External Hard Disk is malfunctioning

Asked By zoegordon 0 points N/A Posted on - 02/21/2012

Hello experts!

Why is it that when I try to plug in my external hard drive to my computer, I get an error message demanding that I reformat my disk.

I really don't want to do this because I have a lot of un-retrievable files stored in it like photos, word documents, videos and such.

I have never encountered this problem before. I've never dropped it and have always kept it safe in my drawer when not in use. 

What should I do?

 Please help.

Thanks in advance.

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• Question Category: Memory / RAM

Best Answer by Lesten Pasio

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Answered By Lesten Pasio 40 points N/A #94185

External Hard Disk is malfunctioning

Hi Zoegordon

I encountered the same problem before a year, I spent almost 3 months to get back recovering my device.
The only way to recover the device is to use any data recovery software like phoenix recovery software.
using recovery software may heats up your external hard disk that is normal though.

Use this link to download it:

It helps you to search / locate and recover all your inaccessible and lost data due to accidental format, software malfunction, file or directory deletion, virus attack, unexpected system shutdown and sabotage.

OR 

Download hiren's boot CD , it contains all the tools in one pack for all PC issues.

Download from here 

Then copy it to a CD and boot your pc with it and you can see 10's to 100's of tools to repair your pc and its components.

Recover all your data into another hard disk or another removable drive then format the drive and then revert the data back !! 
NOTE : the process of recovering is advanced sector by sector taking method so it is very slow, takes a lot of time depending on your hard disk total space.

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• Posted on - 02/21/2012
• Question Category: Memory / RAM

Answered By mastahchris 0 points N/A #94186

External Hard Disk is malfunctioning

Hello there!

External hard drives act the same as those portable USB flash drive. The usual cause of this error message are;

 

1. You unplugged the USB cable without safely removing hardware or ejecting media on system tray.

 

2. Power surges/shortages can also affect external hard drives.

 

3. Sometimes neglect can also cause this problem like leaving the external hard drive in extreme weather condition, (cold, heat, humidity, etc).

 

Since files stored on your external hard drive is not yet lost, what you can do is to;

 

1. Go ahead back up the files then

2. Reformat your external hard disk drive then 

3. Copy the files back to your external hard disk drive. 

 

This could take some time, but it will save you from using data recovery software (which will take so much of your time) if the external hard drive fails.

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• Posted on - 02/22/2012
• Question Category: Memory / RAM

Answered By Mahons Pedro 0 points N/A #195003

External Hard Disk is malfunctioning

Hello Dear,

Sometimes, an improper shutdown or sudden restart can create this problem.

It seems that the partition table on your hard disk has been spoiled.

The partition table is a file that is created when we make a new partition.

It stores all the data about the partition, such as how many sectors it has and how much space is in the partition.

When the computer is suddenly restarted, this file becomes unreadable, so it displays an error message telling you to reformat the hard drive.

I suggest you to use Partition Table Doctor to repair your partition table.

You can download it from this link.

I hope it helps.

Thanks.

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• Posted on - 02/25/2013
• Question Category: Memory / RAM