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external hard drive giving the finger :S

Joao Sapiro
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Joao Sapiro sublime tool
hey guys now apparently everytime i plug my external hard drive onto my laptop ( and any other pc ) windows just wants to format it, it happened all of a sudden , i have alot of important stuff on that external hard drive and would be cool if windows would let me access it :( thanks alot in advance !
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  • Xaltar
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    Xaltar polycounter lvl 17
    Pull the enclosure appart, take out the drive and install it internaly in a PC (as a regular hdd). That is assuming that its a regular IDE/SATA drive, if its one of those laptop drive externals then you will need to buy an IDE to laptop drive adapter that will allow you to put it in a desktop. Then see if your data is there. If it is then your enclosure has failed and you can just buy a new enclosure for the drive. If not then you will have to download some drive diagnostic tools and see if they can correct the problem. DO NOT try to do a windows scan on the drive while in the enclosure, it can corrupt everything if the enclosure is faulty.

    Good luck.
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  • notman
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    notman polycounter lvl 18
    Basically I second what Xaltar said. The controller in your enclosure may have just died, which is the most likely problem. Verify the hard drive is still good, then you can buy a replacement enclosure.
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  • Joao Sapiro
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    Joao Sapiro sublime tool
    yeah i opened it and everything seems fine , ill try what xaltar said ( thanks mate ) altho ill proly end up frying it...
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  • Psyk0
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    Psyk0 polycounter lvl 18
    lolz, computarz hate u! :P
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  • IronHawk
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    IronHawk polycounter lvl 10
    Hey johny good luck dude. Xaltar and Notman pretty much said what needs to be done. Good chance its the controller drives usually give some indication there going to go.
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  • D4V1DC
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    D4V1DC polycounter lvl 18
    Becareful about putting it in a computer because if it has been labeled dirty windows will automatically start cleaning the dirty sectors and possibly delete half of the drive in doing so which will result in no possiblity for you to get those data sectors/files back.

    If it comes down to it and the drive is no longer accessible I have mentioned this program before it's http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/file-recovery-software/ OnTrack Easy recovery Professional which always works for me when an External Hard drive fails, I have 5 Externals so I know the deal when it comes to getting all the data you want back.

    Good Luck!
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