Author Topic: BSOD and maintenance of external HDs (Read 28002 times)

Lady · « **on:** June 02, 2019, 03:53:16 am »

Hello everyone,

On Friday, while doing my monthly system image and data backup I experienced a BSOD. This happened while Macrium was making a system image on one of my external HDs.

The last time I experienced a BSOD was almost a year ago. I asked about it on a Dutch forum but different and unclear answers got me confused and then I received nasty responses, so I left.

I must tell you that I have been having suspicions about this particular HD, it's a Western Digital My Passport Mobile 2Tb, 20 months old. It's just my intuition that has been telling me for a while now that there's something wrong with it. The only "proof" I have is that on this HD it seems to take much longer to make a system image by Windows. So I already checked it for errors through the Properties > Options in Windows Explorer. That came out okay. Can you tell me of other ways to check and repair the HD? Before I format it, lol. I just checked the two Western Digital HDs with Defraggler and they showed 46 and 39% defragmentation so a defrag is in order. But I don't suppose that would cause a BSOD?

Could it be the software of Macrium? Is it known to crash pcs while making these images?

Could it be the driver on the external HD? The Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark on all external devices (USB sticks and HDs.) I'm not familiar (yet) with dealing with drivers, but ready to learn.

I also looked at the Windows Application Log Files in Disk Management around the time the BSOD happened, but there was only one warning with an Execution Service. Here is a snip of the logs. I saw the BSOD just before 9 p.m.

It's a lot of information, I realize that, but maybe it will help you find out what went on.

Here is the WhoCrashed report. I tried to get the BSOD Collection file from Sysnative but somehow it gave an error message.

As always, very grateful you are there.

Lady

System Information (local)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer name: USER-PC
Windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 , 6.1, build: 7601
Windows dir: C:\Windows
Hardware: p7-1423w, Hewlett-Packard, Foxconn, 2ADA
CPU: GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3330 CPU @ 3.00GHz Intel8664, level: 6
4 logical processors, active mask: 15
RAM: 8466694144 bytes (7,9GB)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer. This system is not configured for complete or automatic crash dumps. For best results, configure your system to write out complete or automatic crash dumps. Select Tools->Crash Dump Configuration from the main menu to configure your system to write out complete memory dumps.

Crash dump directories:
C:\Windows
C:\Windows\Minidump

On Fri 31-5-2019 20:17:22 your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\053119-64974-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: volsnap.sys (0xFFFFF88001B70D6E)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88001B70D6E, 0xFFFFF88009A5B7C8, 0xFFFFF88009A5B030)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\volsnap.sys
product: Besturingssysteem Microsoft® Windows®
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Volume Shadow Copy-stuurprogramma
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

Boggin · « **Reply #1 on:** June 02, 2019, 07:45:36 am »

With the WD HDD plugged in, the trial version of HDSentinel may show up something but there is a more dedicated WD diagnostic utility.

Try either of them -

https://www.hdsentinel.com/hard_disk_sentinel_trial.php

https://www.techspot.com/drivers/driver/file/information/18061/

Windows has its own troubleshooting though which can be found in Win 7 in Control Panel/All Control Panel Items.

Double click on Troubleshooting then on View all.

Click on Hardware and Devices/Advanced and ensure the box for Apply repairs automatically is checked - Next

It may be best to have the WD HDD plugged in for this.

Lady · « **Reply #2 on:** June 02, 2019, 09:14:59 am »

I'll try that tomorrow, right now the HD is being defragmented.

But what about the BSOD, do you think it has something to do with the HD?

Boggin · « **Reply #3 on:** June 02, 2019, 09:32:42 am »

BSODs are usually to do with drivers and your crash report does reference an unknown driver.

If you don't get any more when the HDDs are disconnected then it's most likely to do with the WD HDD.

You can still run the Windows troubleshooter to see what that reports before running the WD utility.

