Windows 7: You Need To Format Disk Message

I just bought an Samsung G2 External HDD month ago. It worked well since the date I bought it. But yesterday, when I'm trying to plug in my external, windows give me some error message :

"You need to format the disk in drive G: before you can use it"

I dont want to format my external, because I had many important files in my external. If I had to format, how can I recover my files in the external ?

I think this problem was happened after I use a file lock software. I tried to lock some folder in my external HDD, and when the encrypt process begin, I cancel it. I think this would be the cause of my problem. Maybe some data corrupt in the external HDD. But I'm really not sure about this.

Could someone who expert about this can help me?

Well this is a windows message we never want to see nor is there a definitive cause for it. First - did you properly eject the USB device/drive?

I would suggest:

1) Try every USB port on the machine (and an alternate usb cable)
2) Boot the machine with the drive on and plugged into USB
3) Boot into safemode with the drive on/plugged

What happens if you hit cancel? Can you see the device in "My Computer", does the machine show a usb device attached? Is the file locking software on your pc hd or the external hd with the lockable folder?

You could check this out - it might be outdated, also see if the manufacturer has a knowledge base for this kind of error.

You receive a "Disk in drive <X> is not formatted" error message when you try to access an SD or MMC drive

Hopefully something helps - It sucks when these things crash.

Thanks mr pc for those solution, but that do not change anything. I'd tried your suggestions, but it doesn't work..

If I hit cancel, I can see the device in My Computer. It showed Local Disk (G: ). But every time I tried to open it, the format message keeps showing.

About the locking software, I installed the software on my Local Disk (C: ), and I try to lock some folder in my external (G: ), but I canceled the process. And about the link, I don't get anything from that. I dont know what..

Sorry for troubling you, but this problem is really make me sick..

Ar you plugging your USB cable into a hub or directly into a USB port? If it's plugged into a hub, try connecting it directly into a port.

hii
i have the same problem with my external hard drive "western digital 320 GB" also i need the data on the hard its very important, can't know what can i do !!

Hi AhmedSaftawy,

For a moment jettison Windows , and check whether you can access your external HDDs with a Live Linux CD.

Lucid Puppy is lightweight and easy and here is the how-to. Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

If you can access thee drives with the bootable Lucid Puppy pendrive, copy all the data in the external HDD to another external drive or even the internal drive if space is available.

Once you have backed up all the data, you can format the external HDD.

Try and report.

You might try Minitool Partition Wizard, and give its "partition recovery wizard" a shot. See what it can find and do for you.

Minitool Partition Wizard was the solution for me! Thanks dsperber