View original (French)

External Hard Drive Failure (not recognized by Recuva)

Wal -  
jeannets Posted messages 28412 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   -
Hello,

I had a big problem with my external hard drive. It's no longer recognized by my PC.

The issue is that I would like to recover important data (especially 10 years of photos), but no recovery software (Recuva or HDD regenerator) recognizes it...

However, when you go to Computer Management > Disk Management, my PC does recognize a hard drive connected (drive 3 G:), but there are no partitions. I’m attaching the photo below.

https://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2018/15/5/1523648285-dd.jpg

Anyway, if you have a solution... It would save me 10 years of photos....

Thank you for your help.

2 answers

  1.
    jeannets Posted messages 28412 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   Ambassadeur 6 607
     
    Good evening,

    It seems to me that you already came to ask the same question or I answered it yesterday.

    If the drive is not recognized in the BIOS, it's screwed, there's nothing a regular user can do...

    I'll say it again, you need to have everything backed up... make at least one copy of your personal files each week.
    0
    1. Wal
       
      Oh no, I hadn't asked the question... It seems like two of us have the same issue...

      I’ll check right away regarding the BIOS (I imagine that if it appears in disk management, it will probably also show up in the BIOS)...

      I'll keep you updated.

      Thank you.
      0
  2. jeannets Posted messages 28412 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   Ambassadeur 6 607
     
    Yes, indeed... I hadn't seen the link to your photo, it's not in blue... Normally your drive is visible in Windows... so it's recognized by the BIOS... but you said: "with my external hard drive. It's no longer recognized by my PC" ... so to me, it wasn't recognized... There was another one.

    But looking at it, your PC is curiously organized... the F: drive is disk Zero, the C: drive is after the D: drive while normally Windows is on the C: drive which is disk Zero... etc..

    I'm surprised not to see an EFI partition with the "Boot Manager" everything is strange.
    What model of PC (or motherboard) is it..?

    Anyway, your drive is not 3GB but 2GB...??? or is there something...??

    They all have "New names" why..? are they not named differently, I think it can cause confusion.. Except for the E: drive

    Which one is the External Drive..? the E: or the F: ???

    Your photo is not wide enough, we can't clearly read the available space... But it seems that the E: is empty, all the space is available... it looks like this drive has been formatted.

    You can check what I said on the other POST https://forums.commentcamarche.net/forum/affich-35311004-grand-besoin-d-aide-dde-non-accessible#p35311093

    Normally RECUVA should find your drive... Even empty, it should find it... or this drive has bad sectors poorly placed, destroying the partition table or the file index for example...
    You can check that with "HD_Tune" https://www.commentcamarche.net/telecharger/utilitaires/11625-hd-tune/
    0
    1. Wal
       
      So yes... It's clear that it's very disorganized... It's mainly due to the fact that I've added hard drives to it... then removed them and added new ones, etc. etc... Anyway, I admit it's a bit of a mess...

      So all the drives with partitions, I can see them, I can identify them and I know what they correspond to... My question is more about the removable drive 3 (G:) no media (see image)
      There are no partitions... But there is still a removable drive 3... I suppose it corresponds to my external hard drive... but no data recovery software can find it... (I don't know if I'm being very clear...)

      Thank you for your help anyway
      0
    2. jeannets Posted messages 28412 Registration date   Status Contributor Last intervention   6 607
       
      OK, I hadn't seen that one; indeed, it doesn't exist... The volume doesn't exist, nor the size or anything... we should check if it exists in the BIOS at startup..?
      Or maybe this drive comes from another PC that is not running Windows (MAC, Linux, etc.) and its formatting is not recognized by Windows..? And still, its volume would be existing.
      In that case, it's normal that RECUVA doesn't find it...

      Maybe you have too many external drives... remove one ... restart the PC and check again. If they are all powered via USB, it is certain that there is a lack of power... are they 2.5" or 3.5" drives..?

      Otherwise, you should take it out of its case and mount it as an internal drive in a TOWER to access the drive directly and also have enough power to supply it.

      I also provided many other indications to which you didn't respond.
      0