# Solved: Can't access the files on my HDD without reformatting?



## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Hello,

Tonight I went ahead and purchased an extra (my third) hard drive and installed it normally.

While formatting the recently purchased hard drive, I noticed my previous additional hard drive was no longer available, and claimed to have 100% free space. I figured this was some sort of silly error, so I simply re-added it without formatting, but now whenever I try to access the drive via My Computer, it pops up a message stating: "You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it, do you want to format it?".

This is very upsetting, I have tons of home videos on that hard drive from the past 7 years, random videos with friends (one of whom has passed away), parties, vacations, etc.

I'm 100% sure the data is still on the drive, I'm just very desperate to find someone who can help me access my HDD.

Thanks in advance.

*I forgot to mention, these drives are SATAs.*


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Give Recuva a try.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for the reply and suggestion.
I'm downloading it right now and hoping for the best.

*Update: I downloaded the program but it can not recover files from the drive. Whenever I select the drive that I need to recover files from (in the program), it still tells me I must format it.*


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

OK, my last idea is to create a bootable Ubantu flash drive, boot into a virtual Ubantu OS and see what the problem drive looks like there. You can download it here.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks again.
I'll go ahead and give this one a try right now, would you happen to know how the transfer works with this program? (Would I need to place files on my flashdrive or could I just place files from drive to another).


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

Drive letters can change so you may have Formatted the wrong drive.
Do Start > Run type DISKMGMT.MSC press Enter and check which drive has 'D' by checking the size of the drive.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

managed said:


> Drive letters can change so you may have Formatted the wrong drive.
> Do Start > Run type DISKMGMT.MSC press Enter and check which drive has 'D' by checking the size of the drive.


That was exactly what I feared at first, but thankfully after double-checking it turned out I formatted the correct drive (the new drive is much much much larger than my previous two).

Also, I should probably add: I used Disk Management to add the the hard drive.


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

Ok I'm glad it wasn't that then !

If you can't get the files with Ubuntu you could try Testdisk, it can search the drive and re-create the partition table :- http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

managed said:


> Ok I'm glad it wasn't that then !
> 
> If you can't get the files with Ubuntu you could try Testdisk, it can search the drive and re-create the partition table :- http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step


Thank you, I'll definitely give this a try as well.
Unfortunately I do need to start getting ready for work, but when I get back I will finish up my attempt with Ubuntu and if that leads to no success I will try Testdisk.

I'd like to thank you and raybro for suggesting these.


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

i4gotmyname281 said:


> Thanks again.
> I'll go ahead and give this one a try right now, would you happen to know how the transfer works with this program? (Would I need to place files on my flashdrive or could I just place files from drive to another).


Just follow the instructions under the heading *"Create the Bootable Flash Drive"* on the page in the link provided.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

raybro said:


> Just follow the instructions under the heading *"Create the Bootable Flash Drive"* on the page in the link provided.


I've been giving this a try but for some reason I just can't get it to boot from the flash drive.
Would you happen to know which option I'm supposed to choose? (I've been choosing USB-HDD).
I've got a good feeling about this, I just need to get it to boot.


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Do you have a one time boot select option on startup? Do you have any other USB devices connected? 

If all else fails, you can go into BIOS>Boot and select the USB Removable device as the first boot device. After you are done, you would need to go back into BIOS and change it back to the original setting..


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

raybro said:


> Do you have a one time boot select option on startup? Do you have any other USB devices connected?
> 
> If all else fails, you can go into BIOS>Boot and select the USB Removable device as the first boot device. After you are done, you would need to go back into BIOS and change it back to the original setting..


I just checked it out, I went ahead and changed it via BIOS setup but it fails to recognize the flash drive.
I'm pretty sure there is something I'm doing wrong, there are other devices plugged in but none of them are storage units (just a gamepad, webcam, mouse, keyboard, etc).

Whenever I hit F12 to choose what to boot from, I press USB-HDD and it just carries on and boots from the hard disk.


