External HDD suddenly needs to be formatted, shows up as RAW

q2mlu7 · 19 Dec 2016

Hello guys,

a friend of mine whose laptop I usually fix gave me her external HDD with this problem:
- the HDD cannot be opened in w7, freezes both totalcommander and windows explorer
- it says "disc needs to be formatted"
- in the disc management it shows as a RAW partition
- in Minitool it shows as an NTFS but I really don't want to mess up anything so I did nothing with this program yet

I tried to run dskchk in cmd but it gave 0 errors (maybe it is irrelevant, but... yes at least I tried something). I read a tons of threads here with the professional guidance of "jumanji" but also read that it is better to start a new thread if I am stuck. So, here I am and I would really appriciate if you could help me.

I apologize for my bad english. The ext. hdd is a WD Elements.

samuria · 19 Dec 2016

Welcome to the forum. Raw means the partition table has been lost you need specific partition recovery software DONT use file recovery the files come back when the parition is recovered. Google partition recovery software there is a lot of free stuff if one doesn't work try another

RolandJS · 19 Dec 2016

Does this WD Elements use something like Smartware/Drive Unlock during normal operations? If yes, I'm wondering if the on-board/circuit-level encryption might be in play here. And, concerning partition trouble: I heard MiniTools Partition Wizard might be helpful here.

jumanji · 19 Dec 2016

Did chkdsk run through all stages, like verifying files (stage 1 of x), verifying indexes (stage 2 of X) etc., and ended in giving the final result?

What exactly is the chkdsk Command you gave?

All these just for info.

What all I would say now is if chkdsk as you did, ran successfully and completed without giving any error message, then rerun chkdsk as per this post #16 here External hard drive visible in Partition Magic but not explorer

Open Command prompt. Start > All programs > Accessories > Command Prompt

Type
CHKDSK K: /f /v /r /x Press enter. Note: Replace K: with the actual drive letter of the external drive. Also note that before every option/switch there is a space.

Allow check disk to complete. ( Do not for any reason abort check disk midway through. I repeat: Do not for any reason abort check disk midway through. Let it complete even if it takes one day and during this run do not use your PC for any other task. Keep your hands off.)

q2mlu7 · 19 Dec 2016

Thank you guys, I really am very grateful for your help! I had a very long day today so actions start tomorrow, this is just a quick thank you in advance!

MightyMiroWD · 20 Dec 2016

Hi there.

I'm sorry to hear about what happened with the extenral, I know how unpleasant this could be...

In order to gain access to the information stored on the drive you can try to boot up with Linux Live CD - sometimes doing so can give you access to the content on stored on the external and you can move it to another location. You can follow the steps in this Ubuntu Help article in order to do so:
LiveCD - Community Help Wiki

If it doesn't help though then you can contact a data recovery company and see if your information can be retrieved from the drive, and keep in mind that the more you use the drive and try to repair it, the worse the damage and the extraction of files may become. Here's a link with the WD recovery partners you can take a look at:
Support Answers

Hope this helps and let us know how it went. :)

q2mlu7 · 20 Dec 2016

I want to thank each and every one of you, especially you jumanji, you are the true hero here! With your help I could back up all the data from the external hdd. Thank you very much! :)

jumanji · 20 Dec 2016

".......especially you jumanji, you are the true hero here! ......"

External HDD suddenly needs to be formatted, shows up as RAW-21-12-2016-09-28-30.jpg

That means, as long as I do not walk away I am not a true hero , may be a pseudo

.