Windows 10 asks you to format your external hard drive. How to recover data if a flash drive requires formatting

21.02.2017

Information nowadays plays a vital role in the lives of most people on the planet. Along with the growth of its importance, media and devices for storing it grew and developed. Once upon a time these were clay tablets on which some events that took place or information about anything were recorded, then paper, magnetic storage devices, optical discs: CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays and so on.

Now discs and cassettes have been replaced by such media as:

• Flash memory: USB drives, memory cards in phones and cameras;
• Disk devices: SSD, HDD;
• Chips: SDRAM (DDR SDRAM and XDR).

Most of these removable (portable) drives are available with the FAT or NTFS file system, since the Windows operating system, which is installed on most computers around the world, only supports these formats. In this regard, manufacturers of various types of drives manufacture them taking into account the needs of users, namely, so that the majority of users can work with them on their computers running Windows OS without any problems.

What to do when a flash drive requires formatting

There are times when information, as valuable as documents or project developments that have taken several months, ends up locked in a medium that does not want or cannot, for some reason, function normally. In a word, a flash drive will forgive you to format it. What to do then?

First of all, you need to conduct a visual inspection of the drive for chips and damage, whether the USB connector is bent due to a fall or impact, other visible damage, possibly oxidation of the contacts from moisture. Whether the flash drive or SD card has been exposed to overheating or extremely low temperatures. Repair in this case will cost much more than the flash drive itself when replacing spare parts. And it is advisable to resort to such repairs only if the flash drive contains very important data that needs to be restored.

Additionally, you need to make sure that your USB ports are working properly. To do this, connect a known working flash drive to your computer. It should be connected to a port located directly on the motherboard. The connectors on the front of the computer may not provide sufficient power.

Cause and effect

Much more often, problems with removable media are not hardware, but software, and there are many reasons for their occurrence. You can simply pull the flash drive out of the slot at the moment when files are being copied onto it and that’s it - then just formatting. Or you can introduce a malicious virus onto it, which will try to poison your life by spoiling file system on the drive. But, in most cases, you can save data even after formatting the flash drive.

You definitely need to check the flash drive for viruses; in most cases, after treating the flash drive for viral infection, it starts working normally again.

What programs can be used to recover a flash drive?

There are many different utilities for formatting, data recovery, and error testing. Here are some programs that can be used to format a non-working flash drive and restore data.

1. Utility from Transcend - for recovering deleted files from hard drives, USB flash drives, memory cards. Conducts a deep search for deleted files for subsequent recovery. Simple and convenient program.
2. Flash Memory Toolkit - great app, designed for testing, formatting, and data recovery after quick cleaning.
3. HDD Low Level Format Tool - a program for low-level HDD formatting, as well as external devices, such as USB flash drives and memory cards.
4. USB Flash Drive Tester - small demon paid program, capable of finding bad and unstable sectors. Designed for testing removable media such as SD, MMC, CF and USB-Flash drives. It supports writing tests and reading data from disk. The reading result is recorded in a log file that can be viewed at any time. Useful for testing fake drives.

Restoring information on a Transcend drive

After installing the application, launch it (the installation itself is simple and intuitive and does not require special knowledge).

We wait for the process to complete; if everything was done correctly, the files will be restored to the specified folder.

Data recovery without formatting a flash drive

Let's imagine that we have a flash drive that doesn't work. We insert it into the slot, an indication appears on it and even the computer makes the characteristic sound of a connected media, but when you try to open it, the system reports that it cannot process the data and asks for formatting.

Let's try to check it for errors using the built-in Windows tools.

TIP: Always remove any removable drives through Safely Removing Hardware, because if you hot-remove a USB flash drive or memory card from a computer, there is a high probability of damage: at a minimum, files on the media may be damaged or it will no longer be indexed by the computer, especially Chinese flash drives.

IMPORTANT: after low-level formatting of any media, data recovery is impossible; do this only if there is no important data on the drive.

The computer does not see the flash drive

Sometimes a flash drive is simply not detected by the computer. Sometimes the letter that is assigned to a flash drive is occupied by another medium; here it is enough to rename the flash drive in the section "Disk Management".