Lady · « **Reply #4 on:** June 02, 2019, 04:07:04 pm »

I ran the Windows troubleshooter. Among a few other things which weren't applicable it said there was a driver problem with G: which wasn't there. The HD was L:. (I removed all other external devices before doing this.) I did click on apply solution there but nothing happened as far as I could see. It said that it was a Microsoft WPD FileSystem Volume Driver. I'm not sure what all this is about but do I understand correctly that with Windows Portable Device it means the external HD? If so, could this link be helpful?

http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-WPD-FileSystem-Volume-Driver/3000-2122_4-89013.html

The defrag didn't do much, it went from 39% to 38%. What does that say? Should I do it again or is it better to format the disk and start all fresh?

I started the WD Drive Utilities which I saw I had on board in the WD folder. See screenshot. This is how it looks like. It's in Dutch but I can tell you. The first is check disk status for errors which happened really fast. The second is fast scan disk for serious errors which was completed. The third is an extensive scan on damaged sectors which is still running. I didn't get any reports on the first two scans. Have to find out where they are if there are any.

So I installed HDSentinel which I still have in my Save Downloads folder, like you taught me.

It says the external HD status is perfect. See screenshot of the overview.

Boggin · « **Reply #5 on:** June 03, 2019, 01:32:16 am »

For me it's never a good idea to download drivers from 3rd party sources.

HDSentinel shows 93% Health for the Kingston - is this the suspect HDD ?

I don't have a Portable Devices section in my Device Manager (as in the following article), so can't find the Microsoft WPD FileSystem Volume Driver on my Win 7 x64 Home laptop.

https://appuals.com/fix-wpd-filesystem-volume-driver-code-10-or-yellow-exclamation-mark/

My Seagate external drive is listed in Disk drives.

I'm not sure if a sfc /scannow may resolve that but you can uninstall it in Device Manager and then click on Action/Scan for hardware changes where Windows should reinstall it.

However, create a restore point before removing anything.

Can you open Device Manager - click on View/Show hidden devices and check for any other yellow alerts, but post a screenshot of your Device Manager.

Lady · « **Reply #6 on:** June 03, 2019, 05:42:33 am »

The Kingston is the SSD. See screenshot.

Can I remove HD Sentinel again to save the number of days or do you want any more additional information from it?

I just performed a defrag analysis via command prompt and it says that the WD HD has 4% fragmentation and need not be defragmented. So which one do I trust? Defraggler's or Windows's outcome?? That is a huge difference, 38 or 4%.

Just in case, I looked it up and I have a 2 year warranty on the HD. Bought it on Oct. 23, 2017.

I'm getting confused now, Tom. I read through the article. Solution 3 is about reinstalling the WPD Filesystem Volume Driver manually. Now I have 4 of these drivers under Portable Devices (Dutch: Draagbare apparaten) but the WD HD is under Disk Drives (Schijfstations) highlighted. See screenshot. This HD has password protection with hardware encryption.

I opened the Properties of the WD HD there. It says it works correct. I see two drivers under Details. See screenshots.

Another thing I thought about: I used a hub to connect the external HDs to while making the backups. I know a hub has its own driver, right? Could that one be the culprit? I know hubs can be very unstable, although this one, an Anker, is supposedly a good one.

What I don't understand is why the WD HD is under Disk Drives but the Windows error message was about the Volume Driver and they are under Portable Devices. So can you please explain this situation to me in the most basic way? Does the WD HD has its own driver or does Windows install a driver of its own on the HD? I may be saying crazy things but I'm way out of my league here.

Boggin · « **Reply #7 on:** June 03, 2019, 07:03:21 am »

Some 3rd party defrag programs can give anomalous results - although I've tried a 3rd party one in the past, I prefer to just use Windows own defrag program or the cmd prompt.

I don't think I've checked the fragmentation on my external HDDs but have used the cmd defrag /c to manually defrag my internal HDD which is what Windows does when auto checking all drives.

