Please note: The technology described in this article can also be used when recovering data from a reformatted disk.

Today external USB drives have become more accessible, their speed has increased significantly, and the amount of disk space has increased. This allows us to consider them practically ideal solution for storing music, videos, photos, or for use as devices for backing up files and systems.

However, USB drives considered to be reasonably reliable file storage are subject to a number of potential risks compared to internal drives and other non-removable media. This is primarily the so-called. natural risks, i.e. external drive may be dropped or mishandled, such as being left for long periods of time in a sufficiently high or low temperature, in high humidity, or in direct sunlight.

Logic errors associated with improper removal or power failures are also common risks for removable hard drives or flash drives. All major operating systems provide an "eject" command to prepare your disk for physical removal from a computer or other device. This prevents any write operations on the disc while it is being ejected. If the disk was ejected while it was being used by the operating system, then its file system may be damaged, as a result of which the disk (and files on it) will become inaccessible. When trying to mount such a disk, the computer will not be able to recognize its file system or will show unallocated space in its place (as a result, it will offer to format it). The following figures show in the utility Windows Management disks (Windows Disk Manager).

As a rule, on other operating systems, such disks will be shown in the same way.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Click on the image to enlarge it

Judging by what the data shows disk utilities it may appear that the data on the disk has been completely erased or lost. However, in most cases this is not the case. Some or all of your data may still be on disk even though the operating system does not have access to it.

If some file type is not initially supported, then you can add (create) it. Detailed information about this can be found in the article.

If you are unsure or do not know which file signature to look for, then do not change anything in the Known File Types window.

Save to File
It is also recommended to check the "Save to File" checkbox. In this case, the information about the scan is saved in a file, which avoids re-scan if the process is interrupted for any reason. Please note that depending on the complexity of the disc file structure the size of the scan information file (* .scn) can be up to 10% of the size of the scanned disk.

Scan View
Selecting the scan type Simple or None will speed up the scanning process only when you are using older, slower PCs. Otherwise, changing the scan type will not affect its speed, so you can leave it selected at the default (Detailed).

After specifying the necessary parameters, click the Scan button. R-Studio will start scanning the disk and the progress (progress) will be shown in the Scan Information panel.


Click on the image to enlarge it

Please note: Scanning large disks (especially if they are connected via a relatively slow interface (eg USB 2.0)) can take quite a long time.

Step 3
Review your lost data search results. After scanning, you will see (the partitions found by R-Studio that were previously on the disk).


Click on the image to enlarge it

R-Studio will display these sections in different colors depending on which section items were found.

Although these recognized partitions are virtual objects, you can search and recover files on them just like on ordinary logical disks.

If, after scanning, several recognized partitions were found, then it is necessary to determine which of them corresponds to the real logical disk on which the lost files were located. In most cases, the following rule applies:

• If you are recovering files from a disk with a damaged file system, then most likely the data you are looking for will be on recognized green partitions.
• If you want to recover files from a previously deleted or reformatted partition, then most likely you will need a recognized yellow partition.

However, this is not always enough. Also check the file system, the beginning and the size of the recognized partition. They must match for the recognized section and. If in doubt, try viewing a couple of files from the recognized partition. If you succeed, then the chances that you have chosen the correct section are quite high.

In our case, the recognized partition corresponding to the lost logical disk is a green partition Recognized1.

Step 4
Double-click the left mouse button on a section to view its contents. R-Studio will start re-reading its files and show the found files and folders.


Click on the image to enlarge it

Step 5
Mark files and folders for recovery. To do this, select the checkboxes next to the required files in the right-hand Contents pane.


Click on the image to enlarge it

If the disk is relatively small, then this is sufficient. However, for disks big size With large quantity files, this becomes less convenient. In this case, R-Studio offers several ways to quickly find lost files.

Organizing Files
Above the Log panel, you will find the Sorted by: tabs. By default, the Real tab is selected. It displays the contents of the section in accordance with its structure on the disk. Using the other tabs Sorted by: (Sorted by :), you can change the display structure of the files:

• Extensions - Files are sorted by their type (eg .jpg, .tif, .docx).
• Creation Time - Files are sorted by the time they were created on the original logical drive.
• Modification Time - Files are sorted by the time they were last time changed.
• Access Time - Files are sorted by the time they were last accessed.

Click on the image to enlarge it

Find / Mark
The Find / Mark button located at the top of the window allows you to search for files based on certain parameters. Clicking on this button opens the Find / Mark dialog box, in which you can set the search / mark parameters.

