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Is My data Gone forever?

By Phil chenevert - Sep. 08, 2008

My 40GB external HD will mount but .. windows says it 'is not a recognizable file type' and wants to format the drive.

any suggestions? I'm stumped.


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  1. By Randy Clark on Sep. 08, 2008

    The good news is that the volume is mounting. By that I assume you see it in the Explorer?


    Don't try any real tools on the drive if you have sensitive data that you cannot afford to lose, since they may overwrite some sectors and worsen the problem.


    1) Try it on a different PC

    2) Try it on a Mac or a Linux box and see if it mounts there.


    There are several data recovery services (just Google for them) where they will charge you some money to get your drive set up. If your platters on the drive are screwed up (it is not mounting and ticking or making weird noises), the cost will be much higher (closer to $1k), since they will have to take apart the drive.


    That does NOT sound to be the problem in your case, so you are looking at something in the $50-100 range.


    There are several disk recovery tools available that you could try too, and several of them (like Disk Doctor) that have free versions that let you see if they can retrieve any data before you pony up cash to buy the software.


    0 Votes
  2. By OSAf W on Sep. 11, 2008

    I am not sure of the seriousness of the issue, but in case you are brave enough you could try testdisk.


    http://open-source.onestop.net/2006/03/testdisk.html


    or


    http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_6.10_Release


    Let us know if it does work incase you try.


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  3. By an anonymous user on Sep. 11, 2008

    S3 Anyone?? ;)


    0 Votes
  4. By Vijaya Kumar Reddy Maddela on Sep. 26, 2008

    Hi

    I too have same problem with my external hard disk.

    When you use your hard disk in both Operating system Windows and Non Windows.

    some times you will see this problem.


    You can use Easy Recovery tool to get data from your hard disk.


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