# Solved: recover files off hard drive with exfat format



## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

I'm new to Vista. I bought a 320gig hard drive and a external case and formated it with EXFAT. Ran into some problems and now Vista won't read the drive. I've tried 9 different recovery programs but none works with EXFAT. Is there anything out there that will? (yes, I didn't know what I was doing when I formated it. I thought FAT was FAT!) Any help will be greatly appreciated -Dot


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

*try gparted you can find it at this address*

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

I don't see the EXFAT listed under GParted supported formats. Unless EXFAT has a different name. -Dot


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

exfat is acutly called fat64

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

Thank-you, But I don't see the EXFAT or FAT64 listed under GParted supported formats. -Dot PS: I have found several download sites that says a program will work with FAT64 but when I go to the Manufacture website they really don't.


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

ok right right click on my computer and click manage and go to disk management is the hard disk there


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

yes 298.09 GB RAW (Healthy Primary Partition) It always ask me if I want to format it when I plug it in.


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

err im sorry the drive has refromatted it self because iyou formatted it as a fat64 youve lost all your files  im sorry but next time format it to NFTS


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

I know i haven't lost the files because i used another recovery program and recovered all pdf, doc and jpg. but the program can't recover anything else. The company said i'd have to wait several weeks and even then they may not support this format. So i'm looking for something that can. several prorams i've tried show that it's all there and the disk is fine but it can't get to the files nor find any folders.


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

ok then try this 
http://www.sharewareconnection.com/download-salvage-files-data-recovery-software-from-sharecon.html


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

Advanced Features of Windows File Recovery Software: * Salvage data from Windows partition (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5). I looked at this one too but it doesn't cover fat64 either. It takes 4-6 hours for each program I'd like to be sure I'm trying a program that may work. Here are the one's i've tried before I found out I needed to look for fat64. Getdata Back, Stellar Phoenix Data Recovery Wizard, Migo Digital Rescue, Recover My files Data Rec Fat Data Recovery, HDD recovery Pro, PCI file recovery, power data recovery Irecover, Recovery data for Ntfs and fat


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## aly369 (Nov 13, 2008)

try this 
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec#Filesystems
its says fat just give it a go


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

Thank you for helping me look. I'll give it a go and post how it went in about 4-6 hours.


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## win2kpro (Jul 19, 2005)

Since ExFat is a Vista SP1 application, what I would try would be to remove the hard drive from the external enclosure, and connect it to the machine internally. If the files are not damaged, Vista should read the files with the drive connected internally.

If Vista reads the files with the drive mounted internally, move the files to your main hard drive, and after the files are transferred to your main drive, remove the drive that was the external, reinstall it in the external enclosure, reformat the drive to NTFS, and try copying and pasting the files back from your main hard drive to the external.


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

*Aly369*, I started the program and it was finding lots of files. I had to stop it due to lack of hard drive space. I'm clearing out a 500gig to make room for all the files. So I have yet to see what it will recover. But it does look like it might work. 
*win2kpro*, Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately I'm on a laptop. The drive is an external one I bought for backups and to carry extra files around when I travel. I had it all loaded up with files I was going to put on my new hard drive that I installed on the laptop then it went bad (I'm still not sure what happened. The only thing I did different was us a different cable, which should have worked. Then thinking it wasn't getting enough power I plugged in the cable that came with it and that's when the drive started making noises it shouldn't have. So it was either the cable change or added power.
Would the laptop read the files off of a hard drive that does not have a os on it? Also What is the best way to format a 320 gig drive, FAT from XP or Ntfs? (I have a desktop with XP and my laptop with Vista.) I'm going to reformat the drive as soon as I get the files off!


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## win2kpro (Jul 19, 2005)

I would reformat it as NTFS unless you have a specific reason to want to use FAT.


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

Thank-you Both. 
It's going to take a few days to make space for my files. I'll post how it went when I get done.


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## Dotted (Nov 13, 2008)

Ok, well after I spent several days dumping files to dvd to make room to try to move files from one hard drive to another; the hard drive started working again. Windows could accesses it. So I dumped all the files to my somewhat empty hard drives and re-formated it. so I didn't need to use any program for it. Weird or what! 
so thank-you for your help.
I'm marking this solved because my problem is gone. I do think the software would have done the job I just did not need to try it. (yet)


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