External Hard Drive - corrupted or unreadable

ashlingm

Freaking out big time here!

Basically my external hard drive was pulled from the usb in the middle of a file transfer and now everytime I try to open it,it says the ''file or directory is corrupted or unreadable''.
It still shows up the correct information such as space used up and available space on it when I go into properties. It says the file system is NTFS (if thats any use at all!). There is an option in the properties to check ''the volume for errors'' would this be worth doing?
Is there any way to get back the information on it? What does format mean - will it just reset the entire thing - and does that mean I will have all the available space restored just like when I bought it?
ANY help is appreciated! Just having a mini meltdown at the moment...

oppenheimer1

When the drive was unplugged mid-write it corrupted the master file table, the index of files on the drive (of sorts)

Do not format the disk

Information on a resolution to your problem can be found here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/176646

You will likely suffer some data loss, so backup the drive if you can.

ashlingm

I just got it opened. But it says it has 0 files...but it still has about 300gb's used up under the properties tab.

What would be my next step? Can I restore factory settings so I have the full 500 gbs available again? - I dont mind about losing any information on it!

oppenheimer1

If you REALLY don't mind losing all the data then you should reformat the drive, you will get all 500GB back then. You will lose all the data on the drive.

Did you try running chkdsk? I hate seeing data loss

bhickey

ashlingm wrote: »

I just got it opened. But it says it has 0 files...but it still has about 300gb's used up under the properties tab.

Make sure that you're showing Hidden Files in Windows Explorer. Maybe some files will show up that way that might give a clue as to what to try next.

duckie360

@oppenheimer 1....hi I have just had the same thing happen my drive. It says ...corrupt....unreadable. I don't want to lose my data so I don't think I can format disc, unless you know of a way to recover certain files (pics) afterwards?
I tried using chkdsk but nothing happened. Any advice whatsoever would be fully appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

bonzodog2

duckie360 wrote: »

@oppenheimer 1....hi I have just had the same thing happen my drive. It says ...corrupt....unreadable. I don't want to lose my data so I don't think I can format disc, unless you know of a way to recover certain files (pics) afterwards?
I tried using chkdsk but nothing happened. Any advice whatsoever would be fully appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Use Recuva or Photorec, preferably with the disk in an external enclosure

duckie360

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Use Recuva or Photorec, preferably with the disk in an external enclosure[/

I've used a few file recovery tools but to no avail. Tried Chkdsk too but no luck.
I'm gonna give photorec a go now.

bonzodog2

duckie360 wrote: »

bonzodog2 wrote: »

Use Recuva or Photorec, preferably with the disk in an external enclosure[/

I've used a few file recovery tools but to no avail. Tried Chkdsk too but no luck.
I'm gonna give photorec a go now.

Duckie, I'm in Galway too, would be willing to have a look if you have no joy with photorec etc. PM me if you like.

riclad

I had a problem ,with 2 sd cards ,and also one partition,32gig,
partition 2 on my laptop.drive e.
Cards were not readable, message comes up,
do you want to format this drive.
i did the same thing on 2 sdcards and the partition.
I did a quick format ,
NOT a full format ,
tick box, quick format .
Then i was able to use recuva to see all the folders ,
and all the files .

First i use undelete plus free to download to scan the drives .
IT showed all the folders ,files on the 2 drives.
Then i did a quick format from my computer,
and used recuva to recover most of the files .
I did not buy undelete plus, just used it to scan the drives ,
before i did a format on them.

TRy UNDELETE PLUS first and see does it work.

RECUVA was no use to me,
until AFTER i did a quick format on the 3 drives .
My laptop runs windows vista , dual core cpu 2.0.

This worked for me 3 times in a row over the last year.
sd card was a 16gig card in a usb reader .


AS a last resort i think quick formatting will do no harm,

if the other utiltys do not work.
IF you choose to do this ,its at your own risk.

i cannot gaurantee it will work.

I think quick format works cos it makes a new mbr ,
boot record ,while leaving the folders ,
data ,on the drive as is.
ie it allows recuva to see the drive and do a full deep scan on the data .

http://undeleteplus.com/landing/laptop_pc.html?ref=840&crtag=adwords&gclid=CL6D6vGb-L8CFaOe2wod4b8ADw

its free to download , and it,ll do a full scan ,free.

do a scan before you format the drive,
using QUICK format mode,

ie not the default windows full format .

i used recuva to recover the files after doing a quick format on the 3 drives .

DO not use the drive,or save any data to it ,after the quick format,

apart from scanning it ,or using data recovery tools on it to recover your files .

Another option ,is looking at the drive using a live cd, eg mint linux.
This can read windows fat32, or ntfs file format.

duckie360

bonzodog2 wrote: »

duckie360 wrote: »

Duckie, I'm in Galway too, would be willing to have a look if you have no joy with photorec etc. PM me if you like.

Thanks dude. I'll give these few tips a go and if I've no luck I'll Def meet up with ya. Cheers.

riclad

Click on drive,in MY computer menu,
click format drive d , for example.
CLICK,put a tick in box, quick format,
IN the format drive window ,
Then click ok,
IT,ll say ,this will erase all data,
click ,ok, to continue.
it,ll start the drive format process.
,Otherwise it ,ll do a full format of the drive.
Quick format takes 2 minutes on my 30gig drive.
IF you decide to format the drive .