My hard does show on my computer but it asks me to format it

[qarqa]

Hello,
my hard does show on my computer but it asks me to format it but i have lots of files on it and i want to keep them.
before this i did use it but all of a sudden it doesn't open.
oh by the way my hard is a 1TB western digital internal hard which i connected to my laptop through a SATA to USB convertor.
and my converter is not damaged because it still works with other hards that i have.
please help me.

 

[CocoHacker]

It could be either the usb controller , though since you say other drives are ok, it could be the hard drive failing.

Check the health of your drive using Hard Drive Sentinel.

http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php

 

[qarqa]

i have the drive icon in "My Computer" but when i want to open it, it asks me to format the disk.
how can i save my files???
please help

 

[cin19]

Go to company website to download the "Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows"

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=613&sid=3&lang=en

Follow the step by step to see you can do the test. And also you can try to use other usb port.

That maybe or may not help, because the HDD maybe go to failure.

 

[CocoHacker]

Just try this first:

1. Click 'Start'.
2. Type 'cmd' in the search bar.
3. Right click 'cmd.exe' and click 'Run as Administrator'.
4. In Command Prompt, type 'X:' ( X being the drive letter of your HDD)
5. If Drive letter changes to the desired 'X',Then type 'dir'.
6. It should list the folder/files in it.

If it does, the pop-up to format, could be caused by some malware/virus.
Though the chance of this is VERY Rare, there's no harm in checking it out.

 

[frombehind]

You said this is an external drive... USB connected an all.

I have seen similar issues when the file system on the drive gets corrupted (happens fairly often when the drive is disconnected... or looses power... while data is actively being written to the file system part of the drive.


There is a pretty easy way to fix this without loosing your data (assuming of course that is actually not lost already)

run a check-disk on it with a /f parameter - keep in mind this may take A WHOLE DAY OR MORE on a very large / badly messed up drive. Let it go and come back and see what it says when its done. Chances are good that your data will be accessible again when it completes.

1. Click 'Start'.
2. Type 'cmd' in the search bar.
3. Right click 'cmd.exe' and click 'Run as Administrator'.
4. Type in 'chkdsk X: /f' ( X being the drive letter of your bad HDD)
5. Accept any warning it may spit out
6. Wait long time
7. Profit!