A few weeks ago something bad happened to my OS (Windows 10). In my laptop I have SSD with OS and HDD for data (cd drive slot).

I usually hibernate my PC instead of shutting it down. I also have a bad habit of postponing system updates for a few days.

After ~2 "ask me later" Windows somehow updates the system anyway (I hibernate my PC, next day I run it and I see it restarted and updated - not sure how and when this happens, but that's not so important).

Whenever it updates and restarts on it's own - my HDD gets an I/O device error.

Facts:

The drive is present in "This PC"
Sometimes I can create a file on that drive (and add some content to it)
I cannot open any file which was created before restart (files get opened by programs, but cannot be displayed - some app-specific errors)
I can open some directories (different path depths), but most cannot be opened
Disconnecting and cleaning HDD connection does not help
Restarting OS does not help

The only way to fix it is to:

Turn off PC
Remove HDD
Start OS <------- starting OS without HDD is absolutely crucial
Turn off PC again
Connect HDD again
Start OS
HDD works perfectly until next Windows update

Based on the workaround above, I believe the problem is not hardware related. The question is can I fix it permanently without reinstalling the OS?

Windows Events logs:

Nothing interesting except lots of such Warnings:

The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: D:, DeviceName: \Device\HarddiskVolume7.
(The I/O device reported an I/O error.)

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Ntfs" Guid="{3FF37A1C-A68D-4D6E-8C9B-F79E8B16C482}" /> 
  <EventID>140</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>3</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x8000000000000008</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-01-23T21:07:23.058660400Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>27166</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="4308" /> 
  <Channel>System</Channel> 
  <Computer>gisek</Computer> 
  <Security UserID="S-1-5-18" /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="VolumeId">D:</Data> 
  <Data Name="DeviceName">\Device\HarddiskVolume7</Data> 
  <Data Name="Error">0xc0000185</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

Andrzej Gis

Posted 2019-01-23T22:21:41.793

Reputation: 371

Any relevant errors being logged in the Windows Event log? – I say Reinstate Monica – 2019-01-23T22:32:14.027

@TwistyImpersonator Added logs to the question – Andrzej Gis – 2019-01-23T22:46:21.297

1This really looks like a hardware related problem, cabling, the device itself, etc. However, to rule out software you could try clean booting Windows when the drive is misbehaving to see if that helps. – I say Reinstate Monica – 2019-01-23T22:51:35.313

Any new developments with this problem? I may be in a similar situation. – Philip – 2019-12-12T22:06:42.320

@Philip actually yes. See the answer. – Andrzej Gis – 2019-12-13T08:16:09.893

Less than ideal, but still a solution I suppose :) Your initial workaround did resolve my IO errors, probably temporarily. Thanks for the update. – Philip – 2019-12-13T20:25:02.357

The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error

Facts:

The only way to fix it is to:

Windows Events logs:

Answers