How to resolve the issue of slow opening and reading from an external hard drive?

Is your external hard drive taking forever to open or load files on your computer? Don't worry. This guide will walk you through the steps to fix a slow external hard drive so it can read and write files quickly again without losing any data. Let's get started!

To address the issue of slow file opening on an external hard drive, refer to the specific solutions below and learn how to speed up your external hard drive:

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Why does an external hard drive take a long time to open/read files?

"I have an external hard drive that's three or four years old. It worked fine until a few months ago. Lately, when I plug it into my computer and try to open some files by double-clicking them, it runs very slowly – it takes a long time to load and open files."

"Are there any ways to fix this issue and speed up my external hard drive without losing my files?"

Most of the time, when your external hard drive is slow, it actually takes a long time for the external hard drive to load, open, and read files. Sometimes, you may also find that your external hard drive takes forever to load or gets stuck when loading files.

What explains this phenomenon? Here are some possible explanations:

- Damaged hard drive: The external hard drive has suffered physical damage. - Connectivity issues: Faulty cables or connecting an USB 3.0 external hard drive to a USB 2.0 port. - Virus infection: An unknown virus has invaded the hard drive, slowing down its performance. - File system errors or bad sectors on the hard drive. - Full external hard drive with insufficient space. - Disk fragmentation: The external hard drive contains many fragments.

So, how do you fix a slow external hard drive and make it fast again? Follow the two methods below, and your external hard drive will be able to access and read files quickly once more.

Guide 1: Recover all files from the slow external hard drive first

To successfully fix a slow external hard drive without losing any data, you should first recover all files from the external hard drive. A reliable tool like Data Recovery Wizard Pro – Data Recovery Wizard Pro can scan and restore all external hard drive data to a secure location.

Regardless of what is causing the external hard drive to take so long to open and read files, as long as the disk is detectable by the computer, a file recovery software can access all the contents of the drive.

Here are the steps to recover all files from an external hard drive:

Step 1: Choose and scan the external hard drive

• Download and install the Data Recovery tool on your desktop or laptop.
• Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
• Run the Data Recovery Wizard, and select the external hard drive from the list of external drives. Then, click on Scan for lost data.

Step 2: Review the scan results

• Data recovery software will immediately scan all data in the selected drive, including deleted, corrupted, and existing data.
• You can use the filter feature to quickly locate a specific type of file, such as images, Word, Excel, PDF, videos, emails, and more.

Step 3: Preview and recover the data

• Double-click on a file from the scan results to preview it. • Select the files you need and click “Recover”. • Choose a location different from the original drive to save your recovered files.

Guideline 2: Resolving Errors of Slow External Hard Drive and Long File Opening Time

In most cases, when your external hard drive or USB flash drive is slow to open and load files on your computer, you can try unplugging it and reconnecting it to the PC. Check if this helps.

If not, try the following solutions to get your drive to reopen files quickly again.

Step 1: Check for Physical Damage

A long load time when opening files from your external hard drive can be an indication that there's a problem with it. You can check for issues by observing the LED lights and sounds it makes.

Step one: Check the enclosure for damage.

If so, replace the enclosure, and you can use the drive again.

Step 2: Check if the LED is blinking.

If not, the hard drive might be damaged, and you should have it repaired.

Step 3: Check if the external hard drive chip is damaged.

If so, have your external hard drive repaired.

Step 4: Listen to the hard drive for loud noises.

If so, take the disk to be repaired.

You may need to contact the manufacturer of your external hard drive, or seek out a local hard drive recovery center for assistance.

Fix 2: Check and replace the USB cable and USB port

Another reason that might cause an external hard drive to be slow is a USB connection issue. You can resolve this problem by checking and replacing the USB cable and USB port:

Step 1: Check if the USB cable connecting your external hard drive is damaged or frayed.

If so, buy a new one and reconnect it to your computer.

Step 2: Make sure that you're connecting your USB 3.0 external drive to a USB 3.0 port.

If so, switch computers and connect the external drive to a USB 3.0 port.

Step 3: Check if your front USB ports are damaged.

If it does, use the rear (less commonly used) USB ports and connect your external drive.

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, try the following methods to speed up your hard drive:

Fix 3: Run an antivirus scan and remove viruses

If the external hard drive takes too long to open files, the next thing you need to check is whether it contains viruses.

You can scan your hard drive for viruses using the built-in Windows Defender or a reputable third-party antivirus software, such as McAfee, Symantec, Kaspersky, Avast, and so on.

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2: Run an antivirus software or program to scan your external drive.

Step 3: Remove any viruses or malware that were found on the disk.

Wait for this process to complete. If you lost important files that were deleted by your antivirus as suspicious, don't worry. You can recover your data with a file recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard.

Fix 4: Check and fix file system errors and bad sectors

Please note that you might not be able to open the external hard drive and access files successfully when it has file system errors or bad sectors. Hence, the "external hard drive taking too long to open" error occurs.

If your hard drive is taking a long time to open files, you can check and repair file system errors and bad sectors with the following steps:

1. Check and fix filesystem errors:

Step 1: Press Windows + S, type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Step 3. Connect the external drive to your computer and note its drive letter.

Step 4. Type chkdsk e: /f /r /x at the command prompt, and then press Enter. (Replace e: with the letter of your external hard drive.)

Step 2: Check and Repair Bad Sectors

Check and Fix Bad Sectors on External Disk

First, check if there are bad sectors on your device and fix them if there are.

Fix 5: Solve the issue of insufficient disk space

If your storage device is almost full, this could be the main reason why external hard drive opens files slowly.

If so, here's what you should do:

Step 1: Wait for your external hard drive to turn on.

Step two: sort your files into those that are important and useful, and those that are junk.

Step three: back up all important files to a separate secure device.

You can use free backup software, such as Todo Backup, to manually copy or create an image backup of these files.

Step 4: Right-click the external drive in File Explorer and select Format.

Select your external hard drive and check “Quick Format,” then click “Start” to confirm.

Later, you can restore the backup to the hard drive and use it as a regular drive again.

Fix 6: Run a disk defragmentation

Defragmenting your hard drive helps optimize it by consolidating fragmented files on a user's hard disk, which can improve the performance of an external hard drive.

You can defragment your hard drive using a tool that comes with Windows or a third-party program that's easier to use.

To see detailed steps, check out how to defragment a hard drive in Windows 10.

Step 1: Press Windows + S, type defragment in the search box, and click Defragment and Optimize Drives.

Step 2. Select your external hard drive and click “Optimize.”

Optimize SSD with a disk defragmenter tool

This will automatically defragment the disk, removing any fragments that might be preventing smooth access to files on the disk.

After that, restart your computer and reconnect your external hard drive to it. This should give you faster access times to your hard drive.

Slow external or internal hard drives are a thing of the past – fix them now.

If your external or internal hard drive is running slow on your computer, don't worry. On this page, we explain the reasons behind a slow loading drive and provide two comprehensive guides to help you fix the issue.

Most importantly, remember that data comes first. If you have important data on your external hard drive, run the Data Recovery Wizard first to retrieve everything from the disk.

Now it's your turn to speed up your external drive so that it can access and load files quickly on your computer.