Solved EXT HDD issue after scan disk, now prompts to format??

[BBedding]

Hi All,

This is my first post.

I have an external HDD that I back up all my pics and personal info to, any way the last few times I pugged it in it would prompt me to scan and fix errors or continue without.

This time I selected fix errors and it found some and fixed them but now it prompts me to format the drive to use it.

How do I fix this it has all my info on it?? I just want my files.

Please help.

Thanks Brizee

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Can you view these files in Windows Explorer?

Can you post a screen capture image of your Disk Management screen here please?

Regards,
Golden

 

[BBedding]

Thanks Golden,

Its Disk 3 which is supposed to be a 1TB WD not the 128 GB it's showing.



Thanks Brizee

 

[Golden]

OK. Can you browse this drive in Windows Explorer?

 

[BBedding]

No, Its not visible.

 

[TVeblen]

Can you right click on the disk in Disk Management and give it a Drive letter?

 

[BBedding]

Yep Its now visible as G:

 

[TVeblen]

Can you see your files now?

 

[BBedding]

And prompts me to format the drive.

 

[BBedding]

Here's a screen shot;

 

[TVeblen]

Don't format the drive. You will lose your data.

 

[BBedding]

Thanks,

 

[BBedding]

When I cancel the format this is the screenshot

 

[TVeblen]

I will guess that the Master File Table has been corrupted. I believe you can repair it by rebuilding the MBR.

The easiest way to do that is using Minitool Partition Wizard. You can download a bootable CD ISO here:
Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

And the use it to rebuild the MBR:
Rebuild Windows MBR with the partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard.

See if that will help.

 

[BBedding]

I tried to rebuild the MBR and the software went through the motions but it has not changed.

I tried to recover the old partition and I can now see the old partition but not in my computer.



Not sure what to do now?

 

[jumanji]

Just give it a drive letter.

 

[BBedding]

It hasn't helped it has now reverted back the same as before asking me to format the drive.

 

[jumanji]

That is strange.

Retry Partition Recovery Wizard in it and try to recover the partition.

More help here: Recover a flash drive turned RAW – Partition Wizard and TestDisk.

( Scroll down to Recovery with Partition Wizard: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB and follow the steps therein.It applies to external Hard disks too though I performed it on a USB flash drive.)

If it does not help, try TestDisk as in the thread above referred.

 

[BBedding]

Thanks Jumanji, test disk found the partition and a read error

 

[jumanji]

That shows even TestDisk has not been able to find the partitions correctly.

(If it had found the partitions correctly, you would have got a screen like that under 7 of the topic Recovery with TestDisk: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB)

Did you retry Partition Recovery with Partition Wizard? And what happened?

You have tried writing the MBR with with Partition Wizard as suggested by TVeblen. Even if it was not successful, that process would affect only the first sector and should not affect the data in the original partition.

How many partitions did you have in the drive? Because I see one 128GB in all the screenshots.( That leads me to think whether the firmware in your drive got corrupted - in case you had only one partition.)

I am sure the data is still safe and is there.

The question still remains on how do we go about recovering it.