Recovering a non-working flash drive

It also happens that when you connect a non-working flash drive to a computer, an indication appears on the drive itself and, perhaps, the computer notifies with a sound signal that a new device is connected, but the flash drive is not in the safe removal list.

To solve the problem you need to go to "Device Manager".

1. Open "Start".
2. On the icon "Computer" right-click and select from the list "Properties".
3. Next, select "Device Manager".
4. Tab – "Disk devices".

IN "Disk devices" Your flash drive is there, let's try to figure out why the computer doesn't see it. To do this, let's go to "Disk Management".

1. Open "Start".
2. Right-click on the shortcut "Computer".
3. Item “Properties” – "Disk Management".

In our case, Disk 4 is a removable device, this is a non-working USB flash drive. Because, in the usual way It is impossible to recover data from a flash drive and even formatting will not work, because it is not detected by the computer, or is detected as a medium with “0” memory capacity, you need to resort to restoring functionality USB flash drives using special utilities.

If the driver for the “Disk device” (flash drive) is marked with an icon in the form of a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark, then you need to update or reinstall the drivers. You can read more details on the website of your equipment manufacturer - which drivers are needed for your model motherboard, and where to download them.

The section can also be marked as "Not distributed" This usually means that the file system is damaged. Try right-clicking the mouse and, if such an item appears in the menu, select "Create Simple Volume" to create a partition and format the flash drive (the data, unfortunately, will be deleted).

There are also a huge number of such utilities on the network, each of which is capable of either extracting information or restoring it, or formatting a flash drive in order to restore its functionality. It is advisable to install these utilities and test them on your computer only after reading reviews from users who have already used them, on the website of the developer of these programs, or on the relevant forums.

External hard drive is more vulnerable than a stationary carrier. It is constantly moved from place to place, exposed to environmental influences, risks of falling and incorrect connection. Therefore, it fails noticeably more often. If the next time you connect to a computer, the operating system cannot detect it, this may indicate damage to its file system. Let's look at how to restore external media without formatting.

Causes of problems with a removable disk

• The file system is damaged.
• The device has encountered a software failure.
• The removable hard drive has been exposed to a virus.
• The device was not properly disconnected from the computer.
• Careless handling of the drive, mechanical damage.

Is it possible to restore a portable hard drive yourself without formatting? In most cases, unless the device was damaged mechanically, the data on it can be recovered. To do this, we will consider 2 methods.

Recovering media using Windows

The external hard drive is checked for errors. To do this, launch the utility, which is included in Windows. To run it, you need to enter the “cmd” command on the command line. After confirming the command, a console appears on the monitor, where the line “chkdsk h: /f” is written, in which “h” is the letter of your removable drive.

If, when you try to check, the computer displays a message stating that it is impossible to perform a check at the moment, then you need to agree to the offer to check the selected disk the next time you reboot the system.

You can choose another way to check the disk for errors, which is more visual and accessible. To do this, follow these steps:

In most cases, after scanning, the hard drive will completely restore its structure without formatting. After the treatment is completed, it will start on its own, and all data will be visible on the monitor.

Recovering an external drive using R-Studio

You can restore external media without formatting. This utility works with all known file systems, recovers information from deleted and damaged partitions, and works with encrypted files.

After starting the program, all drives will be displayed in its window.

All media connected to the computer will be visible on the left side. Media recovery is performed in the following order:

1. By selecting an external hard drive from this list, you can look at information about this media. It will be displayed in the right window.
2. When you click on the “Scan” button, the program will scan the selected media and display information in the form of colored clusters.
3. When you hover the cursor over a cluster, all information about it will be displayed on the right side of the window. The duration of the scan depends on the storage capacity. In some cases it can take tens of minutes.
4. At the end of the check, a window similar to the following will appear:
   
5. We need to go to the “EXTRA FOUND FILES” subsection. A list of found files will appear.
   
6. Now the found files can be restored. To do this, we need to put tags next to the files that we need.
7. Press the “RECOVER” button. If you decide to restore all found files, you can immediately use the “RECOVER ALL” button.
8. After confirming your choice, you need to decide where to save the recovered files.

