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How-To Geek Forums » Windows XP

An important folder on my WD external harddrive says is asking to be reformatted

(18 posts)
  • Started 2 months ago by bluehammock
  • Latest reply from ScottW
  • Topic Viewed 95 times


bluehammock
Posts: 8

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.
Thank you for any help you can provide!
bluehammock

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Posts: 5574

Hi bluehammock. What model of WD is it?

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Scott
Scott
Posts: 2219

Just a shot in the dark but what if you drag or copy the folder to your internal HD, will it open?

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

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?

Thanks!

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Posts: 5574

Have a look here
http://support.wdc.com/product.....38;lang=en

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

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.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Posts: 5574

Look through the list of diagnostic tools, for the one that is fitting for you.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

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.
Thanks.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Scott
Scott
Posts: 2219

Can you tell if the file has contents? What is under properties? Is it empty?

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

No. It won't let me check.

Thanks.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Scott
Scott
Posts: 2219

OK, last chance gas here, for me anyway.
Last week my wife's SD card returned an error when inserted, something akin to yours, "Corruption, please format".
I plugged it into mine and it worked just fine. Have you tried to plug in the external to a different PC?

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

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?
Thanks.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Scott
Scott
Posts: 2219

The only thing that comes to mind is that if you didn't use the 'Safely Remove Hardware' option, a corruption ensued.
I'm sure you've read about this in your searching for answers, sadly when I have there seems to be no suitable fix.

Then again, as you mentioned, a for a fee a data recovery application/company may offer a solution.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Lighthouse
Lighthouse
Posts: 5574

Have a look with this.
http://www.recuva.com/

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

Thanks. I am trying recuva. I will let you know if it works.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
bluehammock
Posts: 8

It does not work because it thinks the folder is empty.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
Scott
Scott
Posts: 2219

What kind of data was in that folder anyway? It may matter if it's pictures, Office files, etc.

Posted 2 months ago #
 
ScottW
ScottW
Posts: 2502

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.

Posted 2 months ago #
 

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