Need to view files on external HDD but being asked to format

TomLibertini · Jun 18, 2015

Hi, I know this has been asked before but I couldnt find a case identical to mine;

My sisters birthday is coming up and my mum would like to make a photo album for her but all the files were on our first family PC (Dinosaur) like 3 years back we got a new pc so we took the files from that HDD, transferred them to an external usb HDD and left it plugged into our new family pc (Dinosaur x2)

I have tried viewing the files from the HDD on the family pc but to no avail with the 45 min loading time, freezes upon clicking my computer ect, and when I got into my computer the HDD wasnt listed.

I unplugged the external and plugged it into my PC (No Dinosaur) I had built it myself so I had a rough idea about HDD's and even installed a separate one and knew I had to format that before use.

Long story short ---- I have plugged it in and windows update failed, it didnt show up in my computer, I went into disk manager and gave it a letter and was told it only had 100mb of storage half of which was used yet there were no files in, now I keep getting pop up messages being told to format it before I can use it but I need the pictures from it. Is there anything I can do?

Thanks

Sorry for the paragraph xD

D_Know_WD · Jun 18, 2015

Hi there TomLibertini,

Most probably the HDD has lost its partitions. You can check whether this is the case in Disk Management.
I guess you can try using some partition recovery software. There are quite a lot of threads on that. Check this oune for example: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/262280-32-partition-recovery

You can scan the drive with some data recovery tool as well: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html

Hope this will help,
D_Know_WD

utgotye · Jun 18, 2015

I ran into something similar last night in fact. I was trying to use a flash drive to transfer stuff off of an old XP machine that I was going to purpose or cannibalized for part. Both of the drives (128GB PNY USB3 & 32GB SanDisk Cruzer USB3) failed and I was asked to format each time. Turns out they were both formatted exFAT and XP didn't understand.

The only other thing I can think of is that perhaps the partition table is damaged somehow.

TomLibertini · Jun 18, 2015

D_Know_WD :

Have tried using Partition find and mount as you suggested, but the drive isn't showing up there even though its listed under my computer as F and in Disk Management?

EDIT: Not showing up under device manager

D_Know_WD · Jun 18, 2015

It is strange that the HDD is recognized by Disk Management but not Device Manager. Try attaching it to another system.(
Also, if the drive is recognized by Disk Management, you should be able to access it with software tools. You can try some other partition/data recovery tool. I can't really recommend you a specific one.

You can run Disk Check through the Command Prompt as well: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

D_Know_WD

TomLibertini · Jun 18, 2015

D_Know_WD :

The message popping up is saying before you can use drive E you must format it, but everywhere else the disk is being recognized as drive F, I have manged to scan it for errors and there are none, and no partitions could be found

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Need to view files on external HDD but being asked to format

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utgotye

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TomLibertini

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