Hard drive dead?

AJQS

AJQS

Suspended / Banned
Messages
7,314
Name
Alan
Edit My Images
No
I've got my old laptop hard disk sat in a third party caddy which holds the first backup of my photos, but since yesterday Windows is insisting it needs formatting before I can use it. What can I do to resurrect it?
 
Is there any chance the caddy is loose and HDD slipped out of the connector? I have one and mine is poorly made. I used a bit of foam to make sure it is a tight fit.

Did you use the same USB port as always. Some of them might have lower voltage than others, and they are only suitable for self-powered devices. That was certainly the case on older MBPs

If that doesn't help, you either have a fried adapter, or a fried HDD (more likely)
 
Unfortunately I don't have the option of trying it in anything else, it fits nothing else I have here. The enclosure is only an ebay cheapy job will have to see if I can get another and try.

Maybe asking a dumb question but is it's proximity to my Bass amp a possible factor? (about a foot away!)
 
Bass or Amp? and how powerful, I know we have some un-shielded cabs that hold 18inch bass that I wouldn't put anything from credit card to memory near as it's likely to have a very bad effect...but not sure if an amp would have any effect I'm not sure that it would

I'd try a different case first off...

If all else fails do you ave any recovery software?
 
Do you not have the data backed up?
 
if windows is saying the drive needs formating it is being recognized by the operating system but the data/format of the drive cannot be read ( hence windows wanting to format to make it readable ) if there is data on the drive you want you need to run a form of data recovery software
there's plenty out there and i'm sure that somebody will come along and recommend something my preference is a program called Arax Disk Doctor that seems to do a good job
it might need a sector by sector recovery rather than file recovery i would try file recovery first as it's a lot quicker

good luck..
 
cosmicma said:
if windows is saying the drive needs formating it is being recognized by the operating system but the data/format of the drive cannot be read ( hence windows wanting to format to make it readable ) if there is data on the drive you want you need to run a form of data recovery software
there's plenty out there and i'm sure that somebody will come along and recommend something my preference is a program called Arax Disk Doctor that seems to do a good job
it might need a sector by sector recovery rather than file recovery i would try file recovery first as it's a lot quicker

good luck..
Click to expand...

Was about to come on and say the same thing, after I ran a disk checker and it says the disk is fine, so it's a file structure problem.

HDTune_Error_Scan_SAMSUNG_HM160HC.png


What would have caused this to happen? :shrug:
 
cosmicma said:
if windows is saying the drive needs formating it is being recognized by the operating system but the data/format of the drive cannot be read ( hence windows wanting to format to make it readable ) if there is data on the drive you want you need to run a form of data recovery software
there's plenty out there and i'm sure that somebody will come along and recommend something my preference is a program called Arax Disk Doctor that seems to do a good job
it might need a sector by sector recovery rather than file recovery i would try file recovery first as it's a lot quicker

good luck..
Click to expand...



not necessarily. could just be the interface in the caddy causing the PC not to see the drive correctly.

needs to get the drive into another caddy/pc first to check its definitely not that.
 
Last edited:
neil_g said:
not necessarily. could just be the interface in the caddy causing the PC not to see the drive correctly.

needs to get the drive into another caddy/pc first to check its definitely not that.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happened to me with a WD external drive, it is a known problem with those drives that the interface in the caddy fails but the disk is fine. Windows kept saying that the disk wasn't formatted.

I took it out of the caddy, put it in another caddy and it works perfectly.
 
Well when I get a couple of quid spare I'll get a new one, it appears the drive and data are still sound so no need to worry, minor inconvenience to workflow, thankfully.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top