PC WORLD FORUM

My external hard drive has stopped working. The disc is no longer readable . When I connect the disc to my computer, the system asks me to format it.

There are very important files on the disc.

Does anyone know how to help me?

Here are a few things you can try to recover your files from the external hard drive:

- Connect the drive to the computer and run a disk checking/repair utility like chkdsk on Windows or fsck on Linux. This may fix any file system errors and make the drive readable again without data loss.

- Try connecting the drive to a different computer in case the issue is with the original computer not the drive itself.

- Download and run data recovery software like TestDisk or PhotoRec. These tools can scan the drive at a low level and try to recover files even if the file system is corrupted. TestDisk may even be able to repair the file system.

- As a last resort, you could try sending the drive to a data recovery service. They have cleanroom environments and specialized hardware/software that may be able to recover more files than you can do at home. But this option can be expensive.

A few tips - don't save any new data to the drive as it could overwrite recoverable files. Work on a copy of the drive if possible rather than the original. And be patient, recovery can take some time.

Let me know if any of those suggestions help or if you have any other questions! Proper data recovery is important when there are important files at stake.

I tried chkdsk but it didn't work.

I connected it to other PCs, but nothing....
I even took it out of the box and connected it directly to a PC via SATA interface.

Previously, the drive was in the FAT file system and now it shows up as RAW.

https://prnt.sc/v7LGll3uBpXB

I did manage to solve this problem.

First, I managed to make a copy of the damaged drive using Clonezilla.

I came across this video tutorial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2vCS-dV-M

True, it cost me $97.95, but that's nothing compared to taking the disc to a technician. I risked losing my files forever. But I can't afford to pay a lot of money.
Let me tell you a little bit about how I did it.
I downloaded https://hetmanrecovery.com/hetman_parti ... wnload.htm , the program displayed my RAW drive, which used to be FAT, and started a full scan. It found most of my files and successfully recovered them. Yes, it couldn't recover all the files, but I was lucky: I recovered the most important ones .

And yes, make copies of important files (discs) for the future.

Also, thanks to everyone who tried to help me)

Glad to hear that.

pcworldforum wrote: ↑Sun Feb 18, 2024 12:19 am Glad to hear that.