Vista File Corruption

I might ramble a bit describing this problem so apologies in advance but this is a weird one...

I've had this PC for about 18-months and until about 6 months ago had no major issues. It is running Vista Home Premium 32-bit.

I have about 300GB of data files and do regular backups (mostly depending on how many pictures I've taken since the last backup) rotating through my USB hard drives and also backup photos (the most critical of my data) to DVD with Nero. About 6 months ago I noticed a handful of verify errors when I ran my USB drive backup (all previous backups had run clean) - double checked the setup for the backup software (Roxio) and realized a few system files had gotten included in the list so removed those. However, the next backup had even more verify errors so this was getting concerning.

Then last month I copied about 10GB of new vacation photos using my USB CF card reader to the HD. Did a DVD copy of these (sorry, I don't remember if the verify was successful). As I reviewed the photos on the DVD I found numerous corrupt images (both .JPG and .CR2 files). Went back and checked the HD - still some corrupt files though not as many. Then I went and checked the CF cards - when I looked on this PC some appeared corrupt BUT when I looked on another PC the files on the CF cards were all okay.

Back on my PC I copied the CF cards again - again corrupt copies on the HD, similar to first time but some different. Then I checked an older folder of photos and copied the whole folder to a new folder - the copy was corrupted but not the original.

I ran a full virus scan (I've got Comodo on the machine since the original Symantec that HP included expired) - none found. Fearing a harddrive failure or memory problem I ran a bunch of disk test suites, memory test suites, etc. - none of them found any problems.

Out of curiosity I booted a Linux CD and mounted the HD - lo and behold with Linux I can copy files within the HD and to and from a USB hard drive and USB CF reader with no corruption at all. So now I've used Linux to do a clean backup of all my data from the HD (phew!)

I've seen a number of posts here on network and Vista/XP cross corruption but that isn't the issue I am seeing. I have no idea what is going on with Vista, why it started randomly corrupting files or how to figure it out or resolve it. Anyone else see this? Any ideas on how to proceed?

Thanks,
Peter

One thing I have to ask which may sound too dumb to you,if so apologies! Do you use the "safely remove Hardware" before you disconnect any USB storage items? If not..you will get corruption of files, Vista is supposed to now be plug-&-play with these things now,however it can still corrupt things if not removed via 'safe remove'. XP is a different story...you absolutely do not have a choice,if you do not use "safe remove" you definitely will corrupt your files. There are some pitfalls too with transferring very large files..these are not specific and seem almost random.. occasionally I find I have to transfer less than 4 GB to some External drives at a time to avoid corruption. This does appears to only be specific to some types of Flash drives. I use several of these ranging from 2Gb to 16 Gb..and on one or two I can only safely transfer at amounts less than 4 Gb at a time until all files are done. I believe most of the new drives do not have this issue as long as they are genuine. Another thing to look for is any conflicts,malware etc.

Thanks for the ideas, much appreciated.

Yes, I always do the safe remove regardless of OS (including Linux) and am especially vigilant with my photos and backups. As an aside XP can be setup to disable write cache for removable media which is the biggest exposure for file corruption with unsafe removes though whether this is 100% effective I don't know.

But I don't think this is the issue I've run into - for one the corruption happened copying from the CF cards to the internal HD which was long completed by the time I removed the CF card and also copying within the internal HD plus it wouldn't explain the progression from no problems a few months ago to now.

The biggest flash card I have is 4GB but it typically has a few hundred files not one large one. Though issues with huge files like that could be related to the changes in NTFS driver that MS made with Vista and then revamped again with Vista SP1. Which I suppose is something I should do - get SP1 and SP2 but again, this machine ran clean for a year so doesn't seem likely.

The other thing I noted is that I was able to copy (from flash card) the latest Comodo download onto my HD and install it successfully - now that was a one off copy, maybe it just didn't happen to get corrupted that time but the only files that I have specifically seen get corrupted so far are mp3, jpg and cr2 (Canon raw) files. Which would suggest virus or malware or acquired Windows bug...

Now that I have a hopefully clean backup my next step will be to replace Comodo (which didn't find any real malware) with maybe AVG and scan again. And then maybe try installing SP1 and SP2 - even if I can't find malware that might clean it up. And if that doesn't work I guess it's a complete rebuild hope my HP system restore disks are still good.

Any other thoughts or suggestions most welcome, I really would like to find a definitive answer and solution otherwise I'll never be able to fully trust this system and I'd love to avoid rebuilding - it isn't so much the OS as all the app's to reinstall.

Thanks again,
Peter