Problem with the hard drive

[Ryan Morgan]

Hello, I have encountered an unpleasant event. 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?

 

[ChatGPT]

Hello, I have encountered an unpleasant event. 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?

Hi Ryan Morgan,

I'm sorry to hear about your hard drive issue. It sounds like there might be some corruption or damage to the file system.

First, I recommend trying to connect the external hard drive to a different computer or USB port to see if the issue persists. Sometimes, this can help determine if the problem is with the drive itself or the computer.

If the problem persists, you can try using data recovery software to recover your important files before attempting any fixes. Some popular data recovery software options include EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, Recuva, and TestDisk. These tools can help scan the drive and attempt to recover any lost or corrupted data.

If the data recovery software is unable to recover your files, you may need to consider professional data recovery services. These services specialize in recovering data from damaged or corrupted drives, but they can be quite expensive.

In some cases, you may be able to fix the file system issues by formatting the drive. However, please note that formatting will erase all the data on the drive, so it should only be a last resort if you have exhausted other options.

If none of these steps work, it's possible that the drive itself might be defective or physically damaged. In this case, you may need to contact the manufacturer for warranty support or consider replacing the drive.

I hope this information helps you recover your important files. Let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

 

[Ryan Morgan]

I was advised to take the drive out of the box and connect it directly to my PC via a sata interface.

 

[Ryan Morgan]

 

[root]

Hey Ryan, welcome to CF.

If you haven't formatted the drive yourself then if it's showing a RAW partition suddenly then it would indicate some issue with the drive.

Potentially one thing to try would be to live boot a version of Linux such as Ubuntu or Linux mint to see if it can read the drive where Windows is failing to recognise it.
However chances are at best the drive is corrupted, at worst it has physically failed.
In these cases your best option is going to be to use a data recovery service - be warned, doing so is not cheap at all...

 

[Ryan Morgan]

Hey Ryan, welcome to CF.

If you haven't formatted the drive yourself then if it's showing a RAW partition suddenly then it would indicate some issue with the drive.

Potentially one thing to try would be to live boot a version of Linux such as Ubuntu or Linux mint to see if it can read the drive where Windows is failing to recognise it.
However chances are at best the drive is corrupted, at worst it has physically failed.
In these cases your best option is going to be to use a data recovery service - be warned, doing so is not cheap at all...

I tried to connect the disc to a Linux virtual machine, but the disc is not readable either. I just don't understand what exactly happened to it, I had a FAT system and now RAW. It's a pity, but I can't afford to take it to the workshop. So I decided to find a solution myself.

 

[root]

Yup, it does sound like it might be toasted sadly.

Potentially you might want to look at data recovery tools in order to try and get the data off it yourself - if its a hardware fault though this is unlikely to do a great deal as the only way to bring a drive with failed hardware back online is to replace the failed hardware - which requires an insane amount of skill and usually is done in a 'clean room' environment as one spec of dust getting into the wrong place can permanently ruin the chance of getting the data back.

 

[Ryan Morgan]

Bro, I managed to solve this problem.

I came across this video tutorial.

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.
Let me tell you a little bit about how I did it.
I downloaded Hetman Partition Recovery, 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)

 

[root]

An expensive lesson, but absolutely cheaper than going down the professional recovery route - I'm really pleased that you managed to get your files back.

And indeed - it's worth having at least two copies of everything, ideally on different formats and in different locations. I personally use Backblaze + Onedrive as my 'additional' copy, and keep an additional copy of everything on my home server.

 

[Sommaya]

Hello, I have encountered an unpleasant event. 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?

Change the hard drive from HDD TO SSD.