I have a Western Digital 500gb external Hard Drive. Last night I was creating a new file and adding pictures to it. It seemed to work fine. When I tried to access it again in just a few minutes it suddenly wouldn't recognize the drive. Everytime I try to access it it says that the drive is not formatted and it asks me if I want to format it. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there anyway to save what was on there? Or should I just reformat and count it as lost? Also, anyone know why this would happen? The only explanation I found on the website is not disconnecting the drive properly. I don't think that is it because it recognized it after the last time I disconnect it.
I have the same problem, except I can't back it up onto my PC because my internal drive is only 80 gigs. I've had nothing but problems with this hard drive. I have the same problem, except I can't back it up onto my PC because my internal drive is only 80 gigs. I've had nothing but problems with this hard drive.
My Western Digital My book 500gb is doing the same things it doesn't show any files and keeps and telling me that my files is not formatted and if I want to reformat it! Can some help me!My Western Digital My book 500gb is doing the same things it doesn't show any files and keeps and telling me that my files is not formatted and if I want to reformat it! Can some help me!
AnonymousApr 20, 2009
worked great for 3 yrs, ext usb 250gb WD drive, next time I tried to access it, the dreaded " Drive is not Formatted..."worked great for 3 yrs, ext usb 250gb WD drive, next time I tried to access it, the dreaded " Drive is not Formatted..."
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Don't reformat. You will lose everything. It's still there. If it shows up in My Computer, right click and select Properties, then Tools, then Error Checking - Automatically FixFix Errors - just check the top box. That should fix the file system.
I've had problems with these - the 500GB, the 750GB , even the Passport 160 (so why do I buy them...)
If you need to recover stuff, I use a little 260KB program called FileScavenger from Que Tek Consulting Corporation that someone sent me. Simple but can take a loooooong time if you need deep scan. Will find overwritten stuff. But hopefully the Error checking will work.
I THINK I've got this solved. Right click on the drive, choose tools and backup your WD onto your PC.
Currently mine is backing up everything I couldn't see. Now I just have to pull it out of the backup and put it somewhere safe. Never WD again!
1). Do not format it. The formatting
process may increase the difficulty of complete data recovery.
2). Do not write anything new on this drive
in case that anything new may rewrite the original data.
3). Download a data recovery freeware. The
unformatted drive problem could occur for many reasons, such as the virus
infection, power surge, drive problem and even operating system problem, etc.
Therefore, in this case, your priority thing is to recover your needed data
back with the help of data recovery software.
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Use this data recovery program: http://www.asoftech.com/adr/ You can find it in magazines or on a internet... It is a simple, fast program which thorough scan the computer, which allows you to recover lost files Do not use the machines to take more photos before you have recovered or is likely to override the old and losing it all .... The program can also use it to retrieve other types of files such as music and video.
If you are using windows, files are transferred to the Recycle Bin before permanent deletion unless they are too large, in which case they are permanently deleted.
After permanent deletion, recovery is not possible without specialist reconstruction software and even then may be very difficult or impossible, especially if the drive has been defragmented or formatted
To restore the Western Digital icon to the drive letter for the external drive in "My Computer".
Please go to the Western Digital Download Library and download the WD Logo Icon which has a file name of External Icon.zip when you download it.
Save the file to your desktop and use a file compression software like Winzip to extract the files inside the .zip file to your desktop. When it's unzipped, it will create a folder named "ExternalIcon" on your desktop.
Double-click on the ExternalIcon folder. It will open a Windows Explorer showing a folder named, Autorun, and a file named, Autorun.inf.Double-click on My Computer and it will open.
Double-click on the driver letter that represents the Western Digital drive you want the icon on and it will open.
Highlight the Autorun folder and the Autorun.inf file. Right-click on them, and left-click on Cut when the Menu appears.
Right-click in the open space of the drive that you opened in the new Explorer window, and then left-click on Paste.
Close both Explorer windows, safely remove the external hard drive by using the Safely Remove icon in the system tray, shut down the computer, and unplug the external drive from the computer.
After you reboot into Windows, reconnect the external drive to the computer again, and the Western Digital Icon should now be displayed with the drive letter in My Computer.
If these steps do not correct the problem, you will need to re-format your External Hard Drive ***WARNING*** FORMATTING A HARD DRIVE WILL ERASE, YOU WILL LOSE, ALL DATA
Check the file system of your hard drive. If your PC is recognizing it, check if its a FAT or NTFS. If it is NTFS then you have to reformat it using your Mac and choose FAT. Mac OS recognizes NTFS as a read only drive. If you plan using it with your PC and MAC you should format it using your mac and choose MS-DOS in disc Utility. You cannot format the drive using your PC Computer with a FAT file system because of the capacity. Only Mac can format it with a FAT file system.
Yes. This is going to sound strange. Put the drive in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. Next day, take it out, hook it up, and see if it is recognized.
If so, under My computer, right click on the drive - click Properties - then Tools, then Error Checking. Check box Automatically Fix File System Errors. Let it run. If everything shows up, be ready to transfer wnat you want off of it.
Freezing shrinks the metal parts . Microscopically, but often enough to get stuck parts free enough to get working.
I just went through this with a 750Gig Book. now i have reformatted the drive (after transferring all over to new drive) and the clicking is gone and all disk checks are fine and i wonder whether to trust this device ever again... Hate to just throw out a large drive.
I have ".Window 7." Sometime I see a icon and it shows the drive size and can't read and my work. Yes, I do save my work on my hard drive, but I also want to save it on my external drive. . I even reboot.
I will recommend you to use Western Digital I my self alos using a western Digital and its very reliable to use , So I will go for buying that one and it will be a big help for you...
Same problem. Had to ditch the HD swaping and just use a network share. I lost 2 500 Western Digitals the same way and they can only say ," so sorry for you".
Drive full of data, but now when I turn it on and try to select, it asks if I want to format.
I have the same problem, except I can't back it up onto my PC because my internal drive is only 80 gigs. I've had nothing but problems with this hard drive.
My Western Digital My book 500gb is doing the same things it doesn't show any files and keeps and telling me that my files is not formatted and if I want to reformat it! Can some help me!
worked great for 3 yrs, ext usb 250gb WD drive, next time I tried to access it, the dreaded " Drive is not Formatted..."
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