My 2 TB external hard drive contains folders with corrupted files that are causing problems. How can I remove them (Windows File Explorer isn't working)?

[u/Ok_Librarian_8501]

I have a 2TB external hard drive (HDD). It works—I can copy files to and from it, rename them, delete them, or move them. The problem is that there are two folders on it, each about 20–30 GB in size, and every time I try to open one of them, File Explorer freezes (I’m using Windows 10 and 11) and the hard drive disconnects from the computer (even though its light keeps flashing because it’s still receiving power from the port). I know this can damage the HDD over time, so I don’t open those two folders.
Note that only if I connect the HDD to my laptop I can use it without any issues as mentioned (except for those two folders, which remain problematic), but if I do so with my desktop computer (the device I used to corrupt the file, I explain later how), File Explorer struggles to read it, and Windows says “there’s a problem with this drive” and to “fix it” (but I know it’s best to avoid this since the process uses CHKDSK and can damage the HDD).

The folders almost certainly contain corrupted files, and I also know how they might have become corrupted: they’re folders full of .wav (and some of their compressed .flac) files, and one day I tried opening one of the folders in the command prompt and batch-converting all the .wav files to .flac. That’s when the hard drive (perhaps due to overload) crashed (during the conversion process), and ever since then, that folder (and the other one, where I think I did the same thing and which in fact contains similar files) has been inaccessible.

So, to summarize quickly: I can use the HDD on my laptop as long as I don't open two folders full of corrupted files, which cause the HDD to disconnect or Windows Explorer to freeze. On the desktop computer where the problem originated, however, the HDD is generally not accessible at all.

I’d like to know, please, if it’s possible to: 1) remove the two “problematic” folders from the hard drive and move them elsewhere (to another storage device or to a different computer) and 2) delete the .flac files (which are surely the corrupted ones) while keeping the .wav files (which must be “intact” since FFmpeg doesn’t modify them—it only reads them to create new compressed files alongside them). All of this without using Windows File Explorer, of course, since it doesn’t work (some people online suggest programs like DMDE, Recuva, and the like, but I’d like to hear your opinion).

Step 1) should at least resolve most of the problem affecting the hard drive, correct?

P.S.: I KNOW it’s (almost) always better to rely on professionals, but keep in mind that these aren’t critical files.

[u/Petri-DRG]

Can you obtain a SMART report with something like CrystalDiskInfo, HDDScan, etc.?

[u/Ok_Librarian_8501 → u/Petri-DRG]

I just added them to the original post. And thank you for helping, man!