Help USB stick transfer issue

JAy3001 · May 20, 2018

So I'm having issues backing up a Kingston 32gb usb stick which is formatted in fat32.

This is my wife's work drive and contains over 4 thousand office files of small to medium sized files. 1 to 50mb max.

She reported to me she had issues getting a file off the stick last week, so I advised her to back it up. (IE me back it up)

The stick is used in a variety of Microsoft OS from win XP right up to win 10.

The issue I am having is that it will fail to copy the files over at either 3 or 4% on win 10 simply stopping on a file and getting no further, you cannot cancel to copy. But the PC is not hung and you can close the copy window, but the process is still stuck and you have to reboot to release the USB stick.

If I identify the file or folder at error and simply tell it to not copy those files when I try to copy again it will hang at 0% forcing another reboot. (Win 10 ##£@#!!)

Here is what I've tried:

Standard repair from explorer, states there is a fault - after fixing it, then states there was no fault!
Chkdsk states no issues
USB drivers are up to date
Tried all usb ports, same issue
Tried win 7 pc, better control as when to file copy hangs after 1 minute you can skip the file - only this seems to then fail on every file one after another.
I can copy files to the stick, read files directly and copy some files from the stick.
Check the support area of Kingston Webby.

Im kinda at a loss as to how to back these files up really. Any guidance would be appreciated.

svim · May 20, 2018

Try using 'Teracopy' a utility with enhancements over the Windows Explorer copy function.
https://www.codesector.com/teracopy
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/02/24/teracopy-3-0-final-is-out/

And this might be an issue but are there any file and/or folder names that are too long?
Some people like to just name things with very descriptive, elaborate names, easily notable when they're part of the base directory and sometimes not when they're buried in a folder buried in a folder. In this instance, try using 'Robocopy':
http://protechguides.com/filename-too-long-for-destination-folder/
You might also want to use /V for the 'verbose' output, it may show some relevant info on something like a corrupt file that's screwing up the copying process.
https://www.computerhope.com/robocopy.htm
Apparently the limit for Win10 is 260 characters:
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-maximum-character-limit-for-file-names-in-windows-10

Another thing whenever something like this occurs is to just use a different computer running a different operating system. Sometimes the native OS on the computer is just having some kind of glitchy problem with the USB stick's file system. Do you have access to a Linux or Mac box? Or use a Linux bootable disc or USB device on one of your Win PCs.
You might also want to using a the W

JAy3001 · May 20, 2018

Thanks @svim

I've given Teracopy a go and it does seem very good. However the same issues arise, at 10.2% the transfer freezes and I am unable to halt the copy process without a reboot. :oops:

The file names are all good, my wife is a English teacher so keeps things concise.

Sadly I have no access to a Linux or Mac to try this method out. I have been bouncing from win7 to win10 tonight with little luck.

For the time being I've managed to backup the latest files, stuck them on an old stick and have ordered a new one for wifey. I'd return the old stick to Kingston, but I just cannot find any errors with it; as it is within the warranty. o_O

What I shall try is a cloud backup and see if this works when I'm home tomorrow.

Daniel Fernandes · May 21, 2018

If you really want to try another OS, why not just try Android?

JAy3001 · May 21, 2018

Haha, yeah it's a good idea however a usb to usb transfer will not work. This is why I'm going to try cloud backup and then download to my device, if it works. :goofydroid:

JAy3001 · May 24, 2018

Well none of those options worked. In the end I had to go through each and every folder and file to located the damaged files to de-select them, then and only then could I perform the backup process.

Thanks to Teracopy for the most part, it also finally identifed an error on the stick as a "Cyclic Redundency Check".. :thinking:

Luckily only 7 older files were damaged beyond repair, however this has scared my wife enough so that finally, (after 5 years of me telling her) to perform regular backups!!

svim · May 24, 2018

JAy3001 said:
..... however this has scared my wife enough so that finally, (after 5 years of me telling her) to perform regular backups!!

Backups are indeed important no matter what the case, but it does need to be noted that any storage media that's using FAT32 as its file system has a significant weak point. FAT is outdated and unreliable, and when it comes to other operating systems, weak file metadata support and dodgy file/folder attribute support.

JAy3001 · May 24, 2018

Fat32 is how these devices come, so you would think that would be ok. So what is the best file system to run, considering she uses XP all the way up to Win 10 on a daily basis?

svim · May 24, 2018

FAT is the common default for USB devices because it has a complicated legacy for support with multiple operating systems. It's not by any means the best option as a file system, but back in the mid-90's, when Microsoft was the dominant bully and government sponsored monopoly, the USB-IF board (a conglomeration of different IT corporations) decided on FAT, and that's a curse we all have to live with even now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_Implementers_Forum
Unfortunately as everything else in our world continues to advance, Microsoft stopped supporting FAT development years ago so it's not going to updated to keep up.

This table is limited to Windows-only but since that's apparently her preferred platform:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee681827(v=vs.85).aspx

JAy3001 · May 24, 2018

Thanks @svim I'll take a look later.

Davdi · Jun 21, 2018

You could try formatting the USB stick as NTFS (after you've backed up all the files you can.) If there are any older files that your wife really wants, there are several tools that claim to be able to recover data from USB sticks,
https://www.wondershare.net/data-recovery/
http://www.lc-tech.com/pc/sandisk-rescuepro-and-rescuepro-deluxe/
https://www.easeus.com/storage-medi...rom-corrupted-unreadable-usb-flash-drive.html

There are others......
The search I used was - software to recover unreadable files from usb

Oh, and different search engines give differing results, try Bing, DuckDuckGo or Yahoo as well as the obvious one!

If all else fails, you could try Autopsy (a digital forensics tool from here: https://www.autopsy.com, It has a bit of a learning curve, but there's plenty of on line training, including YouTube tutorial videos.

JAy3001 · Jun 21, 2018

Thanks is for the tips @Davdi

Help USB stick transfer issue

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