Hi everybody,

Few days ago I was working with my computer as always, all of a sudden my external HDD Transcend 500GB stopped working. I was not using any files from the HDD, however I'm not sure if they were busy by a hidden task. I found the drive was ejected and since then, every time I tried to open it by double clicking on the icon, windows says I need to format the drive in order to use it.

I tried to scan it using Partition Find and Mount and apparently there was no issue found. Unfortunately the software did not provide any log.

OS: Windows 7, 64 bit

Could you please help me find a solution for this problem? Do you suggest scanning for bad sectors? What software?

Khashayar

PS. I was advised to take the HDD out of USB enclosure and put into another one and recover files. Because it's possible that the USB enclosure caused the HDD not to open. I tried to recover files without changing the enclosure. but the problem is that I prefer testing the drive before opening the case !

Yes it is always better to connect directly via SATA or IDE as long as hardware encryption is not used in the caddy.

Does it make any strange noises? if so stop & seek a pro.
Did you use any encryption software?

Just make sure your aware of the risks involved in trying DIY.

If so then the best advice it to first do a sector by sector image of the full 500Gb drive using R-Studio demo software then you work on the image file to recover your data not the hdd. That way if you make a mistake you dont ruin your only chance.
You can then try R-Studio demo software to scan the Image file & if it lists your files then you can purchase the software & recover your data if your lucky. Just a note : if the MFT is corrupted or been overwritten then you will lose the folder structure & file names & you will only get a RAW recovery. Other software you could try is FTKImager and an Ubuntu boot cd

If your data is important then seek a dr pro dont put it at risk.



Loki

Hi everybody!

I recovered all my files finally. THANK YOU!

I just share here what exactly I did for those who might encounter this problem in the future. Please read above first!

First I created an image file using R-Studio (full version) and saved it on a separate drive to make sure I have a backup! Then I tried 'Open Drive Files' feature of the software and luckily MTF was not damaged or overwritten so I had all the folder structure and file names exactly as I had them before! This was I could choose what file needs to be recovered. So now I have all the files I had!

One question though: What should I do with my damaged drive to make it usable? let windows format it? what do you recommend as the safest?

I should thank Loki for the great post he made!
Khashayar

Congratulations on recovering your data

Regarding your hdd: You can see if you can format it, if it does then maybe your lucky & it was just the partiton that got corrupted
Also you can download & install the free version of hddsentinal from http://www.hdsentinel.com/ it will give you an idea on how well your drive is.

Loki

Hi again Loki,

I used Disk Management to perform a full format on the drive. It will takes a long time to finish the format.

Thank you so much for your help. I'll keep you updated if anything happens.

Khashayar