Shay6969

Hi

I think I may have accidentally deleted some files from my external HDD (TOSHIBA PX1223EE-1G32 3.5" 320GB EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE ). Whilst formatting my Lap-Top hard drive. I’m running WIN XP PRO Service Pack 2.
The confusing thing is XP does it’s usual and say’s it’s recognised the USB device and that it’s ready to be used but the drive is not in MY COMPUTER.

I would really appreciate any help as I have some important documents in there and I really hope that I haven’t lost them.

Fingers crossed for your advice!!!

auntiej

did you make sure you formatted your internal hard drive or is there a chance you chose the external? (If you did I think it would then have to be initialised before being seen in My Computer which is why you can't see the drive?) I can't see that formatting the internal drive would lead to loss of files on the external. Before you do anything else, As xp has recognised the usb drive have you performed a search for the lost files?

cjessee

Have you tried plugging the drive into a different computer to see if the dive shows up under my computer?

If you have formatted and deleted the partition on the USB hard drive, it will not show up under my computer.

Shay6969

There may be a chance that I chose the External, Any ideas how I would go about initialising it so that it can be seen in my computer?.
I haven’t tried searching for the lost files but I will give that a go.

I have tried plugging it into a different PC and I get the same thing, it’s a older PC but it has worked before.

cjessee

Sounds like you have deleted the partition... the data may still be there... All of the really easy recovery tools need that drive to be partitioned... I've never recovered an external drive but there are tools out there for this.. I am sure that someone can suggest.

Shay6969

That sounds very comforting

I really hope that it is recoverable I just need to know how errrrrr!!!

linderman

the problem you have encountered is the draw back to using Win XP home edition and disk management for setting up the partition parameters


when you are booted into windows and use disk managment the external hard drives partition set-up geometery is written to the boot drive

when you formatted your boot drive there went the external hard drives partition info

the best way I have encountered to get your data back is to use this program
http://www.runtime.org/

it has a free scan feature that allows you to scan your external hard drive, then if you can "see" your files they are recoverable after you pay for a license serial key

if you look in disk managment now; I'll bet your external hard drive will be seen as raw or unallocated ????

if you dont know how to access disk management see "my favorite links" in my signature / then look for Disk managment how to in the "format & Partitioning" section

Shay6969

Will this fix it so that the HDD will now be visible in my computer? i'm sorry if this seems a silly question i'm not very good a computer stuff!

linderman

yes that "should" fix the problem


the reason why you cant see the drive in my computer is the drive is now considered "raw" or "unallocated" have a look in disk management to be sure

http://www.techsupportforum.com/hard...anagement.html

Shay6969

Yes you are right I’ve checked in disk management and the disk is there and like you say it says un-allocated. Can I choose to format and keep my files or do I have to recover my files and save it elsewhere and then format in disk management?

cjessee

I would suggest against adding any partitions or formatting the drive at this point... it may only hinder the recovery process.

Shay6969

I thought as much thanks, I think i'll try the recovery first.

linderman

if your files are worth $70.00 to you use getdataback

http://www.runtime.org/


you must recover your files to a different drive first then reformat and make sure you use the NTFS file system