Since they take up so much space, a decent capacity hard drive is required. In case of shortage free space Only part of the information can be recovered on the media. The recovery operation begins when such a window appears.

All computer users use flash drives from time to time. This is one of the easiest and most convenient ways to move data from one PC to another. Flash drives have become so widespread due to their speed and versatility. But they also have their serious drawbacks. Surely every user knows of cases when a flash drive does not open and asks to format it. In this regard, many people have a question about how to restore an external hard drive without formatting.

Main causes of the problem

If the flash drive does not open, it says format, this is not a reason for concern. The file system is slightly damaged and the computer cannot read it, but this does not mean that the data is lost.

If you hover the cursor over the flash drive and open the properties, the system will show that it is empty. · “Busy” – 0 bytes. · “Free” – 0 bytes.

This indicates that the flash drive is not working and there are errors in it, or the data was damaged, for example, when the device was removed incorrectly.

To avoid problems with your flash drive, always use the safe disconnect method.

How to recover the necessary data?

The simplest solution to the problem is to format the external hard drive. Then it will work again.

If a flash drive asks to format it, how can I recover the data? A lot has been invented specifically for this convenient programs. One such program is Active@ File Recovery.

The hard drive is asking to be formatted, how can I recover data using Active@ File Recovery?

1. Let's launch the utility.
2. On the left we find our flash drive.
3. Click “Super Scan” in the top menu.
4. Next, a window with all the necessary settings should open. In this window, select the file system of our external hard disk.

If you do not know which system was used, you can mark several at once.

Click “Scan”. Now wait until the utility completes scanning. This usually takes about ten minutes. Next, “Super Scan” will appear on the left, click on it. In the field on the right you can find all the data that was on the flash drive. Select what you would like to restore and click “Recover”. Select the folder to save. The data is restored.

If you had a lot of data on your external hard drive and you don't know exactly what you need, you can restore it all at once. In addition, after scanning, you can use the search based on the data found.

How to save files if the flash drive does not open and asks to format it

Using portable storage media important information- This is a mistake many people make. In addition to the fact that a flash drive can be easily lost, it can fail and valuable data will be lost. An example of this is the situation when it is not readable and asks to start formatting. We'll talk further about how to access the necessary files.

What to do if the flash drive does not open and asks to format it

Let us immediately clarify that we are talking about an error, which is shown in the photo below.
It usually occurs when the file system is corrupted, for example due to improper removal of the flash drive. Although it does not work, its contents are not damaged in this case. To extract files we use the following methods:

It should be said right away that data recovery from a portable device does not always end in success. The probability that the above methods will work can be estimated at 80%.

Method 1: Handy Recovery

This utility is paid, but has a trial period of 30 days, which will be quite enough for us.

To use Handy Recovery, do the following:

As you can see, using Handy Recovery is completely simple. If after performing the above procedures the error does not disappear, use the following program.

Method 2: File Recovery

Same paid application, but the demo version is enough for us.

Instructions for using File Recovery look like this:

Read also: Guide for when the computer does not see the flash drive

Method 3: Recuva

This utility is free and is a good alternative to the previous options.

To use Recuva, do this:

If you have any problems, you may find a solution in our article on using this program. And if not, write about them in the comments.

Lesson: How to use Recuva program

If no program sees the media, then you can format it in the standard way, but be sure to check “Quick (cleaning table of contents)”, otherwise the data will not be returned. To do this, simply click "Format" when an error occurs. After this, the flash drive should be displayed.

Read also: How to return deleted files from a flash drive

Method 4: Chkdsk Command

You can try to solve the problem using Windows capabilities.

In this case, you need to do the following:

If the problem is really in the file system, then it is quite possible to solve it yourself by resorting to one of the methods listed above. If nothing works, the controller may be damaged, and it is better to contact specialists for help in data recovery.

We are glad that we were able to help you solve the problem.

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lumpics.ru

How to open a flash drive if it requires formatting

Very frequently asked question on computer forums. Flash memory does not tolerate frequent access very well and, if used for a long time, it begins to “fail.” The most common “glitch” is the need for formatting.

This error is especially common. And most of all, it irritates you when you know for sure that you recently formatted the flash drive. What to do? Is it possible to "pull" necessary information from the drive?

