Disk Format Error Message

LaRockLaRock TX, USA
edited November 2009 in Hardware
First off, I am VERY green when it comes to tech knowledge. I've come here in the past to solve spyware issues, and that's it. So please keep the kid gloves on...;)

OK, I've had a Dell Dimension 2400 for several years...Windows XP (recently added Office 07). I installed a second hard drive to keep photos, videos, etc. This is my "Local Disk F."

I wanted to retrieve some family photos from the F drive and when I tried to open it I got this message: "The disk in drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

From my limited knowledge I thought formatting wiped out everything on the disk. I really don't want to do that! There are pics and docs that are years old that I don't have backed up anywhere else.

Is there anything I can do to save these files? Let me know if I need to provide any other info to you. And thank you in advance!

Comments

  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited October 2009
    Usually that happens if the drive's formatting information got lost through bad sectors or something. Though yes, (quick) formatting the drive erases the file allocation table that tells Windows where everything is. I believe a full format erases everything and writes zeroes, though I may be wrong, Thrax can correct me on this.
  • LaRockLaRock TX, USA
    edited October 2009
    So I'm guessing I should sit tight until Thrax or someone can recommend what I should do.

    Thanks for the reply, danball! I was dreading a reply along the lines of "sorry dude--you're screwed."
  • LaRockLaRock TX, USA
    edited November 2009
    ...anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? I really don't want to lose everything I have on that drive.
  • foolkillerfoolkiller Ontario
    edited November 2009
    I've seen this a few times with Maxtor Hard Drives. You can try a program called Active Undelete that I've had pretty good success with, costs about $50. Or you can go the free router and grab a copy of PC Inspector File Recovery. Whatever you do, DO NOT write anything to the disc, or you will drastically lower your chances of recovering anything.

    With the Maxtor drives, as a last resort, I used to use Fix-CIH from grc.com of all things. Every drive I've used it on was completely repaired (No physical defects on the maxtors, they just nuke the tables for some reason.) Note that this will only work on FAT32 drives, not NTFS, and it can be highly destructive, so if you really need that data, this method is a no-no as it writes data back onto the drive.

    If I think of anything else, I'll post here for you. One thing you might want to do, if you have the space, is take a forensic copy of the disk to an image on another drive and work on that. That way, you aren't touching the original drive at all and if you make any mistakes, you won't risk losing data. This can be done using Norton Ghost, Drive Image, or if you have Linux skills, dd will work as well.
  • LaRockLaRock TX, USA
    edited November 2009
    Thanks, foolkiller. I downloaded PC Inspector File Revovery. I found a video tutorial on how to run the program. However, when the files were supposed to appear in File Recovery (like they did in the tutorial vid) they never showed up for me. There is nothing under Root, Deleted, Lost, or Searched.

    I can't recall the exact brand of my drive, but I know it's not Maxtor. So I'm going to skip the Fix-CIH step.

    Any other ideas please let me know. Thanks again!

    EDIT: I also had a program recommended to me called TestDisk. A friend said something about a lost partition--I have no idea what that means. But I followed the steps and when it found a partition I tried to list all the files in it. Instead of showing the files I got this message: "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged." Not sure if that helps at all but I thought I'd include it just in case.

    One last question...Since this is a removable hard drive, can I try to unplug it and plug it into a new computer? That may be a stupid question but I do have a second computer in the house and if that's all it takes I can do that, copy my files over, and then go from there. Sorry if that's dumb to ask but like I said I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to things like this.

    Thanks!
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