Can't see files on external USB Hard Drive

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ModernCow

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Apr 14, 2015
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My files disappeared from my Seagate Barracuda 3TB GoFlex External Hard Drive, as they had done many times before. I typically reboot and the problem is resolved. This time it wasn't. Long story short, since the drive is out of warranty, I thought I'd remove it from the enclosure, since I know Seagate enclosures are known to go bad, and connect it via SATA.

Now Windows is telling me I must initiate the drive before it can be used. I do not want to do this as it will wipe the drive. What are my options to keep my files?

Thanks for any help!
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, ModernCow.

It sounds like your drive might have started to fail. You can try accessing it via Linux Live CD/USB in order to see if it's recognized properly and if you can get to your files this way. You could also try some of the data recovery options from this thread: www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html, to see if any of them is able to recover your data. It's very possible that if the drive is shown as not initialized, that it might not be recognized by any of those programs, so your best and most reliable option might be - a data recovery company.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
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ModernCow

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Apr 14, 2015
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Thank you Boogieman. The drive was previously plugged in as a USB external drive, but with the enclosure off it is now plugged in via SATA. I wondered if that might cause the boot record to become corrupted or not recognized anymore. I do see the drive listed in Disk Management, but it is just unallocated space, and not initialized.

Tonight I will try the options you've presented and see how it goes. Thank you.

ModernCow
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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It is possible when taking a hard drive out of its external enclosure. This is also not recommended, because it voids the HDD's warranty. Having in mind that the drive is shown as not initialized, it is very possible that it might not be recognized by the data recovery programs from the link in my previous post, but it wouldn't hurt to try them out, the same thing goes for Linux Live CD/USB.

Good luck mate! I hope you're able to get the data out of the drive.
 
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