External hard drive comes up as "local drive" and can not open.

[Peter_Lyby]

Hi.
I was going to copy a file from one laptop to another by copying it to an external harddrive, I copied it as usual, but when I plugged it in the other laptop, the hdd was recognized only as local drive, it took quite long to show up, and it can not open.
I tried to plug in the hdd on the first laptop again, same result now; seen as “local disk”, and not opening.
I did the “remove safely” procedure before unplugging.

When I plug it in now, it starts, I can hear it and the little light goes on blinking, but it takes long before it is recognized (as local drive).

The only thing that comes to mind as reason, is that the laptop I copied from, had a reminder of making a windows update. And it was like it was hanging a bit, so I was thinking if the safely remove hardware could have been hanging also, even the message that I could remove was there already?

So I Googled a bit and looked at The Harddrive in these different ways; Chkdsk, Disk management and Device manager

Chkdsk in command promt sees it properly with what seems to be the correct number of files and space available. See pictures.
But I can not go to the D: drive, when I try, it takes quite long, and comes up with “incorrect function”

[ATTACH type=“full” alt=“checkdisk 1.jpg”]9035[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH type=“full” alt=“checkdisk 2.jpg”]9038[/ATTACH]

Disk management can see the hdd, but sees it as healthy but empty. When I click proporties, it takes quite long, and comes up empty with 0 available. See picture.

[ATTACH type=“full” alt=“Disk management.jpg”]9036[/ATTACH]

Device manager shows it as present and working properly. See Picture

[ATTACH type=“full” alt=“Device manager.jpg”]9037[/ATTACH]

I believe it should be possible to retrieve the files, maybe even restore the HDD, Im just not so knowledgable and of course I dont want to make mistake and loose it all.
Can someone guide me to in this, hopefully with some free software, the budget is tight at the moment.

Regards, Peter

[phillpower2]

Not sure how but the D: has been converted to RAW and the drive is shown as being 100% empty.

Scan the drive with Recuva which is free, if that finds nothing the data is not there.

Couple of (free) ways of converting RAW to NTFS here

Follow the steps provided by Recuva, once you have any files saved you then try methods one and two at the previous link that was provided, if neither method helps you then have the option of purchasing a program like EaseUS Partition Master, others are available.

[Peter_Lyby]

Thank you for your reply.
After I posted, I started investigating further, and actually Recuva was the second scanning program I tried, and it says it is unable to determine file system type. Is that the RAW and NTFS you are mentioning, is this the file types?
I then asked it to do more thorough or something like that, and it found a few files on the D: but nothing really, and the 2 files i tried to recover, could not be recovered.
But the first I tried was “Recoverit”, since it said free download, but it was only the download that was free. I found that out when it stopped at about 50 percent scanning done and claimed that I should quickly recover, (of course after I should pay 70 dollar or something ), but the thing is, that it had at least found all the folders on the drive, so im thinking there must be something that recuva was not able to find, even Recuva also seemed to be quite popular and good, from the comments I read about it.

As I understand it, I should not try to converting RAW to NTFS yet. Im guessing it would be like formatting?

[phillpower2]

. Is that the RAW and NTFS you are mentioning, is this the file types?

Yes and if after doing a deep scan and saving anything that may have been found the files could not be opened I’m afraid that the data looks to be lost, this doesn’t normally just happen and usually involves human interaction or malware so if you are sure that you clicked on nothing and that there was plenty of free storage space on the drive you would do well to get the PC and the problem drive checked for malware.

but the thing is, that it had at least found all the folders on the drive, so im thinking there must be something that recuva was not able to find,

I think that if you read the small print that it will say that the program does not guarantee the safe recovery of anything that may have been reported as having been found, the same goes for the very expensive data recovery services.

As I understand it, I should not try to converting RAW to NTFS yet. Im guessing it would be like formatting?

The idea of trying to save anything that may get detected by Recuva is so that you at least have a back up of what was on the drive, as it stands you have no other option than to try methods one or two here

You are welcome btw

[Bruce]

@Peter Lyby - still need help?

[Peter_Lyby]

Still working on it. Just not so much time
Will conclude when final action have been done.

[Bruce]

all good - keep us at to date.

[phillpower2]

To avoid us having to ask for an update every couple of days we will close this thread until the OP has the time available to work towards resolving the issue, PM a member of staff when you are ready and the thread can be reopened.