WPD stands for Windows Portable Devices and is a Windows driver to sync portable devices to the computer.

I think the reason why I don't have that in my Win 7 laptop is because it has AMD graphics and the South Bridge aspect of those drivers looks after the USB side of things.

It could very well be the hub that is causing the problem.

Try plugging in a HDD directly into the USB port and then go into Device Manager to see if you now get a WPD driver that doesn't have a yellow alert.

satrow · « **Reply #8 on:** June 03, 2019, 11:19:56 am »

Many of these WD drives use a controller chip between the SATA connection and the drive interface, this requires specific drivers (WD Smartware/SES?). It may also be set to auto-encrypt.

Should *something* go wrong with the controller, firmware, password, 'drivers' etc. all Windows-based tools will 'see' is a block of encrypted data, nothing can access the real data stored.

Take a little time to look at the topics on the WD portable 'support' site: https://community.wd.com/c/wd-external-drives/wd-portable-drives

Quote

Capacity
4TB, 3TB, 2TB, 1TB

Interface
USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 compatible

Additional Details

Auto backup with included WD Backup software
Password protection with hardware encryption
3-year limited warranty

Package Includes

My Passport hard drive
USB 3.0 cable
WD Discovery™ software for WD Backup™, WD Security™ and WD Drive Utilities™
Quick install guide

Boggin · « **Reply #9 on:** June 03, 2019, 02:19:30 pm »

Device Manager gives the HDD Properties as working fine - the yellow alerts are on the WPD drivers and Windows troubleshooter lists the WPD drivers as being at fault.

Lady · « **Reply #10 on:** June 04, 2019, 08:14:10 am »

Thank you, satrow, for your suggestion. I now agree with Boggin that it's not the HD itself.

This is what I'm going to do: when I have some time I'll remove the hub and plug in one of the devices attached to it and check its WPD driver and if it's signalled in Device Manager I'll perform solution 3. How about that, Boggin?

Boggin · « **Reply #11 on:** June 04, 2019, 08:22:48 am »

Yes, you will need to uninstall those 4 with the yellow alert, but you could uninstall those 4 and reboot, then plugging directly in an ext. HDD would reinstate the WPD driver for each ext. HDD.

I forgot to add earlier that yes, you can uninstall HDSentinel to preserve the clock on it.

satrow · « **Reply #12 on:** June 04, 2019, 08:25:03 am »

Contact me when you upload the data collected by the Sysnative app., I'd like to take a look at it.

Lady · « **Reply #13 on:** June 04, 2019, 03:39:04 pm »

@satrow I keep getting this error message from Sysnative. See screenshot. It says that the file version is not compatible with my Windows version, 32 or 64 bits. It's really strange, I never had any problem getting the Sysnative report. Just download it, execute it and fine. So I don't know what that is about.

@boggin Tom, how do I know which devices are meant with these 4 drivers?

satrow · « **Reply #14 on:** June 04, 2019, 07:22:13 pm »

I'll see what I can find out about that error message.

Use Explorer with files and folders unhidden and navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump, copy the files to your Desktop then zip (right-click > Send to > Compressed folder) and upload the resulting zip file.

For a recent snapshot of your PC for further details and comparison of any driver changes, etc, Run MSInfo32, when it opens, click down through each section to ensure all details have loaded (a small number won't load anything), Save that to your Desktop as msinfo.nfo, then zip (as above) and attach it here.

Boggin · « **Reply #15 on:** June 05, 2019, 01:19:38 am »

What sysnative app is that ?

Lady · « **Reply #16 on:** June 05, 2019, 07:07:33 am »

@satrow I just tried the Sysnative App again but same error.

Here are the two zip files you requested. I must say I'm entering into whole new territory here! Another Expotition!

But it's good, I'm learning again.
Before I made the msinfo I connected the hub again which I disconnected last night to try out devices. I thought maybe you can check out its functioning with the msinfo.
Indeed, I now see in the msinfo the 4 WPD drivers under problem devices... The Ralink I think is uninstalled because I have a LAN connection and was advised to disconnect the Wifi to not have both running.
I'm sorry, the msinfo is in Dutch. Cannot help that.

