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My External Drive Vault Has Failed (or Is About to Fail) — What Should I Do?

External hard drives are mechanical devices. They will fail eventually. The question isn’t if, but when.

For this reason, Mylio strongly recommends always having at least two Vault drives. A second Vault allows you to replace a failed or failing drive without losing access to your originals or disrupting your workflow.

If You Already Have More Than One Vault

If you already have a secondary Vault, this is the safest and simplest situation.

  1. Open Mylio Photos.
  2. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  3. Confirm that another Vault is fully synced and up to date.

Once you’ve confirmed your library is safely stored on another Vault, you can remove the failing drive.

Unregister the Failed or Failing Drive

  1. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  2. Select the failed or failing Vault.
  3. Choose Unregister.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

  • Unregistering a drive does not delete or erase anything on the drive.
  • It removes that drive from your Mylio Photos system.
  • This action cannot be undone.

After unregistering, disconnect the drive and stop using it.

Replace the Drive as Soon as Possible

Best practice is to replace a failed Vault as soon as possible so you always maintain at least two functioning Vaults.

Mylio Photos can help you determine the appropriate size for a replacement drive. (jump to instructions)

If You Do Not Have a Second Vault

If you only have one Vault and that drive has failed—or is showing signs of failure—do not unregister it yet.

Your priority is to preserve access to your originals while you still can.

If the drive is still readable

If the drive mounts and is accessible, even intermittently:

  1. Stop using it for normal work.
    Avoid browsing, exporting, or editing from this drive unless necessary.
  2. Purchase a new external drive as soon as possible.
  3. Reformat the new drive.
  4. Add the new drive as a new Vault using Dashboard > Devices > Add Vault.
  5. Allow Mylio Photos to sync your library to the new Vault.

Once the new Vault is fully synced and confirmed healthy, you can unregister the failing drive.

If the drive does not mount or is unreadable

If the drive no longer appears on your computer or cannot be accessed:

  • Do not unregister the drive yet.
  • Check whether your originals exist on any other device (another computer, NAS, or cloud-backed Vault).
  • If the failed drive was the only location holding your originals, professional data recovery may be required.

Check Your Library Size and Drive Recommendation

  1. Open Mylio Photos.
  2. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  3. Click Add Vault, then select Continue.

You’ll see:

  • The total size of your current library.
  • A recommended Vault size.

How the recommendation works

The recommended size:

  • Rounds your library size up to the next terabyte (TB).
  • Doubles that number.
  • Rounds up to the next commonly available drive size.

You don’t have to purchase a drive of this exact size.

However, the new drive must be larger than your current library. The recommendation is designed to give you room to grow and stay protected.

Choose a Replacement Drive

Before purchasing a new drive, review these resources:

  • Hard drive types and connection options:
    https://manual.mylio.com/24.3/en/topic/hard-drive-and-connection-types
  • Mylio-recommended Vault drives:
    https://mylio.com/vault-drives/

Prepare the New Drive

Before adding the replacement drive as a Vault, reformat it to ensure it’s clean and properly configured.

The instructions below include steps for both macOS and Windows:

https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-to-format-your-hard-drive-220151en/

Follow the steps for your operating system.

Recommended File Systems

When formatting your new drive, choose a file system that matches how you use Mylio Photos:

  • APFS – Recommended for macOS-only setups.
  • exFAT – Recommended if the drive will be used on both macOS and Windows.
  • NTFS – Recommended for Windows-only setups.

Using the correct file system helps ensure reliable syncing and long-term stability.

Add the New Drive as a Vault

  1. Connect the newly formatted drive to your computer.
  2. Launch Mylio Photos.
  3. Go to Dashboard > Devices.
  4. Click Add Vault and follow the on-screen instructions.

Syncing will start automatically.

Depending on your library size and the speed of the drive connection, this process may take time. This is normal—please allow the sync to complete.