External HDD does not show in my Computer but in Device Manager and Computer Management. WITHOUT FORMAT

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Hi guys, I need help to figure out how to fix my external hard drive. My HDD is a WD Elements. In Device Manager my HDD is shows (WD Elements 1078 USB Device). Also in Computer Management my HDD was shown but it is unkown and has not been initialized. I need a solution to fix it WITHOUT formatting my HDD, becaus eI have tons of important stuffs in it.
If somebody could help me out I would really appreciate it.

Sorry my Windows' Language is in German

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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there wikiwawa and welcome to the community.

I'm truly sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your drive. Did you experience any problems with the HDD, prior to this issue? Any unusual sounds/noises coming from it, slow read/write speeds, freezing your system, etc?

I'd recommend that you try the HDD with a different USB cable (preferably shorter than 12") and a different computer, to see if the drive is recognized. If you have no luck with that, I'd suggest that you give data recovery software a try: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm. Other than that, you could try accessing the HDD via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if it's properly recognized by the OS and if you can get to your files and back them up. However, if worse comes to worst and you have no luck with any of the suggested options, perhaps you should go for the most reliable solution of all - a data recovery company. You could check out this link: WD Data Recovery Partners.

Please let me know how everything goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
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Guest

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There's no strange noise or something like that. Before this happened, I was trying to copy files into my HDD but after a while it just stops copying and I couldn't cancel the process or something else, then I decided to pull out the cable and tried to connect it again but it wouldn't recognize my HDD.
I've tried with 3 PCs and none of them worked. I'll try with the Ubuntu solution, is it also possible using just Virtual Box?
Also I've installed Recuva but I don't know how to scan on my HDD since it doesn't show up in my Computer.

Thank you for your help.
 
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K

ktolo

Honorable
Jul 19, 2012
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Yep.. looks like the data table is corrupted - as the computer still sees the drive but doesn't recognise a file system.
You need to start looking at recovery options if the data is important..if not, just format it and it should work.
 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
6,050
2
35,960
Unfortunately the guys are right about unplugging the drive while you're transferring data. This may corrupt the whole partition, although what bothers me is that it couldn't transfer the data before that and this was the reason for you to disconnect it. It's possible that the drive has other issues, but right now data recovery is a priority.
As for the data recovery program not being able to recognize the drive, I was afraid of that. When a drive is shown as not initialized, chances are that it won't be detected by most programs.
About the Ubuntu option, you can check out this tutorial: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install. And here's how to create a bootable USB drive on Windows: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows and where to download it from: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
 
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