Solved Windows 11 not copying everything properly to a flash drive?

nocruoro · May 22, 2022

I have been trying to make a backup folder on small 32GB usb drive, but since my windows 11 has so many files it seems to choke on the process ending up corrupting a file on the portable usb drive and everything remaining can't be transferred and the file it choked on remains corrupted. And most files turn into text.

This doesn't happen on my big portable hard drive just my small usb one which is a Kingston datatraveler.
Does anyone know why it happens to small usb drives? This thing never had problems before.

TraderGary · May 22, 2022

Can you run a chkdsk on your 32GB USB drive to be certain the file structure is good?

nocruoro · May 22, 2022

TraderGary said:
Can you run a chkdsk on your 32GB USB drive to be certain the file structure is good?

How what is the command prompt word for it? It's named called K-USB D: drive?

cereberus · May 22, 2022

nocruoro said:
How what is the command prompt word for it? It's named called K-USB D: drive?

Just try formatting the drive.

TraderGary · May 22, 2022

The syntax would be: C:/chkdsk /f d:

Formatting the drive would certainly fix any problems with the drive!

TraderGary · May 22, 2022

Ooops
C:/chkdsk d: /f

TraderGary · May 22, 2022

As cereberus said, just format the drive and that will fix any problems. (Unless you have data on the drive you need, of course.)

Servo · May 22, 2022

It could also be a fake drive. There was a program for checking them, I can't remember the name of it now (old age)

nocruoro · May 22, 2022

Servo said:
It could also be a fake drive. There was a program for checking them, I can't remember the name of it now (old age)

Nope not fake, i used it for 4-5 years on Windows 10. Never had issues except if the drive was full.

TraderGary said:
As cereberus said, just format the drive and that will fix any problems. (Unless you have data on the drive you need, of course.)

First off i attempted several wipes/format and those never helped. Something is choking the old USB. Could it be from old age?
The commands didn't help i'm bad with these. I also attempted to use TeraCopy a program designed to make big copy files easier to transfers but i got the same error.

I just don't remember it how to replicate or get a screenshot, it's something with it has failed and the commands were retry, skip and cancel along with a option for do the same with other files

Servo · May 22, 2022

Google H2testw

TraderGary · May 22, 2022

Yes, the drive could be beyond repair. Just buy a new USB Drive. They have really become a lot cheaper than when you bought that one.

nocruoro · May 22, 2022

Servo said:
It could also be a fake drive. There was a program for checking them, I can't remember the name of it now (old age)

TraderGary said:
Yes, the drive could be beyond repair. Just buy a new USB Drive. They have really become a lot cheaper than when you bought that one.

Basically it's close to dying, and that's why it doesn't accept large transfers properly?

Servo · May 22, 2022

Windows normally checks the drive before transferring the file to make sure there's enough space

Bree · May 22, 2022

nocruoro said:
a program designed to make big copy files easier to transfer....

How big are the files? Larger than 4GB? A Fat32 formatted drive has a maximum file size limit of 4GB. If you want to copy files larger than that to the usb you'd need to reformat it as exFat or NTFS.

hsehestedt · May 22, 2022

If you are using FAT32, do you have a very large number of files in any one folder? In addition to the file size limit noted earlier, FAT32 is limited to 65,536 files in a single folder.

Haydon · May 23, 2022

From your own accounts > just throw the USB stick away for your own sake.

No matter what you still can do, I would say that you can no longer trust the USB stick for doing any file transfers of important data, and you can trust it even less for storing important data.

I have a small mechanical workshop in my basement with a big vise to deform/shut/destroy the USB port and a Dremel tool to cut the USB stick in half, in a few seconds before throwing it in the electronics recycling bin.

If you use an encryption app (like BitLocker) you can encrypt the USB stick with something like a 20 to 30 characters long key before destroying it

nocruoro · May 23, 2022

It's a FAT32.... as for size many of these pictures are 300 Kilobytes or less. But at this point it's better to just trash it.

Ghot · May 23, 2022

nocruoro said:
It's a FAT32.... as for size many of these pictures are 300 Kilobytes or less. But at this point it's better to just trash it.

Just format it as NTFS, just to test.
You're right it may be dead or dying, but if you're using some backup software to backup those files, it could be that the backup software is making one big backup file, which is larger than the 4GB limit.

Also, if the USB stick has the drive letter D: ...the chkdsk command would be...

chkdsk d: /r

RFS · May 23, 2022

I would agree with the previous posters' recommendation to replace the drive. Here in the UK a 32Gb USB 3.0 drive will cost around £7 from a reputable seller. Will no doubt be significantly faster than your current one.

johnlgalt · May 23, 2022

there is a relatively easy way to see if the drive is hosed or not, and that is by using diskpart in a command prompt to clean the drive, then try to format it and not use a quick format - that will force it to go over the entire available storage and check every bit.

If you're going to replace the drive, probably a good thing - but for reference, the oldest drive that I have and still use is well over 15 years old (and slow as molasses, but that is a different thing).

Since you're unsure of how to reference the drive in command prompt above, I suspect this will need some extra steps in explaining, but once done it is easy peasy. Just a couple of things to note: Your system is listed as a laptop, I assume there is no DVD drive in there, correct? O it has a single hard drive internally (C") and anything you plug in gets the next letter available, correct?

Solved Windows 11 not copying everything properly to a flash drive?

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