Andrew Antalik Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 My external hard drive has stopped working. The disc is no longer readable . When I connect the disc to my computer, the system asks me to format it. There are very important files on the disc. Does anyone know how to help me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 22 Moderator Share Posted January 22 Try using Acronic True Imagine. See if you can get your stuff back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Som Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 DiskGenius might help you recover the partition, can run the free one just to scan https://www.diskgenius.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 22 Moderator Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 08:31, Som said: DiskGenius might help you recover the partition, can run the free one just to scan https://www.diskgenius.com/ Or that, yeah.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellowalkman Reporter Posted January 22 Reporter Share Posted January 22 Some helpful answers in this thread as well: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose_49 Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 Several years ago I had a similar issue. While this won't be a silver bullet, give this a shot. It's free and Open Source https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk goretsky 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted January 22 MVC Share Posted January 22 It may also be a problem with the SATA to USB adapter. Jose_49 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 22 Moderator Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 10:00, Warwagon said: It may also be a problem with the SATA to USB adapter. He says he hooked it onto his computer, too.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted January 22 MVC Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 12:32, Mindovermaster said: He says he hooked it onto his computer, too.. He never said too, he said "My external hard drive has stopped working. The disc is no longer readable. When I connect the disc to my computer, the system asks me to format it. " he never implied he removed the drive from the enclosure and hooked it up directly over sata. No longer readable and asks me to format it, might be the same thing to him. +Matthew S. 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 22 Moderator Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 12:34, Warwagon said: He never said too he said "My external hard drive has stopped working. The disc is no longer readable. When I connect the disc to my computer, the system asks me to format it. " he never implied he removed the drive from the enclosure and hooked it up directly over sata. Guess I read that differently. As he says it wasn't working, but when he hooked it to his computer, it showed up. Very odd.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted January 22 MVC Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 12:37, Mindovermaster said: Guess I read that differently. As he says it wasn't working, but when he hooked it to his computer, it showed up. Very odd.. Yep, you added a "But" 😁 hellowalkman 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mindovermaster Moderator Posted January 22 Moderator Share Posted January 22 On 22/01/2024 at 12:38, Warwagon said: Yep, you added a "But" 😁 Andrew Antalik and hellowalkman 1 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Antalik Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 On 22/01/2024 at 20:34, Warwagon said: He never said too, he said "My external hard drive has stopped working. The disc is no longer readable. When I connect the disc to my computer, the system asks me to format it. " he never implied he removed the drive from the enclosure and hooked it up directly over sata. No longer readable and asks me to format it, might be the same thing to him. I took the drive out of the box and connected it directly via the SATA interface. Now I have the following picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven P. Administrators Posted January 23 Administrators Share Posted January 23 Well it looks like the data is gone, you will have to try some of the disk recovery options listed in the posts above to see if you can retrieve your important files. If you can't access them with a program, there are companies that specialize in data retrieval as well, if you need the files that badly. Also, I'll say it.. next time please make a plan to have multiple backups of what you deem too important to lose. I back up to my local NAS, my NAS backs up to Google Drive and OneDrive. Mindovermaster, hellowalkman and Andrew Antalik 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted January 23 MVC Share Posted January 23 On 23/01/2024 at 03:33, Andrew Antalik said: I took the drive out of the box and connected it directly via the SATA interface. Now I have the following picture. Great! You took it out of the enclosure. The Good news is it's only 320 GB. I love working with small drives because all the scans go faster. If I could guess, I'd say that the hard drive probably has some current pending sectors on it. They are probably at the front of the drive and Windows is just giving up, thus not being able to mount the partition. You can check the drives S.M.A.R.T data by running this program on your computer https://sourceforge.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/files/9.2.2/CrystalDiskInfo9_2_2.exe/download If the Crystal disk shows warnings on the current pending sectors and sector relocation count, then I have a tip for you. One thing I've found over the years with a troubled drive is that while Windows just gives up, and so does a Windows PE, and just shows a drive as raw. True Image 2016 / 2013 when booting from a flash drive on the other hand does not. If you boot off a True Image from a flash drive (If you can find the ISO you can create a Ventro USB flash drive and just put the ISO on that https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html ) and go to the backup files and folders section, more often than not you will see a directory listing were in windows it would just show up as raw. If the drive is troubled it may take a few minutes for True Image to even boot to the GUI. Just give it time. It will also freeze when clicking on backup files and folders. Just be patient. If you get a directory listing simply put checkmarks next to the files and folders you want and backup those files up to a TIB file. Once done just restore the TIB to a spare drive. Andrew Antalik, Dick Montage and goretsky 3 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Antalik Posted January 26 Author Share Posted January 26 (edited) I did manage to solve this problem. First, I managed to make a copy of the damaged drive using Clonezilla. I came across a video tutorial and bought a tool. True, it cost me $97.95, but that's nothing compared to taking the disc to a technician. I risked losing my files forever. But I can't afford to pay a lot of money. The program displayed my RAW drive, which used to be FAT, and started a full scan. It found most of my files and successfully recovered them. Yes, it couldn't recover all the files, but I was lucky: I recovered the most important ones . And yes, make copies of important files (discs) for the future. Also, thanks to everyone who tried to help me) Edited January 27 by Jim K Suspected spam tactic. Removed product link/video. Jose_49 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim K Global Moderator Posted January 27 Global Moderator Share Posted January 27 On 26/01/2024 at 02:58, Andrew Antalik said: I did manage to solve this problem. First, I managed to make a copy of the damaged drive using Clonezilla. I came across a video tutorial and bought a tool. True, it cost me $97.95, but that's nothing compared to taking the disc to a technician. I risked losing my files forever. But I can't afford to pay a lot of money. The program displayed my RAW drive, which used to be FAT, and started a full scan. It found most of my files and successfully recovered them. Yes, it couldn't recover all the files, but I was lucky: I recovered the most important ones . And yes, make copies of important files (discs) for the future. Also, thanks to everyone who tried to help me) Glad everything worked out. After a community member brought this thread to our attention, I saw this question and solution on various other community forums. I edited your last post and removed links to the products YouTube video and the products website. You're right, $97.95 is fairly expensive...but much cheaper than sending it to a data retrieval company. Could have perhaps saved $97.95 using a free and open source program like TestDisk (that @Jose_49 suggested) on the cloned drive to see if it could have retrieved your files. ...but hey, you got your files back. 😉 Dick Montage and Steven P. 2 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now