Once I format my external hard drive how would recover the lost files

scgirl22 · Oct 9, 2013

Hello. I have and external hard drive that when I plug it in and the message states:

" You need to format the disk in driver G: before using it."

However, I don't want to lose my files that is saved on here. It has a lot of important documents on it.
Please advise.

PeterPL · Oct 9, 2013

Hi
Best is - if the files are important take it to the local computer shop. The message you are getting usually means there is something wrong with the drive, or the power supplied is not strong enough, or drive has bad sectors so it has lost the partition. If the files are not so important to pay for it, you can try to run some tools like "test disk" or "recuva" and see what happens.

Under any circumstances do not run format - this will make it more difficult to recover your data

Peter

popatim · Oct 9, 2013

it sounds like your partition has corrupted for some reason.
Try partition recovery software such as:
http://findandmount.com/

I use testdisk but its command line driven and not everyones cup of tea.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

OmSh · Dec 15, 2014

popatim :

This is presumably too late for this OP but for this who might come across it in the future (like I did only to find the following info too late), I'd like to add two notes about Partition Find & Mount:

1) It only works with 32 bit systems (not with 64 bit), and
2) If at some point in time one decides to use the imaging feature of the software, the maximum speed of data transfer is limited to 512 KBytes/s...

Well, this means for every 10 GB....

10GB = 10,000 MB = 10,240,000 KB

10,240,000 Kb / 512 KBytes = 20,000 seconds = 333.33 minutes =

It will take approximately ~ 5.5 hours to transfer the data to another drive.

Which also means that a hard drive containing 100 GB of data will require ~ 55.5 hours. (I had ~ 130GB on my hard drive).

Obviously, if this is you absolute last alternative, then by all means, be thankful. Otherwise, you might have to upgrade to the "PRO" version or look for something else to use. (I don't know how much the upgrade cost is or how much faster it will perform).

That said, and as an alternative, I would recommend "Parted Magic"...

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Once I format my external hard drive how would recover the lost files

scgirl22

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popatim

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OmSh

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