Click on the image to enlarge it
Using templates (for example, * and?), You can search for groups of files with the same file names or extensions.

Extra Found Files (Recognized Section)
It is also recommended to view the category (folder) Extra Found Files on the recognized partition. There are files whose parent folders were not defined in R-Studio. If the file system is badly damaged, then there can be a lot of such files.


Click on the image to enlarge it

Extra Found Files (Drives panel)
If the disk file system is very badly damaged and you cannot find the necessary files on any of the recognized partitions, then you should search for them in the Extra Found Files category of the Drives panel (do not confuse with the Additional Found Files ( Extra Found Files) of the recognized partition). Files found by scanning files of known types (which is also often called file signature search) are located here.
The names of such files have been lost, but their contents can be successfully restored.


Click on the image to enlarge it

Step 6
View the files by double-clicking on them - this allows you to evaluate how correctly the files will be restored. This is especially in demand in the demo mode of R-Studio, when you want to evaluate the chances of recovering files before purchasing a license.

The file viewer integrated into the R-Studio distribution kit supports such common files as graphics, video, audio, and PDF files... The viewer also allows you to view documents Microsoft Office even if the corresponding Office location is not installed. Full list Supported file formats can be found in.


Click on the image to enlarge it

Click Yes (OK) to start recovering files.

Click on the image to enlarge it

R-Studio will start recovering files showing the progress of the process (progress).

The recovered files can now be viewed from the folder where they were saved. If the recovery is successful, you can reformat or dispose of the damaged hard drive (although it is advisable to create an image of it or wait a few weeks before disposing). If you saved the scanned file in the second step, then you can continue to restore files in the future without re-scanning the disk.

Many people have a problem in which a removable hard drive is damaged and information is lost from it. Why this happens, and most importantly, how to recover a removable hard drive - we will try to answer these questions within the framework of this article. In fact, there are many reasons, and so are the options. But we will consider the main, most simple and available ways data recovery that will most likely solve the problem. The main thing, finding yourself in such a situation, is not to despair, but to work out all the solutions. The external medium is influenced by the environment, with a high risk of mechanical stress. Improper disconnection from the computer can also create data access problems. Viruses on the computer can also lead to problems. If the disk has not been subjected to mechanical stress, then data from it can be recovered with a high degree of probability. We will tell you how to do this in Russian.

How do I recover a portable hard drive?

Recovering a removable hard drive using standard Windows tools

There is a Chkdsk utility for this:

1.In command line write the command: "cmd";
2. We confirm the command, the console appears, write the line: "chkdsk h: / f", where "h" is your removable media.

If a system message appears stating that the check cannot be carried out now, then restart the system and agree to the offer to check this disk.

There is another, easier way to recover a portable hard drive:

1. Go to the chain "My Computer - Properties - Service";
2. Click "Run check";
3. A window opens with a proposal to automatically correct errors and restore damaged sectors - we agree;
4. Click "Start".

Recovering a removable hard drive using software

If the standard Windows tools did not solve the problem, we use special programs, of which there are quite a lot now. The principles of operation of many of them are similar, so we will focus on two widely used programs - Recuva and R-Studio. Recuva is one of the most effective demon paid programs for data recovery. R-Studio, on the other hand, is a paid program. Next, we will describe in detail how to recover a removable hard drive using the specified software tools.

Recover a removable hard drive with the free Recuva program

The work algorithm is presented below.

1. Launch the Recuva program.
2. A window appears in which you are asked to select the type of files to recover: pictures, documents, music, video, or all files at the same time. We confirm the choice.
3. In the next window, you need to select the device from which you want to recover data. Select our removable disk, click "Next".
4. A message appears in a new window that Recuva is ready to start searching for lost files. You can check the box next to "Enable advanced analysis" - then the scan will take longer, but it will be more efficient. We start the check and observe the progress of the process in the window that appears.
5. After completing the search, a window with a list of files opens. In front of each file, you can see a yellow, red or green circle. It displays the degree of damage to each file. If the color is green, then the success of the restoration is guaranteed. Yellow keeps hope. Red means that the file cannot be restored. However, from experience with Recuva, even files with a red circle can often be recovered. So, do not despair, but feel free to move on to the next step.
6. Select the necessary files (or all) and click "Restore".
7. The program offers to select a location to save the files. We choose a disk that is convenient for this. It is important to remember that the recovered files are often larger than the original ones. Therefore, there should be a lot of space on the disk selected to save the recovered files. From experience, it is better to take with a two-fold margin. If there is not enough space, then perform recovery in parts.
8. Click "Ok". The recovery process itself can be quite lengthy and last from several minutes to several hours.

