Hello out there,
I have a solution to the recurring problem where one's USB hard drive is suddenly not seen as formatted any longer. You can see it in Device Manager and even in Disk Management, but it shows up as "unallocated". I could not find much in the way of hard solutions through googling this problem, but ended up with a tidbit that paid off. There is an open source utility called Testdisk that will scan the drive to find partitions and will allow you to write the partition information back to the drive.
I tested it further by deleting the partition on a spare drive and then scanned it. The utility found the partition and wrote it again. For those with the knowledge, it also has a subsection that allows you to change the drive geometry. The download includes a Windows version and a DOS version.
The url for the utility is Mr. Grenier offers it GNU licensed (free), but donations are always welcome from what his site says.
Here is the description for TestDisk:
"TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting your Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
TestDisk can:
Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery."
The download is bundled with another utility called PhotoRec. I did not have a need to try that, but it sounds promising!
Here is the description for it:
"PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures (thus, its 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted."
When I have time, I am going to see if I can include it on my Bart's Bootdisk for use in my data recovery efforts.
Good luck,
Mike
I have a solution to the recurring problem where one's USB hard drive is suddenly not seen as formatted any longer. You can see it in Device Manager and even in Disk Management, but it shows up as "unallocated". I could not find much in the way of hard solutions through googling this problem, but ended up with a tidbit that paid off. There is an open source utility called Testdisk that will scan the drive to find partitions and will allow you to write the partition information back to the drive.
I tested it further by deleting the partition on a spare drive and then scanned it. The utility found the partition and wrote it again. For those with the knowledge, it also has a subsection that allows you to change the drive geometry. The download includes a Windows version and a DOS version.
The url for the utility is Mr. Grenier offers it GNU licensed (free), but donations are always welcome from what his site says.
Here is the description for TestDisk:
"TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting your Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy.
TestDisk can:
Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
Fix FAT tables
Rebuild NTFS boot sector
Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
Fix MFT using MFT mirror
Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery."
The download is bundled with another utility called PhotoRec. I did not have a need to try that, but it sounds promising!
Here is the description for it:
"PhotoRec is file data recovery software designed to recover lost files including video, documents and archives from Hard Disks and CDRom and lost pictures (thus, its 'Photo Recovery' name) from digital camera memory. PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted."
When I have time, I am going to see if I can include it on my Bart's Bootdisk for use in my data recovery efforts.
Good luck,
Mike