Hello, I'm very sad to see that a lot of my mp3 files were corrupted with artifacts & sync errors, I'm sure they were perfectly ok before, (EAC rips) but after I defragmented the hard drive where I store them (250GB Western Digital caviar SE WD2500JB, with only mp3 files in a USB 2.0 rack) I noticed the errors, is it possible that defragmenting caused this or is it a Hardware issue?, I can only think that this was a combination of both factors because I have another 2 hard drives (same models with only mp3 files on them) and I defragmented them before without any problems, I'm running windows XP SP2, kaspersky Internet security 6 and I used to defragment "PerfectDisk 7", it took about 8 hrs to defragment that drive with 210GB used of the 232GB avalible, I let the computer do the defrag with minimun stress, no extra programs running, I have tested the drive using Western Digital "WinDiag" and it passed the tests OK, no bad sectors were encountered, also I did the disk error-checking on WinXP via the "my computer->properties->tools" and it didn't found any errors too, whenever I transfer files from another hard drive or my computer to that drive I use windows "SyncToy" to ensure everything is copied OK, actually this is a new hard drive and I transfered about 80GB from another hard drive and I'm sure the files were ok on that drive, to be honest I didn't checked the files before defragmenting but since 'SyncToy" didn't showed any errrors I assumed they were copied OK, I'm sad that I already deleted the files from the other hard drive and overwrited them with another files so I can't recover them, I transfered some of the bad files to another hard drive to check if it was something on that particular sectors but they play the same, when I play them on winamp (newest version) I just hear the artifacts (pops and clicks) and when I play them in foobar 2k besides hearing the same artifacts on the same position I get messages like this:
WARNING (foo_input_std) : mpeg stream error at 639474 bytes, attempting resync
INFO (foo_input_std) : mpeg stream resync successful
WARNING (foo_input_std) : mpeg stream error at 958599 bytes, attempting resync
INFO (foo_input_std) : mpeg stream resync successful
INFO (CORE) : Clipping detected.
I have also noticed that when playing some files of that hard drive if I click on the progression bar on winamp to fast forward the track the sounds gets stopped, sometimes stutters, the track time indicator goes away as if it were looking for the next position and the hard drive's case light which indicates activity goes off, I have to wait about 7 seconds to get it back to normal, I tested the same rack with another hard drive and no problems at all, What do you think caused this?, how could I fix the files (if possible) or prevent this from happening again?, How can I be sure if it's a hard drive malfunction so I can try to return it?, I'm very sad 'cause it's a LOT or work & time there, I always take a lot of care to tag everything including album art & info, etc., It's a LOT of music there and only to think of checking every single file frightens me 'cause it's almost impossible

Any comments would be appreciated...

Defragmentation does not produce errors. Otherwise after several defragmentation runs over the system disk your computer would not run anymore...
Are you sure those files have been intact before?

I have never had MP3 files damaged from defragging an HD. I run DiskKeeper in the background and it defrags several times a day. No problems yet. I would look elsewhere.

In my experience, some usb ports/bridge chipsets/cables can introduce intermittant errors.

-brendan

Yes, I remember a while ago there was a problem with a VIA chipset corrupting data, it was hdd related.

Yes, I'm pretty sure the files were perfectly OK, as for the chipset problem is strange that but possible although I've used the same USB rack & cables with other 2 hard drives (exactly same models) and I didn't had any problems, not even when I defragmented them, is there a way to fix the sync errors on the mp3's?, is there a diagnosis tool that you would recommend to spot the problem? because I used "PerfectDisk 7", the Western Digital's "WinDiag" & the Win XP check disk utility and I didn't found bad sectors...

Thanks for your responses

I've never had mp3's go corrupt on the hdd as others have stated. Just about any defrag program doesn't (or shouldn't) defrag files in place they copy them to an empty area of the hard disk to defragment them, and then place them in order contigously.

Probably a good ideal to run chkdsk (Check Disk, the disk error checker).

Thanks for the reply, I did the chkdsk as I said on my first post, no problems encountered, at least I didn't got any message saying of errors encountered, if 3 programs (chkdsk, PerfectDisk 7 & Western Digital "WinDiag") haven't found any bad sectors on the HD what might be the cause then?...

chkdsk in its default mode only checks the file structure. IIRC chkdsk /r forces it to actually check the sectors.

I don't know about WinDiag... you may even try SpinRite for all its worth...