Recovering a removable hard drive with the paid program R-Studio

Whether to use paid software or not depends on the importance of the lost information. If free ways did not help, and part required files failed to recover, there are two main ways to solve the problem - buy and use a paid program, or contact the professionals. The price of a professional's services depends on the amount of information you need. The program costs a fixed amount of money and can be used to recover any number of files. However, not every program may be suitable in your case, and the question of how to recover a removable hard drive will remain unresolved. On the contrary, specialists with a greater degree of reliability will solve the problem. The algorithm for working with R-Studio is presented below.

1. Launch R-Studio program.
2. In the left part of the window, a list of all data carriers connected to the computer appears, indicating the type of file system. We select our disk, and information about it appears on the right.
3. Click "Scan", the program starts checking the media. Disk cluster information appears as colored areas. By hovering over any area, you can find out all the information about it.
4. When the check is completed and an indication appears, go to the "EXTRA FOUND FILES" subsection. The subsection is located on the left side of the program window, in the list of media, right under our disk. Our files detected by the recovery program appear in the window that opens.
5. Now mark with tags those files that we need, and click "RECOVER". If you want to restore everything, click "RECOVER ALL".
6. We confirm the choice and set the save location for our files, keeping in mind the double reserve of space.
7. Start the recovery operation. A window will appear showing the progress of the process.

The program interface is quite complicated for a novice user. However, the experience of using this program confirms its effectiveness for recovering files of almost any type.

A short overview of programs for recovering data from a removable hard drive

When choosing a program for data recovery, you should especially pay attention to the following parameters:

- types of file systems that the program supports;
- what devices the program can work with (removable hard drives, built-in hard drives, flash drives, memory cards, and so on);
- what types of files the program can recover most successfully (this information is not always easy to find, often only specialists can give a reliable answer);
- the algorithm of the program (what sequence of actions is required to restore files, what information can be obtained about the state of the media and files while the program is running).

Among the free programs, besides Recuva, there are others. R.saver allows you to work with many types of file systems, including EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 operating Linux systems, which without this program are not processed by the standard Windows tools... By the way, this advantage also applies to the Recuva program. Among the paid programs, in addition to the above-mentioned R-Studio, Stellar Phoenix, Data Rescue PC, Recover My Files, GetDataBack and others have proven themselves well. Data Rescue PC has a simple and intuitive interface. Interesting this program and the fact that it is able to work even when Windows does not start. It also works through the network. GetDataBack also allows data recovery over the network. At the same time, program updates are available for life to the person who purchased it. This can be important for those users who regularly face the problem of data loss.

An external hard drive is more vulnerable than a stationary media. It is constantly transported from place to place, exposed to environmental influences, risks of falling and incorrect connection. Therefore, it fails much more often. If the operating system cannot detect it at the next connection to the computer, then this may indicate damage to its file system. Let's look at how to recover an external media without formatting.

Reasons for problems with a removable disk

• The file system is damaged.
• Happened software glitch devices.
• The removable hard drive has been affected by a virus.
• The device was not properly disconnected from the computer.
• Careless handling of the drive, mechanical damage.

Is it possible to repair a portable hard drive without formatting it yourself? In most cases, unless the device has been mechanically damaged, the data on it can be recovered. To do this, consider 2 ways.

Recovering media using Windows

The external hard drive is checked for errors. To do this, run the Chkdsk utility, which is included with Windows. To start it, you need to write the command "cmd" in the command line. After confirming the command, a console appears on the monitor, where the line "chkdsk h: / f" is written, in which "h" is the letter of your removable media.

If, when you try to check, the computer displays a message stating that this moment it is impossible to check, then you need to agree to the offer to check the selected disk at the next reboot of the system.

You can choose another way to check the disk for errors, more visual and accessible. To do this, follow these steps:

In most cases, after a scan, the hard drive will completely restore its structure without formatting. After the treatment, it will start on its own, and all the data will be visible on the monitor.

Recovering an external drive using R-Studio

You can recover external media without formatting using R-Studio. This utility works with all known file systems, recovers information from deleted and damaged partitions, works with encrypted files.

After starting the program, all disks will be displayed in its window.

