How Can I Get Files Back On External Hard Drive ?

[CW1]

My external hard drive kept dropping out this morning. Checked cables, all seemed fine but only way I could get it connected again was to remove & replace power & HDMI cables. Was ok for a bit, then same thing happened so I did the same again. Dropped out a 3rd time so shut PC down & left for a few hours.

It's back now & the drive is stable (though not in use), & looking at the properties it says it's still 1.32 TB used but I can't see ANYthing. Is there anyway I can get it "back" (I don't tend to do backups of this drive *doh*) ?

[bhg481]

When you look at "properties" you should see another tab "Tools". Click on that and under "error checking" click "check now" and tick both options. It might take quite a while but it MIGHT sort things out for you.

[Buenchico]

Try the free version of Recuva:
https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

[bainbrig]

Hope Chris’s suggestion works.

My view of hard drives going rogue is that once you’ve got all you can off them, bite the bullet and chuck them in the bin.

SSDs seem more reliable than spinning discs, but still not 100%.

BillB

[Guilbert53]

Sometimes if you remove the hard disk from the case the hard disk will still work fine if you put it in a desktop PC as a second hard disk, or put it in an empty caddy.

As you have now learned a SINGLE backup is not enough. I have FOUR external hard drives and backup everything to all 4 drives (I have backups going back to before 1999 when I first got my first home computer so dont want to lose them).

Backup to a combination of external hard drives, memory sticks (for small amounts of data) and the cloud (Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox all offer free space).

I always say you can never have too many backups.

[CW1]

Tried bhg481 's suggestion (though didn't have anywhere to tick let alone 2, Windows 10), came back with
"We haven't found any errors on this drive. You can still scan the drive for errors if you want."
There was an option to Scan drive so did …
"Repair this drive.
So that's that.

Installed Recuva,
"Failed to scan the following drives:
D:: Unable to determine file system type"
Windows found errors on this drive that need to be repaired."

Loathe to be opening the drive up, so not going to try put it in the PC or in a caddy … the files *must* still be there somewhere, short of spending a small fortune in a PC shop, are there any other suggestions ?

[bainbrig]

Sorry CW, nothing from me, except sympathy.

B