Can't access external hard drive

ronypatil

Honorable
Sep 25, 2012
2
0
10,510
Hi,
I Have WD 2 tb external desk hard drive with power supply (not USB), cable is 2.0 USB. Three days ago I plugged in my hard drive and couldn't see it at all in "my computer". So after quick Google search I change drive letter and paths by going into disk management. Now I can see it in "my computer" but can't open it. it says” the disk in drive E is not formatted, do you want to format it now?”. After few search on the internet, i found that if you change drive letter and paths you lose all data from your hard drive. Can someone please help me? I have 1 tb of data which i don't want to lose. your quick help on this will be highly appreciated.
 

John_VanKirk

Distinguished
Hi R, & Welcome to Tom's Hardware!

Changing the Volume Letter that is assigned to a HDD either by you or the OS, does NOT cause data loss from the drive. Something has happened to the drive to make it unreadable, like a virus, or unplugging it without using the "Safely Remove Device" feature, or a power interruption.

Don't Format it or write to it until you have figured out what the problem is.

The best way to evaluate this problem, is with the external HDD powered up and connected to your computer, go to Disk Management, and take a screenshot of the Disk Management dialog box, and upload it for us to view. That Img will give everyone an overall idea of how things are set up and what is wrong.

Also is this "BackUp Data" that also stored on your computer, or elsewhere, or your only copy?
 

ronypatil

Honorable
Sep 25, 2012
2
0
10,510
Thanks you so much for your reply.
It is my only copy,
How to upload that IMG? i tried with PRT SCreen but doesn't allow me to add img.
Also, i never unplug it without using the "Safely Remove Device", it could be virus but not sure. it was showing WD logo prior to changing the letter to E.
 

John_VanKirk

Distinguished


If you are running win-7, can use the snipping tool, or snagit, or other screen grabber, & save the image as a pjg or png file. Then upload it to Photobucket or ImageShack. The copy/paste the