All media connected to the computer will be visible on the left side. Media recovery is performed in the following order:

Because they are very large, a decent hard drive is required. If there is a shortage of free space on the media, only part of the information can be restored. The restore operation begins with the appearance of a window like this:

Using the methods listed above, you can recover information from any external media, be it a removable hard drive or a regular flash drive. This information It is useful for those who have a desire to independently, without contacting service centers, take care of restoring their device.

recoverit.ru

How to recover a hard drive without formatting is easy and simple

When using a computer, mainly when turning it on and off, the components wear out, this is no secret. The worst thing for any PC user is damage to the hard disk, as it stores important information, and one must have an operating system. As a rule, a computer, after identifying problems with an external drive, requires it to be formatted. In this article, we will look at how to recover a hard drive without formatting. I must say right away that you shouldn't worry and get nervous! Chances are high that the documents have survived.

We decide and we decide!

If your computer requires formatting an external hard drive that stores important data, then don't panic right away! In 90% of cases, checking the disk for errors saves the PC from losing information. Let's analyze the process itself below. It is important that if you are unsure of your actions, you should contact a specialist!

We will use the standard Windows command- CMD. Run as administrator, enter the following code on the command line (without quotes): “chkdsk D: / f”. As an example, the code for the hard drive D is shown, replace it with the letter of the external media that needs verification. After the actions taken, press Enter. Further, the work will be done automatically and, once the removable hard disk needs formatting, it will start with all the data important for the user.

Did not help? Do not despair!

The second method uses third party programs recovery. Download and run the R-Studio program. At the initial stage, a couple of actions: 1. Select a hard disk

2. Click “Scan”

After scanning is complete, in the open window, find and open by double-clicking on the left mouse button the line “Extra found files”! On the left, we select full or partial recovery by checking the box. Then click the Recover button and specify the path for recovery.

The second utility that can solve the problem is called Recuva. Actual numbers from real example: a person had 600 GB of information on an external hard DD, the program recovered the main 200 GB (tens of thousands of photos, songs, hundreds of films and over a dozen archives). The process is very long, for this reason, the person did not restore the rest of the data. From this it follows that 400 GB turned out to be "junk files". So, to speed up the process, make sure not to restore unnecessary information! The order of actions is described below, point by point. So how do you recover a removable hard drive without formatting? 1. Launch the Recuva program 2. Select the type of data to recover, if there are several of them, click “All files” 3. Mark the device on which they are located. 4. Click “Start”, after which the utility will start searching.

5. Choose the path and wait!

Pay attention to the color of the icon opposite the found file after scanning, before restoring. Damaged partitions or data are marked in red, but even they have a chance to be fully restored, so you should not uncheck the box!

Worthy of a Mention

The principle of operation of the programs is the same, so it makes no sense to describe all actions in steps for the third time. Good results of working with files are shown by the iCare Data Recovery Software utility, which includes 4 programs: Partition Recovery - for deleted partitions hard drive. Deep Scan Recovery - scanning and searching for files, Format Recovery - recovering files from storage media

Deleted File Recovery - for recovering deleted files.

HDD, get ready! Summing up

Voila! We told in Russian How to recover an external hard drive without formatting. Information from removable media is stored in a safe place, and problems are solved for FREE, while data recovery services cost an average of 1,000 rubles per 1 gigabyte. From now on, be careful with documents stored in digital form, do not let them sink into oblivion! To be on the safe side, it is advised to always have a duplicate with you - copied files on another HDD, USB flash drive, CD or other device for storing information.

ruinfocomp.ru

Recovering a removable hard drive without formatting

Most experienced computer users clearly separate information into work and personal. The need for this arises due to the frequent cases of virus attacks, increased requirements for data confidentiality, and the prevention of information loss. This is what led to the use of external storage devices, namely removable hard disk drives (HDD). This portable hard drive is portable device, which is characterized by significant capacity, high speed of writing and reading information, as well as original design. The devices are reliable, if necessary, you can recover information from a removable hard disk.

Data recovery from a portable hard drive can be carried out in any case, as long as the information is not completely destroyed or overwritten.

The operating system prompts you to format the disk

If the device requires formatting, you should check it for errors. They are defined using the built in Windows programs which is invoked by the Chkdsk command. The operating system will check the removable disk itself for errors and fix them automatically.

The computer will automatically reboot at the end of the scan. Found errors will be corrected.

If you cannot determine exactly whether the device needs to be formatted, and it contains valuable information, it is better to contact a specialist for repair work.

You can recover data yourself using special programs. But, in this case, the order of placement of files and their names will be violated. There are many recovery software available: R-Studio, UFS Explorer, EasyRecovery, Disk Digger and others.

