corrupted files

2017-02-07 18:28:04

have been moving a collection of lossless music to a different drive. occasionally there will be some kind of problem, will delete and do it again. usually it turns out okay and verify with cuetools and foobar. just noticed a few that have been moved and checked out okay then later were corrupted in different ways.

are there any typical culprits that cause this?
should i start zipping them?

thank you for any help.

Re: corrupted files

Reply #1 – 2017-02-07 22:04:22

Either bitrot (unlikely), or faulty hardware (much more likely). You could check your RAM for starters, then move on to HDDs and their cables. Zipping the files won't help you in any way, this won't avoid the data passing the HDD -> cable -> RAM -> cable -> other HDD route. In fact, if it's the RAM, then zipping will actually increase the likelihood of corrupting the files, because you load it into the RAM twice.

(Note: the description of the process is heavily simplified)

Re: corrupted files

Reply #2 – 2017-02-08 02:25:38

consider doing som propper stabiltiy testing of your system.
chekc you drives with the manufactors test tool and/or crystal diskmark
Check you memory with memtest86 or at least windows built in memory test
Check your CPU with prime95 for an hour or even longer depending on how much effort you would put into it

Then after that  i would advice to learn to use par for corruption data recovery in the future.

in short: test you equiment, and then improve your storage method

Re: corrupted files

Reply #3 – 2017-02-08 07:56:25

Don't even get me started on the nightmare that is file corruption can quickly become.  The first warning sign that your system is probably a ticking time bomb and things are about to go hell for you.

Rule out the hardware through process of elimination by checking everything thoroughly first then start taking a good look at any software you're using that might be having problems if no hardware problems are find.

Re: corrupted files

Reply #4 – 2017-02-09 14:17:36

I agree with the suggestions that you should check your system. One other thing to try is a different copy program. There are numerous programs that will do a verify after copy.  If the copy is verified and the problem still happens on the destination drive, that would give you a good place to start.