Calm. There is no need to collect lost information bit by bit. There are several ways that will help you open a capricious drive without resorting to formatting.

Of course, no method will give a 100% positive result. It all depends on which section of the flash drive “fails.” And it’s good if it’s not the one with all the information. If this boot sector, then everything will be fixed.

This article will describe ways to restore a flash drive using various methods. If one doesn't help, then the other will. The main thing is not to give up and try.

Method 1 is the easiest

To open a damaged flash drive, you need to understand the principle of placing information on it. By default, the flash drive is divided into two sections. The first one - service - contains information about the correct location of files on the drive.

The second partition contains the same files that were written to the flash drive. If a disk error occurs on the service partition, this may affect the performance of the flash drive. The partition table cannot be read, as a result of which a request to format the disk appears.

What needs to be done in order to bring the flash drive back to life? Check the disk for errors. Moreover, this can be done using the functions of the operating room Windows systems.

To check the flash drive we will use the “chkdsk” command. Moreover, we will do everything with the help command line. It would be possible to use a graphical version of the utility (it is also available), but this is more reliable.

So, let's launch the command line. To do this, go to the “Start” menu, select “Run” and enter the “cmd” command. In the window that opens, enter the following combination of commands “chkdsk j: /f”, where j is the letter that identifies the flash drive.

You may have a completely different letter. After that, press “Enter” and wait. The waiting time depends on the storage capacity. If your flash drive is too big, go have some tea. Once the process is complete, the flash drive will open by itself.

If these manipulations did not help and the disk still requires formatting, then everything is much worse than expected. This means that you need to move on to the next point in the mini instructions “How to open a flash drive if it requires formatting.” It's good that this method is not the only one.

In the meantime, let's list the advantages of the above method:

• minimum of unclear actions;
• using OS capabilities;
• all files are in place;
• completely free;
• improving command line skills.

Method number 2. Special programs

If the first method did not help, then it makes sense to prepare for the worst (the complete death of the flash drive) and try to get at least a little information out of the drive. For this purpose, there are special utilities for restoring damaged data.

Of course, not all of them work normally, but there are still those that are at least capable of something.

Active File Recovery is the most adequate product for data recovery. There is built-in support for all file systems and drive types. An advanced scanning algorithm will find everything that can still be salvaged.

There are several scanning modes. “Fast Scan” – superficially checks the drive for the presence of “live” files. “Super Scan” – “deep” scanning mode. This mode is capable of recovering files on the drive with a high degree of probability even after formatting.

There is only one minus - the program is not free. You will have to pay a certain amount to use all the functions. But this utility knows its stuff. If she doesn't help, nothing will help.

In order to try to recover files from a damaged flash drive, you need to run the Active File Recovery program, select the drive with the desired letter in the drive selection window and run the scan.

If you want to be sure of the result, it is better to select the “Super Scan” mode. It will be long and tedious, but with great chances. After checking, the program will display all found files. All that remains is to click on the “Recover” button.

This program has a very high success rate, so no need to worry.

Let's consider the main advantages of this method:

• high success rate;
• can help with serious damage to the drive;
• there is a chance to return valuable information;
• may work even if the drive is completely dead;
• ease of use;
• low demands on system resources.

If all else fails

If both methods fail, then there are only two options left. The first is to take the flash drive to specialists so that they can try to restore at least something. The second is to simply throw away the drive and forget about this annoying misunderstanding.

Why is this so? Yes, because if even the Active File Recovery program did not help, it means that the flash drive has completely “died”. Now only specialists with a bunch of programmers can get information from it (and that’s not a fact).

Even if the flash drive contained information of national importance, the chance of its recovery even in a specialized center is extremely small.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. Instructions on the topic “How to open a flash drive if it requires formatting” can only be useful if the drive is not completely “dead”. Otherwise, it's not much use.

Although, with the help of this small instruction, you can give a final diagnosis to the flash drive and scientifically prove that the drive cannot be restored. As well as the information on it. So, this article cannot be considered completely useless.

