# Solved: External hard-drive:...format the disk in drive F: before you can use it.



## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

Hi. My external hard-drive stopped working yesterday. This is what's happening:

I plug it in as usual, then it says "You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?".
I'm thinking it's more than likely an issue of having pulled out the usb cable without clicking 'safely remove'.

Yesterday I actually got it working again briefly by typing "chkdsk F: /R" into command prompt. Now when I do that it doesn't work, it says "The type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted." And when I double click on F: drive in my computer it says "F:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted or unreadable".

Are there any other options besides using some sort of data recovery tool (I'd rather not do this just because it takes a long time)?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

If chkdsk had succeeded, it would probably have completely destroyed all the files on the drive. Never use chkdsk until you have recovered files from a damaged disk.

If you don't keep backups, you should *expect* to lose all your files, especially on external drives.

You could try to recover the partition, but you'll be lucky if recovery programs can even get your files back.

Free:

Paragon Rescue Kit
Parted Magic (The best boot CD. Includes data recovery to CD/DVD, network, or USB, Testdisk for partition recovery, audio tests, and much more)
Testdisk Documentation
Testdisk Download
Minitool Partition Recovery
Easeus Partition Recovery
Diskinternals Partition Recovery
Partition Wizard Boot CD
DriveRescue
Testdisk Boot Disk
Partition Find & Mount
Free DTIData NTFS Partition Repair Tool

Commercial:

Diskinternals Partition Recovery (Demo)
[email protected] Partition Recovery
Bootmaster Partition Recovery
ZAR Partition Recovery
DIY DataRecovery DiskPatch
Partition Table Doctor


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## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

Thanks.

Next time I'll ask for some advice before I take matters into my own novice hands.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Well, it's only natural to think of chkdsk, and many others have scrambled their files using it. Chkdsk only fixes the file system, which means it needs to know exactly where that is, so if it gets incorrect information about the drive, it will happily move everything to where it thinks it belongs, to oblivion. It even seems to take some mindless pride in how efficiently it does its job as you watch your bytes fly to infinity.


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## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

I think chkdsk did damage/remove some of my files because I ran GetDataBack and it only found about 20% of my files??? So yeah I think some of my files are gone  ... I'm gonna keep trying different methods though, hopefully I can get it all back.


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## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

Okay I've tried several data recovery programs now and none have worked. It found the files but they were all apparently 0kb.

What are my options? Pay a professional?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You could. But it may be wasted money. No one is likely to be able to recover files if they were scrambled by chkdsk.


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## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

I had /r as a parameter for check disk if that makes any difference (I really have no idea what the hell I'm doing, I just copied what was suggested on a website).

Oh and it didn't actually completely finish running, it only got about 20% of the way and I closed it (because it was taking ages), if that changes anything.
I tried to run it a second time but then it just started giving me the errror I told you about ("The type of the file system is NTFS. Unable to determine volume version and state. CHKDSK aborted.")

ps: I'm really scraping at anything now to give me some hope. lol. I understand it's probably gone.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Not really changes much. The /r means it probably did more damage than just /f would have because it was also moving things around.

But if recovery software can't find files, they may be scrambled and no one else could put them together, either. Not even CSI on TV.

A pro, costing upward of $1000, may get a few more files, or not.

(This thread has been looked at 336 times. If someone had a better idea, or disagreed with me, I think you would have heard by now.)


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## CF128 (Jul 4, 2004)

I actually managed to save everything. Phew. I just kept trying different recovery programs and the one that worked was an old version (vs 4.0) of RunTime GetDataBack. 

Thanks for your help Elvandil.


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