[tellrudys]

Yesterday, when I tried to open an external disk in my computer , the computer gave me the message:“Disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?”and the propensities of it also showed as “raw”. And I also cannot access to my data on this disk, but they were all important to me! What’s wrong with my computer? How could I get back my data? Any idea could be appreciated!
Could the iCare Data Recovery Free and Recuva help me as many recommend on the internet,they also give me the links:
http://www.piriform.com/recuva

http://download.cnet...4-75628752.html
Do they work and be free for every user?

Edited by tellrudys, 23 September 2012 - 11:57 PM.

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tried to open an external disk in my computer

Do you mean that you tried to open an external hard drive connected to a USB port? Or that you added a hard drive inside your box?
Please supply information:
>Operating system?
>Desktop or Laptop?
At this point do not try any recovery software, you might(or may not) have a hardware problem.

[ranchhand3]

tried to open an external disk in my computer

Do you mean that you tried to open an external hard drive connected to a USB port? Or that you added a hard drive inside your box?
Please supply information:
>Operating system?
>Desktop or Laptop?
At this point do not try any recovery software, you might(or may not) have a hardware problem.

[tellrudys]

Yeahz1 I tried to open an external hard drive connected with a USB cable. And I use Windows XP on my Laptop. What’s wrong with it?

[ranchhand3]

At this point there appears to be nothing wrong with it. Your computer sees it and assigns a drive letter in Explore, right? Windows is telling you that there is no data on the disk to read because it is not formatted; since it tells you it is RAW space there is not even a partition set to put data in. If the partition became corrupted you would get a message, "partition unreadable possibly corrupted" or something to that effect. At this point there is nothing for XP to recognize. Let's try a couple of things:
>Enter Disk Managerr in Administrator Tools and view all the drives posted there; what information does it give you on your USB external drive? Does it give you the file structure, partition size, active or inactive, healthy, anything at all?
>Go HERE, click on the DOWNLOADS tab, and download the ISO and burn to a CD Seatools for DOS; insert it in your CD drive and reboot. Seatools for DOS will load; select your USB drive, and click "Short scan" at the upper left menu and let it complete. It will give you a PASS or FAIL message. If FAIL, the drive is bad.
>Go HERE and download the ISO of Reatogo; burn to a CD and reboot with it in the drive. Be patient, it takes a long time to load. Once loaded, you will see a familiar XP screen, find your USB external drive and click on the icon; check if you can see your data listed. If it gives you an error message that means there is no data to read.
Please post back with the results of each test I listed above.

[tellrudys]

you think i need to download Seatools to have a try? actually, i do not really understand what you mean. my disk really become RAW and also cannot access any data on it.and many web friends write that i need firstly recovery my data by using iCare Data Recovery Free or Recuva for considering the safety of my data and then format the disk, and then my disk could work well again. but i am not really familiar with anyone of them. so could you just give me some idea?

[ranchhand3]

Hello Tellrudys.... when I troubleshoot a computer problem, I like to start by making sure to cover all the bases first. I am testing to make sure your hard drive is actually good, it is extremely unusual that all your data and even that partition would suddenly just "disappear" for no reason. Either someone deliberately wiped your drive using a software program, or the drive is failing mechanically. You would like to know that wouldn't you??
If you feel more comfortable using your friends' advice that is your decision. These are programs that are designed to read corrupted partitions and reformatted disks and the results vary greatly.I do not know anything about these utilities they recommend and have never used them. That does not mean that they will not work, they may be good programs. I don't know. IF your data is still on the drive and you are getting a false reading for some reason, Reatogo will read the drive and you will see your data. Then you can copy the data off your USB drive onto a flash drive or burn to a CD disk and you have saved your data without endangering it. If Reatogo cannot read any data on the drive and returns an error message, then next you can use the programs you want. You probably will not make a mistake by doing either one. Your decision.

Edited by ranchhand3, 26 September 2012 - 05:35 AM.

