Can someone tell me what exactly a CRC error is?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I hate CRC errors. Why do they outright halt file copying? I'm trying to copy a video but I can't because there is a CRC error. I can play it just fine! What gives? Why can't windows just copy the dang thing, errors and all?

 

[xtknight]

When files are copied, some programs perform a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) of the files and compare the result. This determines whether or not the files are corrupt or not. If the code does not match, the file is corrupt (fatal error).

I didn't even know Windows checked CRC but can you tell us more about the context? Copying a video from one place on your drive to another, just using Windows explorer?

 

[postmortemIA]

yep CRC is checked when copying from CD.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Yup. That's it. I'm copying all the files from a 160GB HDD to a new 400GB drive. 100GB and half an hour later, Explorer says "Cannot copy 34353453.avi: data error (cyclic redundancy check)" and aborts the WHOLE COPY OPERATION. I can't just skip the file. I have to start all over. The same thing obviously happens in zip files too. Zip refuses to extract a file because it has a CRC error. Why can't you just extract it anyway? I don't frickin care if it has an error. Chances are in a 700MB video, one single error isn't going to be a big deal. Grrr....

 

[EagleKeeper]

You were advised to use XCopy from the DOS command prompt.

It will not abort a mulitple file copy when an error is detected.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
You were advised to use XCopy from the DOS command prompt.

It will not abort a mulitple file copy when an error is detected.

Yup, I'm actually using it now. Just wondering why in Explorer CRCs just abort everything.

 

[xtknight]

WinRAR has a feature that lets you preserve broken files. You're right, most of the time they do work in some way or another.

I don't know why it would happen just copying though. The last time my dad got these errors the IDE controller on his motherboard had gone south (well AFAIK, but we actually replaced the whole motherboard since he needed an upgrade anyway). Which isn't a HUGE deal as IDE controllers aren't very expensive, but let's hope it's not a hardware problem anyway.

Yes, Explorer's 'abort everything' is furiously frustrating.

 

[Aikouka]

It's quite possible that your hard drive (or like the other guy said) something else is going wrong. The only times I ever run into CRC errors when copying are when the source media (being it optical or a hard disk) is having issues. I know I had CRC errors and an interesting "Copy is not a valid MS DOS command" error when I was trying to copy files off a dying hard drive.

 

[skace]

Well, you are using xcopy, so you are learning a better way to copy files. There is also robocopy, which is a complete beast.

Note: CRC is usually a nice way to verify a file was copied correctly from 1 location to the next. But it also can have a different meaning especially when Windows uses it such in scenarios like this. In this type of scenario, it usually means that Windows is having difficulty reading from the drive. Even continuing past a file may not relieve the CRC errors, you will just continue to get garbage because it isn't the file that is bad, but the device.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
You were advised to use XCopy from the DOS command prompt.

It will not abort a mulitple file copy when an error is detected.

Yup, I'm actually using it now. Just wondering why in Explorer CRCs just abort everything.

Explorer was intended by MS to stop any copy when an error occurs.

That may be because there is no log file generated for the copy; if the errors were skipped, then the user may not know which file(s) failed the copy.