Need to format HDD Before use ?

[newbie112]

Hi guys !! A Big trouble !! My WD HDD Contains my Biology Research of 3 years ... This Has never happened Before ... Today after returnign from the College I Plugged in my HDD to edit the research work nd continue it. The HDD Plugged in successfully !! The Problem is when i Plugged it in I got a message saying that I have to Format the HDD Before I can use !! Any Solutions on How to bypass the problem and access the data !! It Contains around 30 GB of DATA !! and all are very important to me !! .... Can anyone please Tell me How to bypass the Formatting part and try to regain my data !! PLEASE PLEASE Reply ASAP !!

[Keatah]

You'll need to provide some additional info. Things like model #, does it show up in disk manager? I assume this is USB interface? And what does the partition information say? RAW perhaps? Is it making strange noises? IF SO THEN UNPLUG IT IMMEDIATELY. This unit been dropped or banged around?

[newbie112]

You'll need to provide some additional info. Things like model #, does it show up in disk manager? I assume this is USB interface? And what does the partition information say? RAW perhaps? Is it making strange noises? IF SO THEN UNPLUG IT IMMEDIATELY. This unit been dropped or banged around?

Forget it buddy Solved the prblem myself !!

[Keatah]

Now, the next thing you do is go and make some backups. Always keep a 2nd copy of anything you can't afford to lose. Make it on a separate device. And buy your media from a reputable source, this means NO ebay. Too many fake things, especially flash devices like keydrives.

Depending on how involved you want your backups to be, you can get all sorts of programs to do it for you and adhere to a rigorous schedule. Or you can just drag and drop files whenever you feel like it.

[poehere]

Change your drive I see this a lot in WD. If you got back your data you can now make some clones of it using ddrescue it is free and works great. This way you do not loose your data again. Store it in more than one place if it is of value to you. Never relay on one drive only for this one. Good luck and glad it all worked out for you on this

[JWCC]

If this is for professional use, a NAS will be worth the money and effort. They have these boxes you can buy that fit on your network and come with a CD. It goes right next to your router and some even come with a hard drive already in them. You just install the software and tell it what folders or partitions to keep backed-up. It's nice because you don't have to constantly remember to back things up and verifying your backup is working is easy. There are also ways to use it with encryption over the Internet to say, your office. You can install another one somewhere else or subscribe to some service that does the same thing for you.