Posted on 12/18/2014 9:18:26 AM PST by don-o
With no warning, when I plugged it in, (does run on external power) I got message "disk must be formatted". I took it to my local guy and he quoted $60 - $90 if data can be recovered.
Did a quick search and see "free" software listed for data recovery, but I am leery and seek input on what my best course is. There is nothing actually vital on it. But, I have maybe 200 GB of music that I have recorded from my singing groups that I would rather not lose.
And I would rather keep my money in my pocket. Is there any hope?
It doesn’t have to. UBCD is the operating system. You would boot to that after installing it on a thumb/flash drive. The external HDD would be recognized and you can tell from there if it’s partitioned and formatted. If it’s not, something happened to wipe the partition and you’re not going to have an easy time of recovery.
Just remember, data is never lost unless the disk is physically destroyed or degaussed. There are always ways to retrieve data.
You’ve been added. Welcome Aboard!
Can you point me to a reliable site to download it?
If you can still get to your CMD prompt, you can copy the files from there.
How doe that work? I cannot access the drive,
perfect. You are aware of SATA v. PATA? be sure to buy an enclosure that matches your HDD drive type (probably SATA if 5 yrs old or newer).
The one I found is for my specific one Western Digital Elements. Thanks to ALL for the suggestions.
NP... Holler back if you need help once it’s all situated.
It’s just ultimatebootcd.com.
Can you start your computer in safe mode? (Hold the F8 key down as the computer starts.) If you can do that, then in the command line type CMD (or if using Windows 8, select “Run” and type CMD). That will take you to the DOS prompt, from which you can navigate to the director in which your files reside and then simply use the DOS Copy command to copy the files to another storage device. Though, come to think of it, if you can start in Safe mode, you can just use Windows to copy the files.
I might give that a try. But, for clarity, assuming that allows me to get to the drive, will your solution allow me to copy and save mp3, .wav as well as movie files?
Any file.
mark for update to come
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