[tellrudys]

Ok! Thank you very much for your suggestions. I think Reatogo can be a great program to go.
However, because my situation is so urgently, so I just can’t wait to use iCare Data Recovery Free. And then now all of my data has been recovered. It seems really professional and efficient. Bur I not really figure out the difference among the four scanning options after installations. I just rambly choose the format recovery. Have you had any idea about it?

[ranchhand3]

I am not sure I understand clearly.....
>did you recover all your data you wanted using Reatogo?
>Do you now want to reformat your external USB drive so you can use it for storage?
>Did you run Seatools For DOS on your external USB drive to make sure it is not failing?

[tellrudys]

i am sorry. Perhaps, my words are not so clear. i just use iCare Data Recovery Free to recover my data. and now all of my important data has been restored.
i believe Reatogo is also a good program to go, if i have a chance, i will try it.
thank you for your concerning.
and then i just have some confusing thing about iCare Data Recovery Free, so i just write:


"However, because my situation is so urgently, so I just can’t wait to use iCare Data Recovery Free. And then now all of my data has been recovered. It seems really professional and efficient. Bur I not really figure out the difference among the four scanning options after installations. I just rambly choose the format recovery. Have you had any idea about it? "

Edited by tellrudys, 28 September 2012 - 07:08 PM.

[ranchhand3]

I'm glad you got your data off the hard drive. As I said previously, I have no knowledge about that program so I can't be of any help. I will say that you still have not discovered why your partition corrupted in the first place, until you do I would not trust that drive. I wish you the best!

[G0T010]

It's probably not your fault. I've been following this problem for 4+ freak'n years now. 98% of the time, THIS is what happened: Your computer running WINDOWS went to sleep or into hibernation while the USB device was attached. Upon awakening, -WINDOWS "Discovered" that the drive was not "talking" and with a blatant misrepresentation of what actually occurred by misreading error codes, --Windows has informed you that your drive is "unformatted". Here is the dirt that Microsoft doesn't want to get out: Windows BROKE your USB device by violating any number of USB protocols because (deep breath) Microsoft does NOT have anyone in the entire freak'n company who intimately understands USB. This fact becomes obvious when you begin to probe Microsoft for USB support (at the firmware level). This why you can search for this problem and will find COUNTLESS POSTS over 5+ years with NO quick solutions or explanations. All you will ever see are "solutions" for draconian measures like data salvaging & reformatting. If builders built buildings the same way Microsoft writes USB code; --then the 1st woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. No kidding.
This is a RAMPANT problem with USB devices and they ALL seem to have one common denominator: MICROSOFT'S OS. And why? Because it goes to sleep or into hibernation without taking care of absolutely essential business before doing so and then it is not able to recover after reawakening. Imagine a moving company who has been tasked to move your possessions into a house with a number of staircases. It takes a lot of coordination to get your valuable items up & down all of those stairs. Now, --imagine that the moving company has a few employees who are narcoleptic. Every now and then, --one simply falls asleep (instantly) and whatever he happens to be doing gets dropped as he dozes off. Hmmm. He was carrying you antique French day bed near the top of the 4th story of stairs & simply fell asleep. Is it any wonder - when he awakens that the same daybed is now around him at the 1st floor and in numerous fragments! The metaphors: The daybed is your USB device-data and the narcoleptic worker is Microsoft's USB data handlers upon system sleep or hibernation. The flights of stairs represent the level of data management that must be in place to make the USB device work with Windows. Does this not explain a LOT of bizarre USB situations? How many here have turned their Windows PC on and discovered that it simply would not get beyond the BIOS screen (until pulling the USB cables & disconnecting all USB devices)! It worked OK how many times previously & then simply "failed"? Hmmmmm. And then it will be OK until the "next" time it happens. Since your HARDWARE isn't changing ... what do you suppose, is?
So, your USB Drive suddenly is UNformatted according to Windows.
chkdsk <DRIVE>: /f
That DOSbox command will usually fix the problem and also show you the extent of the DAMAGE that Windows caused to the data structure of the device.
Class-Action lawsuit anyone?