@boggin Yesterday before shutting down I disconnected the hub and uninstalled all 4 drivers. Now I connected the two WD HDs (My Passport) directly to the USB port and in Device Manager I see that nothing happened to the WPD drivers. See screenshot. So does that mean that the 4 signalled drivers do not refer to the WD HDs? If so, then the HDs are fine? I will add more devices and see when a WPD driver will get installed. It's not my MP3 player, not my phone. Just now I connected the 3.0 hub on which the WD HD was connected when the BSOD happened and this time I got the popup saying the drivers have been installed. The hub has 4 connectors, is this the one I see in Device Manager? The 4 WPD drivers are still uninstalled. So where do they belong to? I think I need some Drivers 101, lol.

Sysnative for BSOD collection:

https://www.sysnative.com/blogs/download/sysnativebsodcollectionapp-exe/

Boggin · « **Reply #17 on:** June 05, 2019, 07:20:41 am »

It looks like those WPD drivers have been reinstalled as I thought they would be.

Try creating a system image onto the HDD you thought was a bit slow to see if there's any improvement.

Did you try that Sysnative app before or after the WPD drivers were reinstalled ?

I'll ask again - what is that Sysnative app ?

satrow · « **Reply #18 on:** June 05, 2019, 08:48:34 am »

Tom, it's the Sysnative BSOD Dump + System File Collection App: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/threads/blue-screen-of-death-bsod-posting-instructions-windows-10-8-1-8-7-vista.68/

Indications are that it can currently only be downloaded correctly via IE11, other browsers get a truncated download, it's being investigated.

Lady, MSInfo shows that the wdcsam64_prewin8.sys, the WD SAM driver that allows access to your ext. drive, isn't loading currently, whereas a quick look at the minidump with BlueScreenView shows that it was loaded during the session which crashed:

Lady · « **Reply #19 on:** June 05, 2019, 09:10:19 am »

Tom, I tried to show with the screenshot, but it's in Dutch, that the WPD drivers aren't being signalled anymore but all 4 of them are still uninstalled. The right-click popup says "inschakelen" meaning "install", so right now they're uninstalled. That's why I asked for what devices they are intended.

Satrow: I think you found something significant, lol. I have no idea what that means or what I should do. Is that the culprit?

Boggin · « **Reply #20 on:** June 05, 2019, 09:35:20 am »

Go into Device Manager/View/Show hidden devices then click on Action/Scan for hardware changes to see if that completes the install.

Failing that, right click on each and select Update driver and to search online to see what that reports.

I have a WPD driver on my AMD Win 10 laptop but it must now be part of Windows as MS slipped in an update for it on the 28th May.

satrow · « **Reply #21 on:** June 05, 2019, 09:44:21 am »

Basically, I think it means you've lost access to that drive, the WD drivers aren't loading, W7's troubleshooter/Device Manager are trying to load incorrect drivers because they're not getting through to the Ext. drive controller now.

Lady · « **Reply #22 on:** June 05, 2019, 09:51:26 am »

I performed the Action/Scan already without results. Before we continue with that, Tom, let's try what satrow is saying.

But since you, satrow, now say that it's the malfunctioning driver of the Western Digital HD, if I understand correctly, how do I check that? I connected it this morning and could open it. Doesn't that mean the driver is fine again? I really don't know what I'm talking about, hahaha. Trying to keep up with you guys.

satrow · « **Reply #23 on:** June 05, 2019, 09:56:06 am »

Try to open the drive via Explorer again, if it's successful (you can see/read your files), run the MSInfo routine again and upload the .nfo zip so I can, hopefully, see what's loading it.

Lady · « **Reply #24 on:** June 05, 2019, 10:36:04 am »

Here is the new msinfo file.