In any case, strictly following the instructions described in the article can help bring the flash drive back to life. Or restore information. Which in this case is practically the same thing.

vacenko.ru

How to open a flash drive when the computer asks you to format it

Flash drives are a very popular and convenient means for storing and transferring information between computers. They are very reliable, can be rewritten many times, and are practically not affected by external factors such as a magnetic field, the sun, and in many cases even moisture. However, the USB storage device may experience problems from time to time. One of the most famous is that when the computer is connected, the computer starts writing that the disk requires formatting, and the flash drive itself does not want to open. When viewing the properties of the drive, its capacity is displayed as 0 bytes, and the file system is RAW.

There are several ways to open a flash drive without formatting.

What to do in this case? Okay, if it doesn’t store important data, you can simply format it and continue to use it safely. Well, what if you can’t delete the information? Is there a way out?

Fortunately, in most cases the flash drive is damaged only at the software level, while the physical data continues to be recorded. Failure may occur due to various reasons, most often due to the action of viruses, and also when during a recording or reading session the work was completed incorrectly, for example, you pulled out the flash drive from the socket or the power supply was turned off.

There are several ways to regain access. We will go over with you the working methods and methods that will help you recover files on your portable drive. All you need to do is follow the instructions carefully.

Checking for errors

The fastest, easiest and least painless way to regain access to files on a flash drive. To do this, you don’t even need to download additional software, as all operations will be performed using the Windows command line. So, you connect the media to the USB connector, and instead of your files opening, you see a sign asking you to format the flash drive.

1. Click "No" if you really don't want to lose the recorded data.
2. Run Command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, click the Start button, enter cmd in the search bar, right-click on the utility in the search results and select “Run as administrator.” On Windows 10, you can select the corresponding item by right-clicking on the Start button.
3. After the jumping cursor is displayed after the system folder address and user name, type the command chkdsk x: /f, where instead of x, enter the letter under which your flash drive is displayed in the system. Check this information in your file explorer. To confirm and launch, click Enter.
4. Wait a couple of minutes while the utility does its job. The total time will depend on the size and class of the flash drive, as well as the number of files.

If everything goes well, you will soon be able to view the contents of your portable drive. Just in case, copy the data to your computer’s hard drive and format the flash drive to get rid of any remaining problems.

Virus check

A very common and fairly common reason that the system does not display the contents of the flash drive and asks you to format it may be that it is infected with viruses. For example, the so-called autorun virus turns all folders and files into shortcuts, hiding them, and some other viruses generally begin to require formatting the media and do not display its contents. Therefore, if checking the disk for errors did not lead to changes, perform a virus scan.

To do this, you will need a regular antivirus or a portable antivirus scanner. Any antivirus has the ability to scan the system up to separate folder. In the settings you need to indicate your USB drive that needs formatting and wait until the procedure is completed. If you use free antivirus and it missed the threat, download one of the free portable scanners. By the way, detailed review We have already written about them on our website in this article. Check out its contents. In addition, regularly monitor the security of your system so that you do not suffer from emerging problems.

Data Recovery

Although in most cases the first two methods work flawlessly, let's imagine a situation where they did not help. In this case, you can try to restore data using software specially written for this purpose. There are a huge number of such utilities. Let's consider the two most best programs: TestDisk and R-Studio. They are simple and not at all difficult to understand. At the end, don’t be too lazy to clean it up, because a formatted drive no longer contains damaged sectors. How to open a flash drive using each of the utilities?

TestDisk

1. Download the program from the official website.
2. Insert the USB flash drive into your computer; when prompted to format, reject it.
3. Create a folder on your hard drive where the recovered files will be copied, and unpack the downloaded program into it.
4. Launch the recovery application by double-clicking the photorec_win.exe file.
5. Use the arrow to select the desired drive and press Enter.
6. Select your flash drive's partition table type, again using the arrows to navigate through the list. Press Enter to confirm.
7. Next, select the partition to restore. You will need Whole Disk. Move the pointer using the arrows and press Enter.
8. Select the file system type by checking Other, which will imply FAT
9. Select the folder where the recovered files will be copied. By default, the procedure you created at the very beginning is selected.
10. Click Y to start the process.
11. At the very end, go to the folder and view all the files that were recovered.

