[Psycho Savager]

My external hard drive works fine when I keep using it on my computer, and works fine when I plug it into and install it onto another computer. But when I then plug it back into mine, it says all the data is corrupted and I have to reformat it.

Why is this happening and how can I prevent it?

[atomic tofu]

what type of drive? Easy first step is just to see who is the maker and do a quick search to find any user posted complaints/issues....

then the other thing is computer habit...you may just need to "stop" the device instead of just unplugging, assuming...

[saltynay]

yeah if you pull it straight out the computer will claim the external is corrupted if data is being transferred even after the copy window has closed sometimes the data is still being transferred I usually wait about a minute after the transfer is finished before unplugging the drive or you could use the safely remove hardware tool.

Matt

[Psycho Savager]

Ironically, the first time I experienced the problem was when I manually stopped it. I used to simply pull out the USB and I sometimes got a warning message, but there was nothing wrong with any of the files so I assumed the message was a false warning.

It's a 2.5" SATA - there doesn't actually appear to be a brand name on it.

[Psycho Savager]

Oh wait, according to the Hardware Manager, it's a Toshiba. The brand doesn't actually appear on the device itself.