Do you know how to access my files without formatting?

Alexander2597

Hi, there! Please help me out!
A few minutes ago, I tried to open my external hard drive as usual. But, it became really strange. Every time I attempted to open it in My Computer, a message would be given and say: “The drive is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?” But, I needed to use some of the inner saved files that I had accomplished yesterday. Do, the directly formatting cannot be practical for me. So, do you have any better way for me? Do you know how to access these files without formatting?
Thank you in advance!

John_Gray

The messages are telling you that the structure of the directory on the hard disk is probably corrupt. If you can't mount the drive, then your files are gone - unless you pay £gasp to a data recovery firm, who may be able to get some of them back. I do hope you have another copy of your files somewhere.

Have you another PC or laptop on which you can try the external hard disk?

Laz123

I forgot to save my photos when I reverted back to factory settings in Vista. I am at this moment using Recuva, free, to recover them.

S0litaire

!!!!DO NOT FORMAT OR USE THE DRIVE!!!!

ok Now that I've got your attention the data on the drive is still there!
It's just the "index" to find files that's fragged!

It can be fixed but it can be a bit technical!

First down load a "Data Recovery Program"

I'd suggest "GetDataBack" (it's not free but you can get a trial that will show you if things can be recovered)

Others will suggest Recuva it's free and probably you#ll get more help form people here.. ^_^

Their are other programs you can use but are very intimidating to new users!!

EchoLocation

I had a similar issue recently, albeit without the format message, whereby the directory tree had become corrupted.

First thing I did was use Macrium Reflect free to create an image of the drive - on my other hard drive - just in case my attempts to fix the problem made it worse... which they did. I tried to run some data recovery software and it rendered the drive completely unusable and nothing I did would get it to show up in Windows.

Thankfully, mounting the drive image with Macrium and then using Recuva to scan it for non-deleted files (in the advanced options list) worked perfectly and I was able to recover everything I needed.

cookie365

If you're lucky it might just be the USB controller that's borked; the actual disk might be OK.

Is it possible to remove the drive from the enclosure?

Backbiter

I've had this message. Obviously, I didn't format the drive as I didn't want to erase the files. My first thought was to plug it into a different machine, which didn't work, but changing the USB lead did the trick, and everything was accessible and there has been no recurrence of the message.

NotSureWhatDayItIs

cookie365 wrote: »

If you're lucky it might just be the USB controller that's borked; the actual disk might be OK.

Is it possible to remove the drive from the enclosure?

I second that. I had a drive that outlived three enclosures.They seemed to fail just after a year old but all i did was buy a new enclosure and pop the drive in it. I think I paid about £10 at a local shop.

Amos00py

Don’t panic! In my personal experiences, as long as you take the right steps, you do have chances to get back all your videos, images, songs and documents.

1. Do NOT click "yes" to format the hard drive in case that the formatting process makes things worse.

2. Do NOT attempt to write anything new on this hard drive in case of any data loss.

3. Download an unformatted hard drive data recovery program to help you. In fact, there are many data recovery tools out there. But, no all of them could be efficient and useful enough. You should pay much attention to opt for a proper one.

So, if you still cannot make a decision, you can firstly take chances with some data recovery freeware available online that always work much more efficiently than some paid ones, such as Recuva, 4Card Recovery and iCare Data Recovery Free, etc.

4. Save and back up all your restored data on a different hard drive in case of data recovery failure.

5. After the data recovery process, simply format this drive to see whether it can work functionally as before.

But, if all the mentioned data recovery programs also cannot make a difference, you’d better ask an expert for help, if the inner data is very, very, very important.

In the future, you should learn a lesson to be more careful about your data and always back it up well.

Alexander2597

Amos00py wrote: »

Don’t panic! In my personal experiences, as long as you take the right steps, you do have chances to get back all your videos, images, songs and documents.

1. Do NOT click "yes" to format the hard drive in case that the formatting process makes things worse.

2. Do NOT attempt to write anything new on this hard drive in case of any data loss.

3. Download an unformatted hard drive data recovery program to help you. In fact, there are many data recovery tools out there. But, no all of them could be efficient and useful enough. You should pay much attention to opt for a proper one.

So, if you still cannot make a decision, you can firstly take chances with some data recovery freeware available online that always work much more efficiently than some paid ones, such as Recuva, 4Card Recovery and iCare Data Recovery Free, etc.

4. Save and back up all your restored data on a different hard drive in case of data recovery failure.

5. After the data recovery process, simply format this drive to see whether it can work functionally as before.

But, if all the mentioned data recovery programs also cannot make a difference, you’d better ask an expert for help, if the inner data is very, very, very important.

In the future, you should learn a lesson to be more careful about your data and always back it up well.

Thanks for your nice help! I have restored all my wanted data off from this hard drive.
In fact, I thought I have to format this drive and lose all my files there afterwards. But, fortunately I come across this forum and post my question here. The mentioned data recovery freeware are pretty easy to use. The most important thing is that they finally restored my saved files back.
Thanks a million!