R-Studio

1. Download the utility from the official website and install it on your computer.
2. Open the main menu of the program, find your flash drive in the list of directories. It usually appears at the very bottom of the list.
3. Click the "Scan" button at the top of the screen, confirm the operation in the next window that opens.
4. Select the files you want to recover and click the "Recover" button.
5. Wait until it finishes and go to the folder where the recovered information is stored.

Low-level formatting

Quite a lengthy procedure that cannot be described in a few words. For this purpose, we have prepared a separate article dedicated to low level formatting. In it we described the full cycle of actions, and also included links to all the necessary utilities. You will succeed if you carefully read the material provided.

Conclusion

We hope that we helped you solve the problem in which the contents of the flash drive cannot be opened, and the system says that it needs to be formatted. In the comments, we ask you to tell us whether the article helped you.

NastroyVse.ru

What to do if the flash drive stops starting

Flash drives have long become an indispensable attribute of a modern person. They are very compact and have impressive capacity. Quite often we write important data there and do not create backup copy. But in vain, these devices often fail and can take away all the necessary information. Let's look at what to do if the flash drive stops working and says that formatting is required.

What to do if the flash drive asks to format

Data recovery

First, let's restore important information from a flash drive.

Please note that self-recovery does not always end in success. If you do not want to risk important information, it is better to take the faulty device to a specialized institution.

For this we will use a special program called Handy Recovery. This is a paid program that has a trial period of 30 days. Let's download and run it. We are not formatting the flash drive yet.

Select the required disk and click “Quick Recovery”. If the program does not see the flash drive, then apply “Quick Format” to it. To do this, in the “My Computer” window, right-click on the device and select the desired item. After that, we'll try to restore it again.

This program recovers data from removable media, not the device itself.

After this, all the data that was found will be displayed in the left column. Regular folders are exactly the information that was on the flash drive at the time of the breakdown. Those marked with a red cross are files that you deleted from the media.

Choose required file and click “Restore”.

If everything worked out, then you are lucky. Now let’s figure out what to do with the flash drive itself, which has lost its functionality.

First, test it on other computers, preferably with different operating systems, and insert it into a different connector. If the problem is present everywhere then move on to the next point.

Virus check

Very often, the path to removable storage can be blocked by malicious objects. One of these is Autorun.inf. To eliminate it, we can use the Anti-Autorun program. You need to download it and run it, the rest is in automatic mode.

If the problem persists, we will scan the computer along with the removable media with our antivirus.

Then we use additional funds. First, download and install the Malware utility; it does not interfere with the work of your defender and can be used in parallel. Let's check.

The scan must be run in the entire system area (including the flash drive).

Let's use the portable utility AVZ, which is also effective in searching for various threats.

If nothing is found, let's try using AdwCleaner.

We clear everything that we managed to find and reboot the computer.

Deleting a partition and creating a new one

Go to “Administration-Disk Management”. Find your device in the list.

Now let's go to the command room Windows string 7 (in the search field we will write cmd) and enter “diskpart-listdisk” one by one, in the resulting list we will select the letter of your flash drive, you can determine it by its size. If the wrong section is selected, you will lose all the information on it. Enter “select disk” (removable media number).

Now let’s go back to “Disk Management”, the flash drive area has become unallocated. Right-click to create a new volume.

On the screen you will see “Wizard for creating a new volume”, click “Next” everywhere. Let's focus on choosing a file system. I will format it to "Fat 32".

After these steps, my flash drive began to work normally. If you don't have it, you can use special programs to recover removable media. Just keep in mind that after using such software, you will not be able to return the data, so do this in advance.

Recovering a flash drive using special utilities

The choice of program depends on the brand of your device. Some manufacturers produce specialized utilities, others do not.

If such software is not available, you can use programs that are suitable for most media. For example D-Soft Flash Doctor. Let's download and run the program. It does not require installation. Select your media from the list and click “Recover”.

If all else fails, then most likely there is a hardware failure in the device. Take her to a specialized center. Perhaps they can help you there.

chopen.net

The system asks you to format the flash drive: what should you do to prevent the data on the drive from being lost?