Using the R-Studio application

It is worth considering that if your portable device has a large capacity, then it is worth saving the recovered data on a disk where there is a lot of free space.

After completing the process, the data recovery results will be shown in the "Log" panel.

Comments powered by HyperComments Rate this article: Loading ...

ProRemontPC.ru

Recovering information from an external hard drive (flash drive, local partition) using the Recuva program

Hey! Yesterday morning a friend calls me and says that he killed his Hitachi (HGST) Touro Mobile 1TB external hard drive. Which he bought about two months ago. Moreover, he dropped all films, photos, videos and programs thereby freeing up the computer's hard drive. And now this external hard drive has stopped working and there is 600 GB of information left on it, which is a pity (especially photos).

But a friend's external HDD stopped working for a reason :). It was like this: the hard drive was connected to the computer and stood on the system unit, a friend wanted to relax and put his feet on system unit, more precisely, to an external hard drive, which was on the system unit. And as it turned out later, the hard one began to whistle, but Andrei (that’s his friend’s name) didn’t hear this, because the music was playing very loudly. He whistled for a reason, he immediately shut down. After disconnecting and connecting, it was no longer possible to open it. A message appeared that you need to format.

Message: "You need to format the disk in drive G: before using it."

But what kind of formatting is there, so much necessary information. We thought, and came to the conclusion that first of all we need to check for errors (and they clearly appeared there, most likely it has already begun to pour in). Windows 7 Standard Disk Error Checker refused to check this external HDD. And in general, when you press right click on it, then terrible freezes began. The method described in the article How to check the hard drive for errors? did not work.

Then the boot disk was used, on which there are a lot of programs for testing and rebuilding hard disks. The chkdsk utility from the boot disk started and even went to check our external HDD. But before reaching the halfway point, the check hung tightly.

One more good utility Victoria from the boot drive did not even identify the problem hard drive. But there the problem was that it was connected via USB (only now I remembered that Victoria is also available to run under Windows, it could have been checked that way).

The rest of the utilities with which a friend tried to check the external hard drive either did not detect it, or gave errors when starting the scan. This means that it will be impossible to find or close the damaged sectors.

And then a serious decision was made, to format the external hard drive. If Windows writes that it needs to be formatted, then perhaps it will give some results.

A friend formatted this HDD and, oddly enough, it formatted and started working normally. Files were copied and read from it. But the information disappeared and something had to be done about it.

And then a little one came to the rescue and free utility Recuva, which we also noticed on that boot disk. A friend downloaded it from the Internet and he returned all necessary information that was removed from the external hard drive during the formatting process.

He provided some numbers: he recovered about 200 GB in total. 15,000 photos, 10,000 songs and 250 films (why does he need so many films? :)). And 15 more archives. He restored all the basic information. Since this process is not very fast, it did not restore unnecessary information.

As it turned out, this little miracle called Recuva saved my friend from depression and minor injuries that he could have received from relatives and friends for missing photos :). In fact, the program is good and a friend persuaded me to write an article about it, more precisely the instruction to recover data from with Recuva... What I'm going to do now.

The program is very simple and it is very easy to understand it, especially since there is a wizard that starts when you open the program and using this wizard you can very easily recover lost information from an external hard drive, flash drive, or a regular hard drive on your computer (you can even specify the folder where you want to find and restore files). Yes, as you already understood, you can restore information not only from an external HDD, I just have an example on such a drive.

Recovering information with Recuva

First, we need to download and install the Recuva program. You can download version 1.46 by direct link - click.

Open the archive and run setup file... We select Russian and click “Next” several times. I will not describe the entire installation process, it is very simple. And you will not read it anyway :).

When you see a window like the screenshot below, click “Finish”.

The Recuva program should start, and with it the wizard, which will help you restore the necessary information from your drive.

When you see the wizard's welcome window, click Next.

Next, we need to specify the type of files that you want to recover. For example, if you need to restore only photos, then mark “Pictures”, if music, then “Music”, etc. If you need to restore all files, then check the box next to the “All files” item. I think that everything is clear here, we click "Next".

We select a place on the computer, USB flash drive, external hard drive, partition, folder, etc. Simply put, the device from which we need to recover information. You can select a trash can, a USB flash drive, specify the location of the file search manually. For example, I showed how to choose local disk D. Click "Next".

We see a window in which Recuva says that it is ready to search for files. You can also check the box next to “Enable advanced analysis” (the check may take longer, but more effective) and click the “Start” button.

