Recover Files on External Hard Drive Without Formatting

Recover Files on External Hard Drive Without Formatting

 

What you need to know is that hard drives could be better. In particular, as machines age, their issues with data transmission and storage become more severe. Any one of the issues described below may block access to the drive. Let’s take a look at some of these common reasons. Why your external hard drive will suddenly stop working:

👾 Virus invention: When your computer is infected with a virus, it can also be passed on when you connect to an external hard drive to be attacked. The virus may attack your file system, so you can’t access your hard drive properly, but your files are likely stolen if more severe. 🔗 Transfer corruption: If you remove the hard drive during the transfer of complex drive data, then it is likely that the hard drive, including the data, has been damaged. Once your hard drive is damaged, you won’t even be able to access the contents of the files stored there. 💀 Failed devices: Any device, including an external hard disk processor, has an aging life. It is best used and least prone to problems when it is first manufactured. They also gradually accumulate dust, rust, and various issues as time goes on. So when it comes to the end of its life, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to access internal files correctly, and that’s when you need a new product. 💥 Physical damage: The difficulty of not being able to access data due to physical damage is the most difficult to fix, such as water, falling objects, electrical failure, and so on. If you encounter this issue, our method may be complicated to help you. You need to contact the manufacturer to help you check the repair.

 

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How to Recover Files on External Hard Drive

 

No matter which reason causes your external hard drives to be unreadable, as long as your original data hasn’t been corrupted, they’re theoretically recoverable. Even when you delete the data, it doesn’t disappear immediately. What you delete is the entry for the user to access. This time, if you do not write new data into it, avoid new data to replace the content you want to restore. If you use data recovery software, chances are you’ll get them back. If you need to know which software works well and want to save as much time as possible on it, we suggest you use WorkinTool Data Recovery Software.

 

 

WorkinTool Data Recovery Software

This data recovery software works for a variety of different data loss cases and from multiple storage devices to retrieve and recover lost or unreadable data. It has the most straightforward user interface and no learning cost operation interaction process. As long as you can operate a simple computer system, just three mouse clicks of the software can restore any content you want. You can scan and identify up to 400 different file types and, depending on your needs, use the filter to pinpoint and recover to a specific location. Of course, in terms of price, this software is also the lowest in the same software. It also offers a 500 MB free trial of recovery permissions. You can choose to upgrade to a premium membership after trying it.
Six recovery options are built into the software for different data loss scenarios. Users only need to, according to their own needs, select the corresponding options according to the prompt to scan, filter, and find and restore data.

Deletion Recovery: Recover deleted files like pictures, documents, videos, audio, and more types of file loss. Format Recovery: It is used explicitly for hard drive formatting data recovery. USB/Memory Card Recovery: Retrieve data from your flash drives, memory cards, and many other external storage devices. Recycle Bin Recovery: Restore files that are permanently deleted from the Recycle Bin. Disk Partition Recovery: Recover raw disk partitions and all the files in them. Deep Recovery: If you cannot find your files after scanning, use this deep recovery feature to do a deeper scan.

See how it works:

1. Open WorkinTool Data Recovery and select USB/Memory Card Recovery. Then, select the hard drive partition and click Scan Now.

📣 Notice:

Remember to connect your external hard drive to the PC first. Otherwise, it won’t be showing on the recovery page. After joining, click Refresh to continue with the following steps:

2. After scanning, you can use the Filter feature to locate your desired file.

3. Finally, click Recover and wait for the recovery to complete.

 

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How to Fix Corrupted External Hard Drives Without Formatting

 

The approach we have provided above is to use data recovery software as the fastest and most stable solution when you desperately need in-memory data. However, this method does not restore regular access to your external hard drive. So what’s the best way to fix this without using its recommended formatting? You can try the following solutions to access your hard drive.

 

#1: Assign or change the drive letter

If you want to access your drive’s operating system correctly, you need at least one drive letter for your drive. Check if it cannot be accessed because it does not have a drive letter. If not, manually assign or change the drive letter:

1. Search for Disk Management in the Windows search box and open it.
2. Right-click on the external hard drive disk and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
3. Tap Change on the assigned drive letter.
4. Select a new letter to the drive.

 

#2: Update the Drivers

The driver is important because it enables the operating system to communicate with the connected computer hardware. However, if the drive used by the external hard drive is damaged or obsolete, it is likely to be inaccessible. That’s fine. You can manually re-install the driver or update it to the latest version to solve this problem:

1. Type Device Manager on the Windows search box and open it.
2. Find your USB on the Disk Drives option and click Uninstall device.
3. Try reconnecting your USB to the computer. The computer will download the latest drivers automatically.

 

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Bottom Line

 

In this article, we have provided solutions for recovering external hard drives without formatting, and we have tested and proven each to be effective. You can choose the one that suits you best according to your own situation. But these are not cures, and they could happen again. If this happens again, our best recommendation is to use the recommended WorkinTool data recovery software directly and then consider formatting the drive to restore functionality. This is the fastest and most convenient way to recover data stored on a damaged external hard drive.
If you have any questions or better suggestions, please get in touch with us.