash. Formatting with Windows 8.1 computer management utility. I am force running chkdsk myself because when I try to access certain folders they become corrupt. It seems to be more frequent with larger folders (Steam) or frequently accessed/modified (my Git repositories).
    – calben
    Mar 31, 2015 at 14:09
  • Only thing i can figure then would be a ram issue, which does not make sence because the corruption when ram is fault is caused mostly when the data is transferred ram being used as the buffer. Or cabling, where your at SATAIII speeds with cables that are just a tiny bit off from capable, because a tiny bit worse, and you wouldnt get transfers. Then really nasty power. So if you can Memtest86 (nothing else) for hours on end, then you can discount the ram. Try a different cable, discount the cables. Voltage test the 5v and 12V at the plug, discount that, and that leaves software .
    – Psycogeek
    Mar 31, 2015 at 20:46
  • One more, "added connections" if you have racks, mounts, carts, or any method where there is cabing and added connections to the SATA you must test that with the most direct path between the controller and the drive. So if you have quickee slide in connections on the case, you have to try it without that, direct with single cable, single connect point
    – Psycogeek
    Mar 31, 2015 at 20:49
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    Can you confirm that these are external drives? How are they connected to the computer? If they were internal SATA drives, I would recommend replacing the SATA data cables. I've been running into bad ones lately.
    – boot13
    Apr 3, 2015 at 8:00

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