External hard drive issue

whitelightrider

Folks,

I have an external hard drive that I have movies and photos on. But today when I plug the hard drive in, it keeps asking me to format it.

I dont want to lose any of my photos. Is there a way to recover the drive or have I lost everything?

Skerries

try making a Ubuntu disk and see if it works in the trial version

riclad

Plug it in to another pc or laptop ,
i had the same problem,
i quick formatted the drive ,
from windows 7 pc.
then used recuva to recover 90 per cent of the data .
recuva will show you 1000,s of files ,includes all files deleted not overwritten.

it,,ll recover files not written over .
if you have save 30-40 video files 700meg then set recuva to recover to a pc hardrive folder .
do not carry do a FULL format,
format drive tick the box ntfs QUICK format.

• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system (Quick format
• Format the partition by using the NTFS file system
• Format the partition by fat file system

RECUVA is easy to use to scan a drive say 150gig takes 5-6 hours ,
then you can type mp3,or avi file find certain file type,s
or show all files ,
green dot =file is easily recovered

use scan drive deep SCAN

it may list file eg avi 1,3 , 5,7 ,
mp3 1, 3, 5, 7,8
avi 1 700meg, avi no44 , no 56 ,no 57,no 58 avi 58.avi size 1000meg ,avi 4 size 300meg etc
avi 3, 4 , 700meg mp4 file 2, 3, 4, file size 400meg, 700meg etc,

jpeg 1,2 ,3 ,4 , file size .

you,ll get a list file type ,avi, mp4, jpeg, doc with all the file size,s listed .

after you recover the files you can rename them or just click open avi file 1.avi file will still open as normal .


http://www.piriform.com/recuva


Click on download free version recuva ,
its easy to use ,you dont have to be a tech ,
click scan drive e or f external drive .
the problem is if you dont format the drive in quick mode ,
windows may not be able to see any data on the drive.


plug drive into another pc or laptop first .
or download an iso free mint 7 ,make a live cd , iso file is 650meg .
boot from cd .
See if external drive files folders can be seen,
external drive is sda 2,or sda 3 in file manager linux mint.

whizbang

Format is the very very last option. Don't panic yet.
Quite often i have seen this happen totally random, no good reason, and will work perfectly 5 minutes later.
but generally its a sign from above...!

Try it in other pc's first. Warm it up, try again. Cool it down,(fridge) try again.
Try plugging it in out many times within 5seconds.

If you get it working, get all your data off it asap. It is failing. It will die.

(sorry for being blunt!)

And learn that portable hard disks are not for storing valuable data.

riclad

Try the freeze trick , first,
bag must be sealed, air tight.
http://www.thetechmentor.com/posts/put-your-hard-drive-in-the-freezer-to-recover-data/

Skerries

the freezer trick is not the option here as the user does not mention any hardware problems and it most likely just corrupted so do not do the freezer trick

riclad

IF you do a Quick format ,it marks the drive as empty ,your files are still there ,
it allows windows to acess the data files .
and recover them using recuva .
as opposed to a full format .
if you are doing it do a quick format in ntfs ,
unless you believe the drive is formatted in fat32 or linux format .
the default mode for formatting external drives for 10 years is ntfs

http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/quick-format-recovery.htm
Since quick format remove the "entries" to data only, it,s possible to recover data after quick format unless the data area is overwritten by NEW data. With all-in-one FREEWARE - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition, you can do the recovery job well. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free Edition's "Complete Recovery" module is designed for the Quick format recovery, the easiest way to recover data after quick format.

use recuva to get the data files back.
basically quick format marks the drive as empty but does not overwrite the files,
Do the format ,
don,t copy any new files to the external drive until you get back your old files .