Please help - external harddrive - format issue

S0litaire

OK since no one is giving out any useful ways to help (except spell checking!) apart from one users here goes:

The data is STILL THERE!! so DON'T FORMAT IT.

The Machines is reading it as "RAW" because the partition information was damaged when it was removed from the PC. (it might have still been copying data over when unplugged, that can cause the Windows partition information to go byebye!)

OK you'll need a recovery program. Here is a review of the best Free recovery programs around:

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/best-free-recovery-software-1141256

Most people here use either "Recuva Free" or "MiniTool". I don't use them a lot but I've used mini tool in the past and I think it's the easiest to use for a novice.

Install your chosen program and let it scan the USB drive. It should find backup copies of the partition information and ask if you want to restore it. If possible check to make sure all the files look correct before applying any fix.

If it can't find any good partition information then it should be able to recover individual files from the USB drive and let you copy them onto your PC (If you have to go with this option then make sure you have enough room before you start for all the important files!).

It might take a while if it has to do a deep scan but it's worth the wait to recover things! ^_^

teajug

Phyzelda wrote: »

I'm sorry - I'm a simpleton when it comes to PCs - I can use them for what I need and that's my maximum knowledge - so apologies if I seem thick.

I've tried it on a different PC and it's still coming up staying it needs to be formatted.

Ita a Verbatim 320GB portable harddrive. All I did was cut videos from my laptop memory and pasted them in a video file on the portable harddrive. If anyone has the time to talk me through (or PM me) what I can do to try and save my information I really would be greatful

I got the same external hard drive and it does exactly the same. I was told once when I bring it up to right click on properties onthe hard drive and reassign a new number for it and that did work for a while.

I have now got windows 8.1 and it is not working again. I note that it is even saying it is a different make of hard drive? Fed up with now but would like to get my data that is on it.

Phyzelda

teajug wrote: »

I got the same external hard drive and it does exactly the same. I was told once when I bring it up to right click on properties onthe hard drive and reassign a new number for it and that did work for a while.

How do I do that teajug?

iSaving

Has the external drive been anywhere near a Mac recently?

Phyzelda

iSaving - no it hasn't. my laptop is vista I believe - But I've tried it in my windows 7 PC too and still get the same message

yangptangkipperbang

Gyro wrote: »

It is one of the most obvious and common spelling mistakes you see on forums, or even in web articles, and it's a continual minor irritation to me,

You obviously need a bit of advise on this subject, I am an expert pedant who can advice you if needed :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

garynuman

Hmm..

Depending on when you cut and pasted the files - you may have more luck recovering the files from the laptop using data recovery software. But you should avoid installing software (inc data recovery s/w) or even using the laptop until then. Any subsequent use of the laptop will be writing to the pagefile and generating temporary files which *may* overwrite the space taken by these deleted files - when this happens, you can kiss your files goodbye.

Most good recovery software will let you take an image of your laptop (and USB drive) and let you work on the image as opposed to the actual hardware.

If you're not confident with running off a live CD or lack expertise of data recovery, I suggest you contact someone who does. It's an expensive business though and you could pay £000's for an analysis and get ZERO back.

If nothing else comes of this, I bet you won't put all your eggs in one basket next time! :-(

Sorry!

Gaz