A fairly common occurrence is when a user inserts a USB drive on which some important information is stored into the appropriate port, but the system asks to format the flash drive. What to do in this case? First of all, don't panic. The point is that with the right approach to solving this problem, the data is likely not going anywhere. IN as a last resort they can be restored even after formatting. The methods proposed below allow you to avoid the need for formatting with full restoration everything that is stored on a removable device.

The system does not read the flash drive (asks to format): what to do?

In general, the mistake of many users is storing important information or personal data on removable media, since they are more than hard drives, susceptible and software failures, and physical damage.

We are not talking about physical damage now, but as for software problems with the appearance of bad sectors due to a violation of the integrity of the file system, here you need to apply appropriate troubleshooting methods. Let's say the computer asks you to format a flash drive. What to do? After all, complete formatting will destroy absolutely all data. It would be nice if quick formatting is used. Recovering information in such a situation is as easy as shelling pears. But the system offers to perform a full formatting. In this case, you can start by using Windows tools with parallel use of special software to restore the functionality of both the device itself and the files stored on it.

The flash drive does not open (asks to format): what to do in the simplest case?

The first method for restoring the drive's functionality is to use standard means disk check, but launched not through the disk properties section, but from the command line starting with administrator rights.

To run it, you can use the Run console and the cmd command, or directly open the cmd.exe file in the System32 directory of the main directory operating system.

So, the computer asks you to format the flash drive. What to do? First, you need to remember the drive letter, and then in the command console write a line to check the media for errors and automatically correct them. For example, if the device in the system is listed under the letter Z, the command looks like this: chkdsk z: /f. Depending on the volume, the process may take quite a long time, so you will have to be patient. At least in most cases, software failures can be resolved quite simply.

The most popular utilities for recovering removable USB drives

If the failure cannot be corrected using the method described above, you will have to use additional software.

Among the most popular and most efficient programs are the following:

• TestDisk.
• Handy Recovery.
• File Recovery.
• Recuva.
• R.Saver and R-Studio.

TestDisk

Now let's look at a situation where the first method did not work, and the system again asks you to format the flash drive. What to do in such a situation? One of the most effective methods, many experts call the use of the TestDisk program, which operates in DOS mode.

With this utility everything is quite simple. We launch the program, select our device with arrows, indicate the parameter value for the partition table (usually Intel), select the partition to be restored in the form of the entire media (Whole disk), for the file system select the Other parameter, which corresponds to FAT32, and at the end we write full path to a pre-created directory in which the recovered files are supposed to be saved.

Handy Recovery

Now a few words about one more program. Again, it is assumed that the system is asking you to format the flash drive. What to do if the previous methods did not work? We can recommend using the Handy Recovery program.

After starting the utility, in the main window, select a removable disk, click the start analysis button, in the results select the folder or file that needs to be restored (they will be marked with the appropriate markers), and click the restore button.

File Recovery

Let's see what can be done if the previous method did not produce results, and the system again asks you to format the flash drive. What to do in this case? Use the File Recovery program.

There shouldn't be any problems with her either. In the main window, from the menu on the left, select removable media and click the SuperScan button, then specify the file system type, click the start process button, and then use the data recovery function by calling it from the menu or immediately using the Ctrl + R key combination. After This specifies the final directory for saving data, after which you can completely calmly start formatting, if this is really necessary.

Recuva

The Recuva program is quite popular among ordinary users because it is very easy to use.

To recover files, you can specify a specific data type (for example, audio, video, or graphics). If you want to find everything that can be recovered, select the All Files option. In the results, files that can be restored to their original state are marked in green. Those that you can try to restore are yellow, and those that cannot be restored are red.

R.Saver and R-Studio

But the Recuva application does not always work correctly, not to mention the fact that it may not detect long-deleted objects. In such a situation, it is best to give preference to the R.Saver and R-Studio utilities, which are very similar to each other.

It is these two programs that are capable of finding on removable media even those files that the user does not even know about deleting. Of course, the scanning process will take much more time, but the result will be completely unexpected for many.

An external hard drive is a compact device that provides the ability to store copies of data and transfer large amounts of information from one device to another. The advantage of an external HDD is the use of a USB interface, which allows you to conveniently connect the device to any tablet, laptop and PC. Its remaining parameters are similar to a regular computer hard drive.

