Summary: You unload all your important data files from your machine and copy them to your hard disk for data safety. But, one fine day you plug in an external USB or hard drive on your computer. But to your dismay, nothing happens!!! We present to you smart methods to handle such situations and recover undetected external hard drives. But first, to answer the question of how to recover data from broken hard drives, we need to introspect the underlying causes.
There might be a number of reasons why your hard disk has stopped responding. These reasons can be either mechanical or physical errors. The first cause can be the bad sectors and file system errors. That can abrupt your process to use the hard drive. The next thing could be the damaged device driver issues. Now, in order to get the data from the external hard drive, you need to use the following methods.
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How do I recover files from undetected External Hard Drive?
With the use of the following methods, you can find an answer to your problem.
1. Test the Drive in Disk Management
In order to do so, you need to open the disk management first.
- Use the keyboard for Windows Key + X (or right-click the Start button) to open the Power User menu and select Disk Management from the list.
- Another option is to open the Run dialog with Windows + R and enter msc to open this utility.
You can view all hard disks connected to your machine as information now. If still, you are not viewing your hard drive here then read on.
2. