The disk in drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?

D

danooo

Geek Trainee
Hi guys,
I am trying to solve a problem that's been driving me crazy for days.

I have a 1TB external hard drive connected through USB to my laptop, I use it to store photos, old docs, movies etc. Since few days, everytime I try to access it (using Win XP) i get this message: "The disk in drive ... is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?".
I read about problems of this kind on other forums but none of their solutions worked for me. I used Partition manager, Partition TableDoctor, TestDisk and other recovery software without any success.
Today, I managed to access the drive normally, even copied few of my old docs back, but than the drive became inaccessible again. The external box is surely not the problem, I tried to put the drive into an other box with the same result.
I have some rather important docs on that drive as well as some photos which are very valuable for me, I really need to restore them.

Thank you for any advice
 
danooo said:
Hi guys,
I am trying to solve a problem that's been driving me crazy for days.

I have a 1TB external hard drive connected through USB to my laptop, I use it to store photos, old docs, movies etc. Since few days, everytime I try to access it (using Win XP) i get this message: "The disk in drive ... is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?".
I read about problems of this kind on other forums but none of their solutions worked for me. I used Partition manager, Partition TableDoctor, TestDisk and other recovery software without any success.
Today, I managed to access the drive normally, even copied few of my old docs back, but than the drive became inaccessible again. The external box is surely not the problem, I tried to put the drive into an other box with the same result.
I have some rather important docs on that drive as well as some photos which are very valuable for me, I really need to restore them.

Thank you for any advice
Click to expand...
right, assuming you tried connecting the drive to all USB ports, because 1 or all USB ports could have failed (collectivly all USB ports built into 1 computer is called a USB root hub) & does it use an external power source or use some kind of adapter to connect to multiple USB ports to supply enough power for the device & have you tried a known working USB connecting cable

thats about all i can think of right now

anyway try this because it is more functional than most

i'm suprised TestDisk didn't work because i used TestDisk when i accidently nuked a drive

P.S. DO NOT FORMAT THE DRIVE YET

edit: also try making sure your using the latest USB drivers & see if theres a firmware update for the drive
 
Actually the problem is not in the usb connection or the external case, it's in the hard drive itself. I know it because I did put it into my brother's desktop and the problem persisted.
When I list the disk's content using TestDisk, I can see my files there, but I don't know how to fix them. Actually, I can see only one folder now, because I tried something with testdisk which was obviously wrong
 
Hi sounds like you've got a corrupt partition. Have you tried running a chkdsk? or even running a program called Spinrite for any bad sectors it works very well at recovering data, but can take hours or days. You could of had a virus on the disk that corrupted the partition. Another good program for recovering data is Recove MY Files, seems to work quite well.
 
some good ideas BoBBY but personaly i'd assume as you say a corrupt partition & as he has TestDisk & can see his files i would think the user has never used testdisk & probably just needs help with testdisk, so here it is
danooo said:
because I tried something with testdisk which was obviously wrong
Click to expand...
hopfully you used TestDisk with the create log option chosen, view the log to figure out what you did then undo it, or if it's jiberish upload it to HWF possibly as an attachment or upload it to online host and put a live link to it here and i'll have a look at it
 
I think the partition has been corrupted due to which it needs formatting. And until you do not format the F drive, you will face the issue. However, formatting will lead into data loss. If the data is not much important then simply format the drive but if the data is important and you cannot bear losing the data; first try to recover data from the F drive. For that you can use Kernel for Windows- a consistent and easy-to-use data recovery software. After recovering the data format the drive.
 
Techtiger4 said:
I think the partition has been corrupted due to which it needs formatting. And until you do not format the F drive, you will face the issue. However, formatting will lead into data loss. If the data is not much important then simply format the drive but if the data is important and you cannot bear losing the data; first try to recover data from the F drive. For that you can use Kernel for Windows- a consistent and easy-to-use data recovery software. After recovering the data format the drive.
Click to expand...
no, the data can be accessed using TestDisk but TestDisk has being used incorretly, so correcting that error is preferable and as TestDisk was used to create an error so the user simply needs to undo the unfortunate misuse of TestDisk and reuse TestDisk correctly & adding another data recovery solution to the problem is just idiotic IMHO at this stage of the data recovory process

DO NOT FORMAT THE PARTITION

BTW: thankies Techtiger
 
Formatting the partition is not the right solution,if you have really some precious data try to save it by recovering using a recommended tool like i used Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery software which is also a good application in recovering windows data and files or corrupted drive.The software is easy to use and having GUI which will softly recover your data...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top