The problem drive, Identified by dlgdiag as WD My Book 25EE , a 4Tb drive, is very new, still under warranty, but misbehaves… sometimes will not spin up properly… continuing to cycle up and down…
2 points on this…
1/ Dldiag for Windows shows it as with a SMART error, but if tested using the short test, passes. However if the SMART info is then viewed… shows the errors and a FAIL… but then if retested to Short test, passes again.
2/ this drive when connected to a PC permanently, prevented bootup when it would not start, and then eventually after allowing bootup, the drive failure caused a corruption of the W10 installation to the degree that it corrupted the user profile
Questions are,
- How can the short test over-ride bad SMART results
2 How can an external USB drive have such a bad effect on a W10 installation.
If you think that the corruption was a coincidence, and not the drive, explain how, with a clean install I had the same effect after testing for a few boots, over a couple of days,WITH the drive attached, and withoiut the drive attached, no problems manifested themselves.
Just to refute the possibility of Malware/Trojans/ virus… no… not on a clean reformatted drive, and not even on the original which was scanned with Malwarebytes, and W Defender with negative results.
