Problem with computer drive

[Bryan]

I've got a solid state drive in my PC along with a hard drive. The SSD holds the operating system and programs, the hard drive the data. My data is backed up to an external disc and in the past I have mirrored the SSD to that drive. Now when I try to mirror the SSD the process hangs up and won't complete. There is plenty of space on the external drive. I am wondering if changes introduced by Microsoft are causing their relatively old mirroring software not to work, or if my SSD is on the way out?

 

Any ideas?

[MDM]

If you haven't already done so, first thing to do would be to check the health of the drives by running chkdsk (which is still a thing since I last used Windows it seems) and repair anything pronblematic if that is the case. 

 

You should give a but more info about the OS you are running and the disks as well (make, size, age, free space and age) so that forum users knowledgeable about WIndows can help. 

Edited December 19, 2023 by MDM

[Martin L]

Are you genuinely mirroring the SSD or just backing up/cloning it?

Its generally not a good idea to mirror an SSD to a HD as you slow the performance of the SSD to that of the HD.

 

[Bryan]

11 hours ago, MDM said:

If you haven't already done so, first thing to do would be to check the health of the drives by running chkdsk (which is still a thing since I last used Windows it seems) and repair anything pronblematic if that is the case. 

 

You should give a but more info about the OS you are running and the disks as well (make, size, age, free space and age) so that forum users knowledgeable about WIndows can help. 

Tried chkdsk and received the message that there is no need to run it as all is well.

 

The SSD is relatively new, far younger than my other drives, which are not giving any problems. Loads of free space on all three drives. 

 

I'm running Windows 10 pro.

[Bryan]

18 hours ago, Martin L said:

Are you genuinely mirroring the SSD or just backing up/cloning it?

Its generally not a good idea to mirror an SSD to a HD as you slow the performance of the SSD to that of the HD.

 

Genuine mirror Martin using Microsoft app. Not sure why it should slow the SSD as the external drive is normally disconnected, but who knows !

[Martin L]

Ok, that doesn't sound like mirroring just backing up. Mirroring is when it writes the same instructions to the SSD and HD simultaneously as you are using the PC. If the HD is not attached then that wont work.

Do you get an error message or does it just hang at about 90 odd percent?

If the latter then try leaving it all night or all day, start it before you go to the allotment and then see what happens .

It may be doing some more serious re-organisation then just copying the files

 

[Bryan]

2 hours ago, Martin L said:

Ok, that doesn't sound like mirroring just backing up. Mirroring is when it writes the same instructions to the SSD and HD simultaneously as you are using the PC. If the HD is not attached then that wont work.

Do you get an error message or does it just hang at about 90 odd percent?

If the latter then try leaving it all night or all day, start it before you go to the allotment and then see what happens .

It may be doing some more serious re-organisation then just copying the files

 

Thanks Martin. It hangs up at an early stage of the process, there are no error messages, all appears well then it stops. 

[Martin L]

Well, I don't think its a hardware issue, the backup software from what I understand has not been updated since Windows 7 so more than likely a software incompatibility somewhere with changes made in Windows 10

Its a bit black box to be honest, who knows what the backup software really does, it could be a file locked? It could be because its a Tuesday?

(Thats not a joke really, I had to investigate and fix an interesting software bug once where someone had forgot to allow for leap years hence it only crashed the system once every 4 years!!! Took a bit of finding  )

We could 'to and fro' on here but probably the quickest is to google it as there are lots of things you could try but none are guaranteed and to be honest if it does start working you may never know what it was anyway.

You could try deleting the old backup and create a new one from afresh maybe (but of course you could be left with no backup at all)

I'd pop round and have a crack but might be a bit of a long drive from the South Coast and its a bit chilly up your way for a soft Southerner 

 

 

 

[Bryan]

9 hours ago, Martin L said:

Well, I don't think its a hardware issue, the backup software from what I understand has not been updated since Windows 7 so more than likely a software incompatibility somewhere with changes made in Windows 10

 

I'd pop round and have a crack but might be a bit of a long drive from the South Coast and its a bit chilly up your way for a soft Southerner 

 

Thanks Martin, I do find that things tend to go wrong after a Windows backup, so maybe a compatibility issue as you suggest.

 

Mind it's a balmy 10 degC this evening in these parts, no need for arctic clothing at the moment !

[Martin L]

👍

[Jansos]

I'm sure you will already have done this but just in case...

1) Shut everything down

2) Try swapping USB port connections around

3) Disconnect power source (wait 30 secs before restarting PC) and then plug in each peripheral

4) Restart, make a small sacrifice and say a prayer to the Windows gods.

Stranger things have worked/happened! 😉

[Simon]

Hi  Bryan, if it’s still not working in the new year I’m more than happy to remotely have a look for you, in return for all the pix of mine you’ve found online. I do this stuff on a daily basis almost. 
 

regards Simon

[Bryan]

21 hours ago, Simon said:

Hi  Bryan, if it’s still not working in the new year I’m more than happy to remotely have a look for you, in return for all the pix of mine you’ve found online. I do this stuff on a daily basis almost. 
 

regards Simon

 

Thanks Simon, I've not spent any more time on this issue, but will take another look.