Thread: Stop Windows Explorer crashes

Hi.

I have an external hard drive which I connect to my laptop via the USB port. It uses the NTFS file system. It was working perfectly fine for the last two years, but when I connected it to the laptop a few days back, Windows Explorer crashed displaying a blue screen. I restarted the laptop and the same thing happened when I tried using it again. Now every time I connect the drive, the same thing happens. Also after this incident a file has been created on the drive named 'diskfikel', which is 1 KB in size. No further information about this file is available. How can I stop Windows Explorer from crashing and what is this file? Thanks.

Hello.

I would suggest that you first test the external drive on another computer to confirm if there is a problem with the USB port of your laptop or if there is a defect with the hard drive itself, If the problem continues on the other computer, get the hard drive's casing inspected, Also, try using another USB hard drive or pen drive on your laptop to check if Windows crashes again, If Windows crashes with any other USB storage medium, the problem may exist in the laptop's USB port, motherboard or the operating system itself, Check for any virus on your computer. If none of the steps above help you identify the exact problem, try reformatting the laptop, reload Windows, and check the USB drive again, If you want to avoid reformatting, you can try booting from any live Linux distribution such as Knoppix or Ubuntu, and check whether you can use your drive through them, This procedure will help you pinpoint whether the problem is in your operating system or the laptop's hardware itself.