I use my external drive for everything to easily switch between home and work computers. It was working just fine but I just plugged it in when I got home. It now says there is nothing on the drive at all. I am so worried about losing everything. Is there a way to read a drive to recover any files on it?
Hi Joseph K Carpenter
Yes! There is a way on how to recover your lost or deleted files. But not all files will be recovered and most of them are completely lost, media file such as photo and video is easy to recover but files that are compressed or software am sorry there's no way to recover those things.
Here is some website that provides software for recovery that is free. Just try to look for a good rating before you download.
Things to check if you lost your file
1. Check the Recycle Bin – some file are thrown in to the trash is it was mistakenly delete
2. Use your backup – Go to your system and security located in your control panel and use your system recovery.
3. Try file recovery software – this link will direct you to that software this is one of the best recovery software for free.HERE
If you store your other files on a USB flash drive but the drive now suddenly shows no content or empty, try to unplug it from the USB port and plug it back in again then see if it works. If this doesn’t work, try transferring the USB flash drive to another available USB port. Try plugging the USB flash drive to all available USB ports on your computer.
If nothing works, try recovering your files. Download PC Tools Performance Toolkit and install it. Once installed, start PC Tools then go to “Recovery” tab and click “Recover Lost Files”. On the next screen, configure the settings then select the drive letter of your USB flash drive. Click “Start Scan” to begin scanning your drive.
If the files were simply deleted by accident, you will still be able to recover them. But if the drive is in error or has errors that results to not displaying any contents, you have to fix the errors first before you can recover your files. You can use PC Tools to fix any errors on the drive.
