Cannot delete files on external hard drive.

[al shookup]

For a while now I have been getting an error message when trying to delete files on my external hard drive. the message I get is Error OX80070091.

The hard drive itself has nearly used up its 500gb and is full of files.

Is there a correction that can be used that can be understood by a 78 year old silver surfer (me) to stop this error message and cure the problem please?

 

[SpyderTracks]

For a while now I have been getting an error message when trying to delete files on my external hard drive. the message I get is Error OX80070091.

The hard drive itself has nearly used up its 500gb and is full of files.

Is there a correction that can be used that can be understood by a 78 year old silver surfer (me) to stop this error message and cure the problem please?

When you delete a file normally it won't actually delete it, it just moves it to the recycle bin.

It's possible that since the drive is full, that this is where it's failing.

Try holding shift and then press delete, see if that works.

It may also point to the disk starting to fail. It would be worth running a chkdsk /r in a cmd prompt as admin on the drive if it's an HDD, if it results in bad sectors then the drive is starting to fail and you need to replace it.

 

[al shookup]

Thanks for response. Have tried repairing the disk but message says it won't repair so it looks as though it is starting to fail.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks for response. Have tried repairing the disk but message says it won't repair so it looks as though it is starting to fail.

What was the failure message you got?

 

[al shookup]

The original error message is as shown on my post earlier. It is taking hours to transfer any files to my new external hard drive that should only take less than a minute. Seems like it is failing. A pity because there are loads of stuff on there that I would like to keep.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The original error message is as shown on my post earlier. It is taking hours to transfer any files to my new external hard drive that should only take less than a minute. Seems like it is failing. A pity because there are loads of stuff on there that I would like to keep.

I meant when you ran a chkdsk?

 

[TonyCarter]

Am I right that you have 2 external hard drives, and you're trying to transfer from the old one to the new one?

 

[al shookup]

Am I right that you have 2 external hard drives, and you're trying to transfer from the old one to the new one?

Yes, I am hoping I could do that before the old extrenal drive packs in altogether

 

[Scott]

Instead of copying across, have you tried moving? If you hold in the Shift key while dragging the files over it should automatically remove them from the original drive.

It's entirely possible that the drive is so full that it's causing issues in itself. I've seen some weird and wacky behaviours from full drives over the years. If you can get at least some space in it, it may start functioning normally. Worst case you back everything you want up and then wipe the drive completely. From this point you would be able to check if the drive is functioning normally using software.

 

[al shookup]

I meant when you ran a chkdsk?

Ran checkdisk and received two messages..one to scan and the other to repair. When scanned it said "windows has found errors" When tried to repair, it said "windows unable to repair the drive..try again"
Is there an easy method to transfer all files from the corrupt external hard drive to a new external hard drive please? If so, simple steps please.

 

[al shookup]

Instead of copying across, have you tried moving? If you hold in the Shift key while dragging the files over it should automatically remove them from the original drive.

It's entirely possible that the drive is so full that it's causing issues in itself. I've seen some weird and wacky behaviours from full drives over the years. If you can get at least some space in it, it may start functioning normally. Worst case you back everything you want up and then wipe the drive completely. From this point you would be able to check if the drive is functioning normally using software.

Tried what you suggest to move files. There are dozens of files I need to move from the corrupt external hard drive to a new external hard drive.
Is there any way the files can be moved across en bloc as it takes eight minutes just to move a file moving them individually.

 

[Scott]

If you're copying everything, you simply open up the drive.... hold in the CTRL key then tap "A". Right click on the files while still holding CTRL and then click "CUT". Let go of the CTRL key.

Open up the drive you wish to back up to, right click in the space and click "Paste".

 

[TonyCarter]

Yes, I am hoping I could do that before the old extrenal drive packs in altogether

Can you test to see if the copying works to the internal drive? No need for a large amount of files for now, just to see if it's the source or target drive (or interface) causing the slowdown.