[Update July 12, 2016: I now use Google Drive for additional backup. You can also use other online backup services. Price of such services have been dropping. In my opinion, due to constant risk of using hardware for backup purposes, it's best to turn to cloud storage]
But the question is what if your external drive cannot be recognized or detected by your computer? How do you recover data from an external HDD not even recognized? These problems do happen here or there.
Today I'm going to show you how to fix two common issues related to data loss from an external HDD.
If Your External Drive Can be Detected by a Computer, but It Shows Errors...
In this case, your drive should be found via "Disk Management" or "My Computer" (or "This PC" if you are under Windows 10) when it is connected to a PC. But typical symptom is when you attempt to access the drive, it pops out some error messages such as “the drive is not formatted”, "The drive cannot be accessed", "RAW drive is not initialized" etc. The cause for this can be the drive is corrupted, faulty due to improper usage, or simply because the disk has been used for too many times (every technology has its own lifespan(.
Here're some general fixes:
- Step 1: See if you can use Recuva (or Pandora Recovery) to retrieve some data. Connect your external hard drive to a PC first, then download and install the recovery program to start a quick scan (no luck? go Deep Scan after that).
- Step 2: Once you retrieve your data, try formatting the faulty external using Windows internal format option. Go to Disk Management and select your drive and click "Quick Format" function.
- Step 3: Now your drive should work normally again. Note: if you have important data, you can re-use the data recovery software to scan your device again. Because a quick format won't erase the data immediately. Learn more from this external drive formatted recovery guide as it explains how.
If Your External Drive Cannot be Recognized or Detected…
There are many possible causes for this issue, for example, outdated Windows driver, bad sectors, faulty USB cable, physical damage etc.
Try these steps to see if you can fix it.
- Step 1: Re-connect your external drive to the PC via another USB cable (to eliminate faulty issues). If it doesn't work, go to next.
- Step 2: Check if there are some drivers missing or you forget to install on your PC. The best way is to go to the official website of your external drive provider and download the latest drivers. Western Digital here, Seagate here.
- Step 3: If there is no problem with the driver, then most likely your external drive has suffered physical damage or severe bad sector errors etc. I highly recommend you contact your device manufacturer for services.