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

What shows up on the Flash drive in Windows Explorer or My Computer. Attached screen shots show how the flash drive appears on My Computer and in Windows Explorer 

Note: a couple of extra folders on my flash drive in addition to Ubantu 

Downloads
Hidden File backup
Installed updates to SP3
my Documents
Windows Update Download folder Batch file 

All the rest is Ubantu

Raybro


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Wow, thanks raybro!
So I finally got Ubuntu booted, but now another problem has popped up.
While using Ubuntu, the HDD that I'm trying to access would not appear, but was still recognized in disk utilities.

Currently I'm looking up how to manually mount a hard drive in Ubuntu, and hopefully if I'm lucky that will fix this problem once and for all.
Also, I'm a noob when it comes to this, so if there is a better way to do this, please let me know.

Also, thanks for all the time you've put into this thread and into helping me out with my problem.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Alright, I just finished some more research and digging through several pages of Google searches.
I may not have figured out what started all of this, but I definitely realize now what is going on.

To shed some light on my problem so it doesn't sound as vague as "I can't access my hard drive", I realize now the problem is that after I installed the recently purchased hard drive, my other hard drive went from NTFS to RAW and displays 0% used space.

I'm currently using TestDisk and Ubuntu with my crossed fingers to see if this all works out.


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

Did a little more research and found this TSG thread that may be some help.

http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/619349-hard-drive-filesystem-changed-raw.html

Look at the last (#8) post.

Edit: Just looked a little closer at the ZAR site and the download is a trial version which, if it does the job, will allow recovery of *ONLY *4 folders. Doesn't say what the price of the full version is. Just be aware of that factor.


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## jack_hack22 (May 22, 2011)

hi guyz 
My name is ram, i am in big problem.... could any one please help me...
i cant see and open data from my usb hard disk....(its the segate 1.5TB )but its showing the used memory and when i starting scan the AV scans all of hided files (i can see the file's name at that moment )

thank you


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

jack_hack22 said:


> hi guyz
> My name is ram, i am in big problem.... could any one please help me...
> i cant see and open data from my usb hard disk....(its the segate 1.5TB )but its showing the used memory and when i starting scan the AV scans all of hided files (i can see the file's name at that moment )
> 
> thank you


Hi... I see you are new to TSG. I suggest you read the Rules before posting again. By posting your question in this thread you have violated the "Hijacking" rules defined therein as follows:



> "Hijacking" a thread for another purpose is not acceptable and any such posts will be deleted without notice or explanation.


By creating your own thread with a "New" post, you will receive the attention to your problem it deserves.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

Thanks for all your time and effort raybro, I honestly appreciate all that you've done to help.
I used the EASEUS Data Recover Wizard so I could attempt to locate and restore my files, the free version could only save 1 Gig of data, but I figured that coughing up $70 isn't as bad as losing 7 years of home videos.

I spent 3 and a half hours scanning for the files, and was glad to see that it found ALL of them.
Now I'm recovering them to my new HDD, and that will take around 12 hours.

If this is successful, I will:
1) Close the thread and mark it solved.
2) Post one last time in this thread for future-reference to help those who have this problem later on, because these past 3 days have been incredibly frustrating.


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## i4gotmyname281 (Aug 9, 2010)

6 and a half hours have passed, and I now have all my files back!
It turned out that the ETA for the program was a tad off.. by 6 hours.

*For anyone who is having this problem and came across this thread:
*Ubuntu (booted up with this to figure out exactly what was wrong with my hard drive)
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/Data Recovery Wizard (free version saves up to 1gb, with this I recovered everything)
TestDisk (a great, less simple alternative to Data Recovery Wizard if you're trying to save cash)

Thanks again raybro!


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## raybro (Apr 27, 2003)

You are most welcome. Very pleased it all worked out. :up:

One final recommendation... After all this I'm sure you can see the future value of having a backup protocol in place. There are numerous methods available, some free, some payed. The primary point being, if you experience a catastrophic failure for ant reason, your OS, files, photos, etc. can be recovered in a matter of minutes.

Post back if you are interested in the various alternatives and details.


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

Just wanted to say I'm glad you got all your files back.


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