I have a WD HDD Mybook Essential. I ran a free space deletion tool on the drive. After that he drive space came up as unallocated so I quick formatted it because my computer wouldnt recognize it. Now when I plug the drive in it starts up and spins light blinks as normal. I have tried with numerous data recovery programs to recover the files but the drive will shut off after about 5-10 minutes. The data I recover is unusable. The pictures wont open, Zip archives nor music files either. I have no idea what to do next. When I connect it with the SATA cable directly to my PC it stays on but cant recover the data that method maybe because of the encryption module (which I removed the security password for already). I have years of family pictures on it that I would like to recover. If anyone at all has any useful information on whats wrong with this drive please HELP. Thank you

what is that? Why would you want to delete FREE space? I'm missing something here.


Why would you format a drive that you need data from? If the computer wouldn't recognize it then all you had to do is run a recovery software WITHOUT formatting the drive.


This is not normal. Maybe your external case is faulty/overheating/etc.


Yes and no.
Yes you can 't see data due to encryption and no you can't see data because you have already messed the drive up.

What I'd suggest is make a sector-by-sector image of the drive using (for example) HDD Raw Copy Tool or ddrescue if you're familiar with Linux and you know what you're doing, and then make a full scan of that new drive using R-Studio.
You might get lucky and recover your pics even in raw format.

Good Luck.

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+1


I think this is yet another example, of the problem caused to inexperienced users by Windows "offering" that suggestion for the user to reformat the drive, when it cannot find a valid filesystem. When what Windows should really do, of course, is to explain the situation that it cannot find a valid filesystem and give possible options and their consequences, not just offer the one which is dangerous to the data.

All agreed, Simon.

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I work in a law firm and I had to securely delete numerous proprietary files that were on my drive. I attempted to run Recovery software before I "quick" formatted the drive because I thought that I would get the drive working again and recover files since it was only a quick delete. I guess it was a bad move but its done already. The drive was removed from its enclosure not sure about it overheating. Im thinking its the PCB board thats bad. Maybe the power supply or some other similar issue. Because it works and stays on when directly connected to my PC via SATA cable? I attempted recovery again with other software however, same result, I get some files and their names but when I go to open the file it says not supported format or invalid archive etc. I will try to run that software that was mentioned. I think I am going to order a donor board with the BIOS and firmware transferred also. Maybe the HDD will then stay on long enough to recovery all files. Thanks for all the assistance.

You might have a chance of recovery if Windows prompted you to format the drive, but if you followed the WD re-initialization scheme that is part of SmartWare, you are probably out of luck.

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The windows message should read "windows has detected a problem with reading your disk. Now take these steps to REALLY destroy your DATA."