Despite the advantages of conventional hard drives, the device also has disadvantages. When working with an external HDD, users may have the following problem: the disk cannot be accessed and it needs to be formatted. Let's look at the causes of this problem and how to deal with it.

To organize and store information on any type of storage device (external hard drive, flash drive, hard drive), you need to apply a set of special rules determined by the location and method of storage. This is a certain set software, providing access to information in a convenient form for various applications. The most popular file system now is NTFS. It is also used on external hard drives.

Damaged or missing file system

When viewing information about an external drive to which access is prohibited and if it needs to be formatted, you can see that instead of a file NTFS systems became RAW. This indicates a missing or damaged file system on the disk. Often the data itself remains intact.

Not all users know that in addition to recorded files, there are special file identifiers on the HDD. They contain information about the file type, its size and other attributes. This method In terms of organizing information storage, it is permissible to compare it with a table. There is a key and the data itself, and they can be accessed by using a specific identifier. If the key column disappears, it will be quite difficult to gain access to specific information. This occurs when the disk file system is damaged.

Options for solving the problem when the external hard drive does not open

Most in a simple way to return the file system to the external drive, the standard CHKDSK command type will be used:

1. The command line is launched (press Windows + R, enter “cmd” in the field that appears and click “Run”).
2. A console will appear in which to write the command “CHKDSK disk_name: /f”. In disk_name place the name external drive, which has a RAW file system.
3. This method copes with minor damage to the file system. There is a risk of losing some data.

There are applications that provide file system recovery on disk. The most popular is GetDataBack. The utility recovers all data without loss.

If these two methods do not work, and the external drive still does not open and asks for formatting, then you need to perform hard formatting disk. Quick formatting will not result in data loss. Information in the form of zeros and ones will remain on the disk, but access to it is lost. There are applications that help restore this information. Conventional formatting completely deletes information, but solves the problem with accessing the external hard drive.

Formatting using Windows

The following steps are required:

1. Connecting an external hard drive to your computer and open the “My Computer” window.
2. After the system detects the hard drive and it appears in the “My Computer” window, you need to open the context menu of the external drive and select “Format”.
3. A window will then open showing the disk formatting settings. Here you need to select the file system, specify the disk name and enable the function quick formatting.

It is better to choose the NTFS file system. FAT has a large number of limitations, and under modern conditions it has become frankly outdated. Using the Quick Format feature will create a clean file system without physically deleting files from the external drive.

If you disable the quick format feature, this process may take several hours. The volume label is optionally set. After setting the required parameters, you need to click on the “Start” button. Then a window opens with a warning about deleting all existing data on the disk being formatted. Once the formatting process is complete, the external drive will open again and be available for use.

Formatting via the command line

You can format your external hard drive using the command line. To do this, connect the disk and launch the Windows command line.

Disks are formatted using the FORMAT command. To search for all parameters that accepts this command, just enter “FORMAT /?”.

To format an external hard drive, you must execute the FORMAT command with the following parameters:

1. /Q – enables the quick formatting function.
2. /V:MyDisk – indicates the name of the disk. You can use any other name instead of MyDisk.
3. /FS:NTFS – formatting using the NTFS file system.

To format an external hard drive, you can use this summary command: FORMAT X: /FS:NTFS /V:MyDisk /Q. Here the letter X represents the name of the external drive being used. When formatting using the command line, it is important not to mix up the drives.

There are no additional warnings displayed during the disk formatting process using the command line, so you need to be careful.

Formatting via Disk Management

Windows OS has handy tool, which is called "Disk Management". Its functions include formatting disks, creating and deleting partitions, as well as performing other operations. To access this tool, you need to open the “Run” menu and enter the command “diskmgmt.msc”.

After opening the window, the following steps are performed to format the external hard drive:

1. Search for an external hard drive and open its context menu (right mouse button).
2. Choice in context menu"Format" item.
3. The user is shown a warning about deleting all data from this disk. To start formatting, click on the “Yes” button.

External hard drives are very convenient and useful devices. If a situation arises when the external hard drive does not open and asks for formatting, then you can solve the problem yourself. Just follow the instructions given above in the article. To prevent incidents of information loss, you can copy important data to other storage media.