Program Hangs When "save As" Is Used

I hope I have provided enough data from my system .......

Windows 10 Home
Dell desktop PC
AMD Athlon X4 630
6Gb RAM

Offending HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 160Gb

The Seagate drive is in an external USB caddy and I use it for storage of photos. It has always worked perfectly well but yesterday it threw up the following problem. If I load an image into my default graphics program (Paint Shop Pro v7) to edit and then try to do a "Save As" to the Seagate drive, the program hangs and I have to close it using Task Manager. The same happens if I want to save a new image to the drive using "Save As".
If I save the image to another drive, or to my Desktop, it saves fine with no problems. Also I don't have the problem if I load an image that is already on the drive and simply use the "Save" option after editing - the program only hangs when "Save As" is used.
As an experiment I loaded up some images in other programs (Micrografx Picture Publisher 10 and Photoshop Elements 9) and the same "not responding error" occurs when I use "Save As" and I have to close those programs via Task Manager.
I have tried the Analyse and De-frag utilities on the drive but nothing was required there.
It all seems to point to some anomaly with the Seagate drive but I'm baffled as to why "Save" works fine but "Save As" causes the problem.

I was considering copying everything off the drive to another location temporarily and re-formatting the drive but thought I would post the problem here first.

 

Well, you should do this anyway as a "backup" measure for any file(s) you don't want lost.

All "Save as" does is tell Windows where to save the file. To the drive, it is just trying to "Save" what amounts to a "new" file.

What Analyze tool did you use? If me, I would open a command prompt as administer. Then enter chkdsk x: /r (change the x to the drive's drive letter) and press enter - note the space before the slash. Depending on the size of the drive, this process could take many hours and appear to be hung up. Just let it run - it will eventually complete.

I would run Windows disk cleanup tool (from the drive's Properties window or use CCleaner on the drive if you already have that utility already installed.

How much free disk space is on the drive?

 

Thanks for the reply Digerati. I have tried all the suggestions you have made - CHKDSK didn't seem to find anything amiss (see attached) but the problem still persists. I am now in the process of making a backup copy and will try reformatting the drive to see if that helps. It is baffling why 'Save As' causes this problem.

 

I just used x: as an arbitrary drive letter.

Your report does say, "CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the master file table (MFT) bitmap". But it also says it was corrected.

Not sure what to suggest. Was this a Seagate external drive, or a regular drive you put in a caddy? If regular drive, I might try to install it as a secondary drive inside a computer via the standard SATA interface instead of the USB one to see what happens.

 

Yes thanks I appreciate you just used X: as an example but ironically that is what I have assigned to that drive anyway. It is an internal Seagate drive installed in a caddy - I have attached a photo - and unfortunately I don't have a spare bay in the PC to try it out there. If the re-format doesn't work I may just buy a new drive as they are cheap enough these days.

 

My thoughts. Agree on a back up. Or corruped files on the program. Or bad hard-drive missing sectors. My 1st thought. When I create a file and want to save it. It gives me choices. Drop down arrow. Save As? Or dosen't give you a choice? And hangs?

Looking at research I found this. Might help or not on Bill Schnakenburgs response.

-> https://www.velocityreviews.com/threads/paintshop-pro-save-as-settings.189201/

 

For just a temporary test, you don't need a bay - you only need a data cable connection and a power connection. The drive itself can temporarily sit on a cardboard box or something, basically hanging out of the side of your open case. As long as none of the electrical contacts of the logic board touch anything, no problem.

BTW, those are typically called docking stations. A caddy is normally something you mount a drive in that then allows you to slide the drive and caddy into a bay or something similar.