External Hard drive show unformatted
I have an external USB 2.0 2TB hard drive that all of a sudden shows that it is unformatted. Here is the background.
My old computer has two drives in a raid0 array that I used for storage. The raid controller was bad, kept dropping the array but it would show back up when I reboot. So I transferred all my data to a new WD 2TB external usb drive. I used it several times to get little bits of information off it over the course of two weeks. I got my new computer built, plugged in the external but it did not show in My Computer (Windows 7 Ultimate x64). I went to disk manager and it shows the drive as unformatted! It was formatted as Fat32.
I plugged it into another computer and ran GetDataBackFat32, which has now been running for three days and is only at 31%. It shows 258000+ files identified so far, but I do not know of those are going to be recoverable. It seems to me that maybe just the partition information is missing. Is there another way for me to fix this external so I can access the data? It is a Western Digital.
My old computer has two drives in a raid0 array that I used for storage. The raid controller was bad, kept dropping the array but it would show back up when I reboot. So I transferred all my data to a new WD 2TB external usb drive. I used it several times to get little bits of information off it over the course of two weeks. I got my new computer built, plugged in the external but it did not show in My Computer (Windows 7 Ultimate x64). I went to disk manager and it shows the drive as unformatted! It was formatted as Fat32.
I plugged it into another computer and ran GetDataBackFat32, which has now been running for three days and is only at 31%. It shows 258000+ files identified so far, but I do not know of those are going to be recoverable. It seems to me that maybe just the partition information is missing. Is there another way for me to fix this external so I can access the data? It is a Western Digital.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Install any version of Paragon Drive Backup www.drive-backup.com then run it with this drive connected and send me the generated log from C:\Program Files\Paragon Software\Drive Backup\Program
I will check what causes it be unformatted.
Also with Volume Explorer tool of this Drive Backup you can copy out data from the drive quicker.
I will check what causes it be unformatted.
Also with Volume Explorer tool of this Drive Backup you can copy out data from the drive quicker.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Sorry for the long delay, I have been out of town for training and been unable to work on this.
GetDataBack was unable to recover any files. Niether has any other type of undelete/unerase software I have tried. What other options could I try? Is there not a way to just restore the FAT partition table without reformatting the entire drive? I have plugged it into Windows, Mac, and Linux clients and they all read it the same, as an unformatted drive.
GetDataBack was unable to recover any files. Niether has any other type of undelete/unerase software I have tried. What other options could I try? Is there not a way to just restore the FAT partition table without reformatting the entire drive? I have plugged it into Windows, Mac, and Linux clients and they all read it the same, as an unformatted drive.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Then close the question, Assign points if you want or request the question to be deleted.
ASKER
Sorry, I did close it and assigned points to everyone involved but must have missed a step as it apparently didn't work.
ASKER
Just repeating my post so it will close. Thanks for all your help.
"Well, in the end I was unable to recover anything and can't really spend any more time messing with it. However, I learned alot about HD recovery from all your comments. Thanks for your help."
"Well, in the end I was unable to recover anything and can't really spend any more time messing with it. However, I learned alot about HD recovery from all your comments. Thanks for your help."
See:
http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/13997-windows-7-won-t-recognize-my-hdd.html