Windows 10 I can't view the files on my external hardrive because it says I have to format it first to use it. HELP!!

[digiman2372]

Hello everyone, the USB port on my external harddrive broke, so I bought a SATA adapter. Now, when I plug it in, it tells me that I have to format my harddrive in order to use it. I can't do this obviously because all my important data is on there. I tried restarting my computer, using different USB ports, and even using a different computer. It still keeps saying that I need to format it in order to use it. I tried using Test Disk to restore the partition and it has not been working. I want to stay away from data recovery programs because sometimes they don't recover everything and it's also difficult to tell which file is which. What do I do?

 

[patcooke]

Have you run the disk check tool in file explorer?

 

[digiman2372]

how do I access the disk check tool? I am using windows 10. would it be called something different in windows 10?

 

[patcooke]

Hold the windows key and press "e" to open windows explorer. Navigate to the drive you want to check, right click on the drive to be checked, click on "properties", select the "tools" tab and click on "check."

 

[digiman2372]

it says it cannot check because the disk needs to be formatted. I am considering trying a new operating system to see if it works.

 

[Neemobeer]

Run chkdsk on the drive as suggested.

 

[digiman2372]

it says "chkdsk cannot work on RAW drives" or something like that. when I check disk management, it dsoes show up as "RAW"

 

[Neemobeer]

Sounds like the partition table is corrupt you'll probably need to do as it asks and format the drive. If it contains important data you should be able to run a recovery program and recover the data

 

[digiman2372]

I was hoping to avoid a recovery program because they usually change the file names and make everything disorganized. Are there any good ones that you recommend?

 

[Neemobeer]

Testdisk or getdataback both should keep the names

 

[digiman2372]

i tried testdisk before and it doesnt keep the names unfortunately. not that i remember at least. i'll consider getdataback though, thank you!!