Solved WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK 1TB suddenly "unallocated" and "not initialized"

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Jon Snow

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WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK 1TB suddenly "unallocated" and "not initialized"

Hi guys. I'm new here. I've tried to read all the discussion about how to fix the unallocated hard drive but I just can't understand it as the cases were pretty much different than I'm facing of.

Here's my problem.
Yesterday my external hard drive seems normal, everything is fine, until there's a blackout and I have to put "sleep" to my laptop. After the power got back, the hard drive suddenly gone and when I check the list of drives under "Disk Management", it showed up as "Disk 1 - Unallocated".

(I've attached screenshots here for your viewing)

My external hard drive is WD My Passport 1TB. It contains a lot of valuable data I cannot afford to lose. I really hope there's a way to fix this, and once I get back all of those precious data I will buy another HD to transfer them ASAP because I cant let this happen to me again.

Your help is so, very much appreciated.
Any questions regarding my problem, let me know. I'll provide all of the details you guys need.

NOTE
1) I've tried TestDisk but on the "Analyse" process, it says "read error" :(
2) I've changed cable, but the situation remains the same.
3) I've tried Recuva, but it doesnt recognize my external drive.
 

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Hi!

First don't mess up with the WD drive settings.. download partition wizard 7 (its free)..then .. open it ..click wizard(menu) .. select partition recovery wizard.. and it will find the partitions on it i think.. that way you can recover your partition that has been lost.
 

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Hi Noor, thanks for replying. What is the estimate time for finding the missing partition? I wanna prepare myself if it's gonna take longer than 12 hours *.*
 

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Just so you know, ive made several calls to computer service centre, they were all refuse / hesitate to take my case since it's 1TB and one of the guy claimed that if it's unallocated, the drive is lost and there's no where I could fix it -which pretty much the last thing I wanna hear right now.
 

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it takes just a couple of mins max
 

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Alright so I just finished scanning with Quick & Full Scan using Partition Wizard.
No good news. :(

Gonna try the second option. (Linux)

If anyone can help assist me through this problem, please do. I really, really wanna solve this :/
 

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hello there Slartybart,
few questions
1) Does this mean my current hard disk (the one that I have problems with) is in a total disaster state?
2) I havent tried the linux recovery steps, but say if i do, and I found the files (hopefully), will my hard drive comes back to live when I change back my OS to Windows? Or I need to copy all of my data when in Linux?
 

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While anything is possible, Linux can't deal with corrupted Windows filesystems. So, if that is the case, using Linux is not going to help.

The best data recovery app I've used is RecoverMyFiles. You can download, install, and try it for free -- you have to purchase a license to do the actual data recovery.
 

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Hi Mark.
By 'Windows system", are you referring to my data? or my hard disk?
If my hard disk is dead, then it's ok as long as I can retrieve my data back. Thats all I want.
 

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Someone please help me :(
How do I check using linux? I've created the USB stick exactly like in the video, but then I dont know what's the next step. I really wanna recover my files. Ive tried various things and they're all disappointing. Anybody's online? please?
 

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Guys. Help. What does this mean???
 

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Quit Testdisk. Stop experimenting on your own if you don't know what to do.

Run Partition Wizard Home Edition v 8.1.1

Post the screenshot of how your external drive looks in PW - the main screen.
 

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Finally someone's here! Hello jumanji!

here it is
 

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The "Disk 2" is the one i'm dying to save. Please help
 

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Your disk shows as Read only - that's something new I hadn't come across.

OK, now tell me what exactly happened when you ran Partition Recovery Wizard Quick scan.

Would you mind running the quick scan again and post the screenshot of the result? Let us see whether it finds any partition - while I look into the read only message and gather any information on how to deal with it. I may take sometime and so you will have enough time to run the Quick Scan and post the screenshot.:)
 

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Alright I just finished the scan.

Here are the screenshot.
I noticed that during the first 2 minutes the process was kinda slow, and the EXT hard disk's LED is beeping. As far as I know, it's a sign of activity inside the disk. Then suddenly, the process goes fast (as shown, it jumped right to 7%) and the LED light is no more beeping :o
And the second screen shot shows there's no partition found. And I used the 'deep scan'. I've also tried "Quick Scan" and it shows the same thing.
Oh man... :(((((((
 

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In Disk Management, here is my status of my hard disk. It says the device is working properly
 

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OK, the Quick Scan completed but did not find any partition.

Post a screenshot of how your disk looks in Windows Disk Management. I just want to see whether it is any different from what you posted earlier. Please make sure that you hide the console tree and Action Pane by clicking the Show/Hide buttons in the tool bar and present a full screen view.
 

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Here it is my friend. The only different is that right now Im using my pc at my office, so the upper disks name are all different (and working well)
 

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