Track database emptied immediately after loading

I’m setting up Volumio for the first time
I plugged in a USB HD with my library on it.
When the program loads the tracks into the database, it goes for several thousand, then zeroes out the database (resets track count to 0)

Looking in the log, I see it failing to read after a few thousand tracks, and all reads fail after that

Feb 07 18:18 : update: added USB/Tunes/Sister Hazel/Lift/03 Firefly.mp3
Feb 07 18:18 : exception: Failed to read from /var/lib/mpd/music/USB/Tunes/Sister Hazel/Lift/04 World Inside My Head.mp3: Input/output error
Feb 07 18:18 : exception: Failed to read from /var/lib/mpd/music/USB/Tunes/Sister Hazel/Lift/04 World Inside My Head.mp3: Input/output error
Feb 07 18:18 : mpg123: mpg123_getformat() failed: Message: I am done with this track.

Ok, maybe a bad disk. But then in the log I see it removing all the tracks that were loaded:

Feb 07 18:19 : client: [3] opened from local
Feb 07 18:19 : client: [3] closed
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/07 Focus.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/06 Russian Roulette.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/05 Dying Youth.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/04 11_00 Am (Daydreamer).mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/03 Beautiful.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/02 Just Can’t Win.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10 Years/Division [Us Import]/01 Actions & Motives.mp3
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10,000 Maniacs/Our Time In Eden/08 How You’ve Grown.m4a
Feb 07 18:19 : update: removing USB/Tunes/10,000 Maniacs/Our Time In Eden/07 Jezebel.m4a

Question: Is this normal behavior? If a read fails, empty out the DB?