Unexplained message to format a hdd

[cpritch007]

I'm a bit of a hdd junkie - I have five external usb hdds attached to my Acer Aspire M3400 running Win7.

Yesterday a message popped up to say that the drive on M: requires formatting.

Anybody any advice or guidance.

Basil.

[loki]

I'm a bit of a hdd junkie - I have five external usb hdds attached to my Acer Aspire M3400 running Win7.

Yesterday a message popped up to say that the drive on M: requires formatting.

Anybody any advice or guidance.

Basil.

Yes dont do it

IF you choose to do a DIY then you accept the responsibility & risks that go with it.

Take a sector by sector image of the full drive to another drive & then run DR software on that.
R-studios can make an image but remember to run as admin. You could then use R-Studios to scan the image & retrieve the files maybe?
Could also try FTK Imager to see if that can access your files.

Loki

[cpritch007]

Thank you Loki.

I had a look at R-studios and was a bit frightened by the price. So I am in the process of installing FTK Imager. I'll let you know how I get on but I'm already a bit worried about all the technical jargon.

Basil.

[loki]

Thank you Loki.

I had a look at R-studios and was a bit frightened by the price.

If that price frightened you then I guess DR prices are out of the question then.
Which leaves you DIY or place the drive in a draw somewhere safe & then save up until you can afford a DR recovery.

[pcimage]

$49.99 frightened you?

Data can't be important/valuable then

[dick]

The free software from this site would be a good start......
http://hddguru.com/software/2007.05.25- ... and-Mount/

[loki]

I would still recommend using R-Studio demo to create a sector by sector image first

[northwind]

Agreed with previous posters. If $49.99 frightens you, then how much would you expect to pay for your data?

Besides that, R-Studio gives you GREAT freedom in demo mode, you can first see if it does the work for you and THEN buy it. I think that's very fair.