http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ How-To Geek Forums Topic: An important folder on my WD external harddrive says is asking to be reformatted en Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:56:57 +0000 http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44397 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:25:53 +0000 ScottW 44397@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>I'm confused. Why would a *folder* need to be formatted? Perhaps we are actually talking about partitions, not folders. In that case, the OP should be looking in Disk Management to see if the partitions are still there and proceeding from that. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44383 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:43:11 +0000 Scott 44383@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>What kind of data was in that folder anyway? It may matter if it's pictures, Office files, etc. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44381 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:56:43 +0000 bluehammock 44381@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>It does not work because it thinks the folder is empty. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44380 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:47:56 +0000 bluehammock 44380@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Thanks. I am trying recuva. I will let you know if it works. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44377 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:23:00 +0000 Lighthouse 44377@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Have a look with this.<br /> <a href='http://www.recuva.com/'>http://www.recuva.com/</a> </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44376 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:14:41 +0000 Scott 44376@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>The only thing that comes to mind is that if you didn't use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' option, a corruption ensued.<br /> I'm sure you've read about this in your searching for answers, sadly when I have there seems to be no suitable fix.</p> <p>Then again, as you mentioned, a for a fee a data recovery application/company may offer a solution. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44374 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:58:15 +0000 bluehammock 44374@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>It says the folder is empty. I did try a different computer. Still empty. Where would the data go? How can a folder just become empty?<br /> Thanks. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44373 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:57:00 +0000 Scott 44373@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>OK, last chance gas here, for me anyway.<br /> Last week my wife's SD card returned an error when inserted, something akin to yours, "Corruption, please format".<br /> I plugged it into mine and it worked just fine. Have you tried to plug in the external to a different PC? </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44372 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:52:52 +0000 bluehammock 44372@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>No. It won't let me check.</p> <p>Thanks. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44370 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:36:48 +0000 Scott 44370@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Can you tell if the file has contents? What is under properties? Is it empty? </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44368 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:29:00 +0000 bluehammock 44368@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>I hope I did the right thing. I looked on line and checked both repair options. It is running very slow. I imagine it will take hours, so I am going to just leave it at this point. The file I lost is very important - a month's work. I know - I am really stupid for not having it backed up. If I knew I could pay to recover it, I would be ok with it. I worry it is lost forever and that would be pretty devastating.<br /> Thanks. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44366 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:17:54 +0000 Lighthouse 44366@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Look through the list of diagnostic tools, for the one that is fitting for you. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44365 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:12:36 +0000 bluehammock 44365@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Thanks, but that is not the kind of hard drive that I have. Mine is external. I am running the check disc option, but I am worried it is not going well because it is extremely slow - as in - even in an hour it is not going to finish. </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44361 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:41:29 +0000 Lighthouse 44361@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Have a look here<br /> <a href='http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=504&#38;sid=30&#38;lang=en'>http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=504&#38;sid=30&#38;lang=en</a> </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44358 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:27:59 +0000 bluehammock 44358@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>There is no model number on the hard drive. It is from 2006 (one of the large silver external harddrives). I tried dragging the file onto the desktop of my laptop and it came up as empty when I opened it. Any suggestions?</p> <p>Thanks! </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44355 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:08:18 +0000 Scott 44355@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Just a shot in the dark but what if you drag or copy the folder to your internal HD, will it open? </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44354 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:07:29 +0000 Lighthouse 44354@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>Hi bluehammock. What model of WD is it? </p> http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/an-important-folder-on-my-wd-external-harddrive-says-is-asking-to-be-reformatted#post-44352 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 09:58:23 +0000 bluehammock 44352@http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/ <p>I hope you can help. I am not terribly computer proficient. I have a Western Digital external harddrive. I was using it and then suddenly it said the 2 of the folders where I was saving things were unformatted and asked to format them. I said no. But I cannot access anything in these folders. One is entirely expendible, but one is incredibly important. What should I do? My desktop is about 5 years old and I am running XP 2000.<br /> Thank you for any help you can provide!<br /> bluehammock </p>