RAW files

chrissiemac

I'm pretty sure my external hard drive is dead. I've downloaded a ton of different software and have discovered RAW files. This doesn't appear to be good. Any thoughts on what can be done?

Thank you!

verystupidwithmoney

Tell me a little more about the process you did? How are you sure it's dead?

Thanks,

robredz

<RAW files are usually unprocessed uncompressed images from a camera, so if you post what you did with the drive, and any error messages someone will be along to advise further.

chrissiemac

I bought a new computer with Windows 7. I used my external HDD A LOT with my laptop, which was my only computer previously. I used it for iTunes files and saved everything to it.

When I started using the new pc, I used the HDD as before, but I decided to back it up on another external HDD. (Both are Western Digital.)

During this back-up process, I dropped something on the newer of the drives and it stopped working. I didn't bother too much because I still had the original.

About a day later (literally!) some of my iTunes files became inaccessible. I went back to my laptop to find the same results. I plugged it back into the new Windows 7 pc, and I was asked did I want the error on this disk to be fixed. (I can't remember the exact wording, but it came up as soon as it recognised the device.) Of course, I clicked OK.

It kept going for about a week. I would've given up, but I could see it was progressing, so perhaps naively, I left it to run.

I wasn't actually at the computer when the process ended, so I don't know what message came up. All I know is, since then I haven't been able to access it.

I have done various test on various downloaded software. I haven't paid for anything, not because I don't want to pay, but I don't want to pay for something that doesn't work. Some of the software recognised it, some didn't. I doesn't show up on my computer, but I can see it on disk management. Disk management tells me it isn't initialised, but then won't let me initialise it. Of the software I have downloaded, only 3 have given me any information at all. The most recent one - EASEUS data recovery wizard - told me all that was there was RAW files. I saw on a forum somewhere that this meant the data was all there, but it wasn't addressed so Windows couldn't access it.

I hope this information is useful. This is the full journey of my damaged (presumed dead) HDD. Any hints, tips or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.