You will see a window similar to the one in the screenshot below. It will display the process of analyzing the disk and searching for files to recover.

After the program finishes searching, you will see a list of files that can be recovered. You just need to select the files you need, or all and click the "Restore" button. Then choose a location to save the files and click "OK". So all the files will be restored to the location you specified.

Please note that next to each file, there is a circle. It can be green, yellow and red. As far as I understood, this sign indicates damage to a specific file. I tried to restore the file with the red icon and everything was restored for me.

It's that simple, you can restore deleted files... If you want to open a more advanced interface of the program, then click on the "Switch to advanced mode" button (I highlighted it in the screenshot above).

In advanced mode, you can open the program settings, you can view the file before restoring (if possible), you can view a summary of the file, run a re-analysis, and select other locations for analysis.

Afterword

External hard drives, devices are cool and necessary. I've ordered myself a pocket for HDD 2.5, which I have left from my laptop, I will also make an external one for myself, maybe I will write a review later. But do not forget that these devices, like all the others, can fail, especially if you put your feet on them (hello Andrey) :).

But if it already happened that there were problems in the operation of the external HDD and you, like in our case, had to format it, then using the Recuva program, there are chances to restore your information, and information is sometimes very expensive and I am not talking about money now. There are many programs for recovering information, but we came across Recuva and liked it very much, many thanks to the authors.

Your questions, advice and comments, as always, can be left in the comments below. Take care of your information. Best wishes!

f1comp.ru

How to recover data from a hard drive, flash drive, drive even after formatting

Hello everybody! So, we have already saved more than one person from losing data on your external drive if it requires formatting when connected. In this article, we will consider a method and program for recovering data from a hard drive, flash drive, external drive and other devices after formatting, unsuccessful ejecting and unplugging, and if the method of checking your problem disk did not help by standard means Windows.

So I do not advise anyone to find themselves in such a situation: flash drive, hard drive, external usb drive for some reason, it does not open for you, or you accidentally formatted all the data, and the information on the device is vital to you. What to do? The main thing is not to shake, everything will be okay. Let's consider an example of both full and selective data recovery.

How to recover data from media?

1. If the hard drive or flash drive requires formatting, then this is the place for you (only if this method did not help, go on).

2. If you are not sure and the data on the media
are super important - contact a specialist. All your files will be restored in the wrong order and in the wrong names that you had before. All pictures, files, documents from 1 to infinity. Unfortunately, this is the principle of all data recovery software. Otherwise, let's move on.

Downloading the program for recovery R-Studio data and launch it. We see such a window in front of us (the program is in English, but it's not scary). In this window, you need to select your drive, it does not matter whether it is a hard drive or a flash drive, and press the SCAN button.

The program will scan your drive and try to collect all information about the data that was on the hard drive before the consequences that led you to this page. The duration of the scan directly depends on the volume of the hard disk - the larger the volume, the longer the cherished and nervous process of waiting.

Upon completion of scanning, the program will display the following window:

In this window, we are interested in the EXTRA FOUND FILES line and we click on it with the left mouse button 2 times to open it and go to the next interface

and finally we got to the coveted data recovery menu. In the left window you can select both full and partial recovery, and on the right you can even view what the recovery program found on your USB flash drive. By putting a checkmark in front of the files we need, we select what we need to restore and press RECOVER, then select the path
where to restore it all and press ok. If you need to restore everything, select RECOVER ALL. I want to warn you right away that if you have a large hard disk or flash drive, then there should be almost 2 times more places where you want to save the recovered data. If there is a deficit, I propose to restore it partially. Let's look at examples of what each folder is responsible for: Gzip archive - archives that were on the hard disk; jpeg image - pictures; mpeg layer 3 audio - music in mp3 format; microsoft word 2007 - Word documents and so on by analogy.

The end result is a completion window like this:

To summarize: we have just recovered data from your hard drive, flash drive or removable drive. Yes! the files were restored in a form that was inconvenient for us, now we will have to poke around for a long time to look for the information we need. But! We did it for free. In services, the service of data recovery from a media costs about 1000 rubles per 1 gigabyte (for example, 20GB = 20,000 rubles - a lot).

Now any of you will be able to recover information from the media, even if you have deleted all data from the hard drive or formatted the USB flash drive. Data recovery is possible - even after formatting, but you have to sweat! By the way, you can watch the video instruction below! Good luck!!!

