Just installed a WD “My Book”–3 TB. So far the “life expectancy” of the external drives I buy seems to run at about 6 months. I’ve owned Toshiba and Buffalo. I currently have a working Toshiba 2 tb.
The “death” of all my external drives follows the same pattern: My PC appears to be working fine. No unusual “behavior.” Then, suddenly, I get a box on my screen that has the phrase “corrupted and unreadable.” At this point I’m afraid to run any virus scan–other than one supplied by WD–on an external drive. I also fear dire consequences if I dare to run “System Mechanic” or my Windows 10 defragmentation software. Other guesses: Should plugging, and unplugging, of an external drive only be done when the device is powered-off? Are data downloads, or transfers, that run for 5+ hours something that should be avoided–even if the download, or transfer, is within the capacity of the drive?
I still run “System Mechanic,” Norton Virus Scan, and defragmentation. However I, first, unplug my external drive.