Read the reasons why the external drive may not be detected by the computer and how to fix them... How to recover data from such a disk. With the advent of digital cameras, the process of creating photos has become much easier, and the average user is much closer to the photography industry. Previously, in order to see the photos, it was necessary to print them, for the purpose of which they will certainly go to a photo studio. Now, photography is very accessible and everyone can take photographs without the need to have any special knowledge.

An external hard drive is just like any other hard drive and is prone to breakdown and malfunction. And it is very useful to know how to deal with such problems. This article will be of interest to both those who have been in such a situation, and to other users of external hard drives.

Reasons why the external hard drive is not detected

Most of us use an external hard drive to store data backed up, but external hard drives are not always suitable for this purpose. That is why experts recommend creating several copies of important data on different media. And that is why the issue of undetectability or unreadability of an external hard disk by a computer is so important.

The external hard drive may not be detected by the computer in the following cases:

• After sudden power surges during data transfer
• As a result of physical damage
• As a result of a malfunction operating system during device interaction
• After infection with a virus or malware software
• Due to wear and tear on the hard drive due to overload
• Deletions system files disk or damage to the operating system.

If the hard drive is incorrectly detected by the system, then after connecting it to the computer, you may not see anything. No sounds or automatic opening of the root directory of the drive, it may not even be visible in Device Manager. Sometimes you might see a message like this: “To use a disk in drive F: first format it. Do you want to format it? " In such a situation, the only way out may seem formatting hard disk. But in this case, all data on the disk will be deleted.

What needs to be done in order to restore the disk's operability without losing data?

What can be done in such a situation

Before giving such a disc to service center you can try the following:

• Try plugging the hard drive into a different USB port. If after that it will be detected by the computer, then the problem is in the faulty USB port.
• Connect the hard drive to another computer.
• Change the letter of the hard drive (change its name). For this:
  • Open this PC folder
  • Look at the letters already on other drives
  • Click in the top menu of the folder window "Connect network drive"And select the" Disk "menu
  • In the "Drive" menu, select a drive letter that is not in use
  • Click "Browse" and select the unrecognized hard drive and click "Ok"
  • Restart your computer and reconnect the drive.

The last point is to make the hard drive recognizable, but the computer may still ask you to format it. Don't panic, data will not be lost even after formatting.

Recovering data from a formatted external hard drive

After you format the hard drive, do not write anything to it. Do not save any data on it and do not give it access to other programs and devices. All your files are recoverable until they are overwritten with new data.

After finishing the formatting process, immediately disconnect the hard drive from the computer and download Hetman Partition Recovery. Launch the program and in the main menu select the external hard drive from which you want to recover files.

Double click on it. In the next window, select the type of analysis you need and click next. After the end of the analysis process, you will see a list of folders and files to be restored. By clicking on any of the files in the right window, you can see a preview of it.

Check the files you need to recover and move them to the recovery trash can. Then click the restore button. A window will open asking you to specify the method and path for recovering files. Select the required functions and click next. After the end of the process of saving the files, they can be viewed in the corresponding folder.

Remember to have at least two backups of important data. Also, do not tamper with the hard disk while it is running. But in case you find yourself in a similar situation, don't panic - use our tips to recover your data.

External hard drives are a genius find of our time. It is no coincidence that they are so popular today: you can always take them with you due to their suitably small size and there is a lot of space for information on such media. Such gadgets are especially suitable for people working on several computers at once. The device is connected to a PC most often via USB technology, which is also very convenient.

The memory of such a storage medium is in no way inferior in terms of the memory capacity of a standard hard drive. In fact, with a removable hard drive, you can store twice as much as you need.

External hard drives - a genius find of our time

Based on the foregoing, one can imagine what a problem is the breakdown of a precious storage medium. But this happens very often. Since external hard drives are often carried with you, they are often simply accidentally broken, spilled on them in the office, or crushed in a bag by other, heavier things. No less often there are situations when some materials are simply deleted or the computer, for some unknown reason, ceases to perceive the disc. It is then that the question arises: how to recover a damaged external hard drive? We will understand this situation and explain in Russian the algorithm of actions in such cases.

What exactly is the problem?

From the very beginning, a little optimism: data from a damaged external drive can be recovered almost always. There are two exceptions: when you yourself have completely deleted this data or for some reason accidentally overwritten it. In all other cases, you can resort to the recovery methods described below.

Let's move on to the algorithm of actions. First, make sure that it is the removable media that is damaged, and, for example, not the computer itself. Therefore, we insert our broken gadget into another device and see if it started working. If not, then we try to replace the connecting cable. If this does not help, then it is worth checking the disk case for damage. Often it is mechanical damage that causes files to be deleted from the device's memory.

We can also accidentally break something inside the gadget. For example, electronics boards or a commutator often fail, and repeated drops or impacts lead to sticking of the magnetic heads or even a malfunction of the motor. In addition, there are also logical damages, for example, unreadable sectors. All information in them is not available for work, but you can get it using special programs that create sector-by-sector recovery copies.

But now we have examined everything, there is not a scratch on the device, but the result is still zero. Moreover, the PC, when our sufferer is connected to it, insistently demands to format the latter. Then we try to solve the problem using an intellectual approach.

How to recover an external hard drive using special programs?

If it comes to special recovery programs, then everything is serious. Nevertheless, we need to restore the device, so we proceed to decisive action. On the Internet today it is possible to do a trial recovery for free. So what we do:

1. Download the recovery program.
There is a huge assortment of those on the Internet, both paid and free, as mentioned above. Let's take Recuva, R-Studio, etc. as examples. Basically, they all work on the same system.
2. We scan our external drive. Upon completion, the program will give you a list of found materials to be restored. But since there can be as many of them as you like, the process can drag on. So it is better to immediately remove from the list those that are not very important to you (if there are any, of course). Fortunately, the programs are equipped with the function of selecting one or a group of files (by the way, a nice bonus of R-Studio if you cannot remember by the name whether you need some image or not, you can click on the icon and it will open in full format. This also makes it possible estimate, in what form, for example, the photo will be restored, perhaps after the damage only half of it remains or even less).

Here are a few more options to quickly find the files you want:

Sort all information on the disk (by extension, time of last access or change, etc.);
Use templates.

For example, by entering the name or type of extension through "and", you can immediately find all the information of this type.
What if the images, videos, or something else you need are not found anywhere in the found? Try to look in the folder "Additional found files", they should be there.
3. We proceed to the most critical part of restoring our precious files. Everything is simple here: select what you want to return, set the location on the computer (where we will return it), click "OK" and wait.
4. Check if everything is restored in a proper way. Most often, problems will not arise, and our losses will successfully materialize in the selected folder of our PC.

An important point! The recovered files can be loaded to any disk of the local system, but in any case, do not save them to the original disk!
After restoring everything you need, the removable hard drive can be formatted with peace of mind without fear of losing anything you need. If you wish, you can also dispose of it, but here we advise you to wait anyway, suddenly after formatting the situation will improve and it will be possible to use it again.

Does the hard drive model matter?

Amateurs often ask this question. We hasten to reassure you: it doesn't matter which company produced your broken device. It could be Transcend, LaCie, Prestige, My Book, Black Wallet, Clonhitachi or Toshiba, or maybe some kind of organization unknown to science. The essence is the same: all external hard drives are recovered in the same way (except, perhaps, cheap Chinese counterfeits for 100 rubles, because they are not restored in principle, so remember the popular wisdom: a miser pays twice!).

1. A hard drive, like other electronic devices, is afraid of overheating. If you do not want it to break quickly, do not allow it to heat up excessively, i.e. do not operate too intensively and in a hot room;
2. If you want to use programs like Spinrite or GRC, then this will be one of better solutions... They perfectly scan memory, find damaged areas and repair them themselves. Therefore, you can safely use it. But! Only until the moment when you do backup information. After that, it is better to transfer them to a normally working disk and finish there.
3. Often the problem is caused by power failures or incorrect removal of the drive. It seems that everyone knows that any external devices it is necessary to remove it from the computer safely (for which, in fact, there is a function of the same name, which everyone uses when they take out, for example, a USB flash drive). How the logic of people who believe that a hard drive can be pulled out of the system just like that works is not clear, but the fact remains: if at that moment some actions were performed with it, then with a high probability it will simply stop working and you will have to restore the data. Therefore, follow the path of least resistance, remove the device safely!

When should specialists restore data?

In conclusion, we list the cases when it is better to do nothing ourselves (unless you are a computer service worker, of course). So, we trust the recovery of our external hard drive only to professionals if:

1. It began to work very slowly and make abnormal sounds during use;
2. The computer does not see it or sees it under the wrong name;
3. You checked it with the program Smart diagnostics and she found problems in the hardware;
4. Unclear faulty blocks periodically appear on it.
In all these cases, any attempts to independently fix a removable hard drive or recover data from it end in failure, up to complete removal all the information stored on it.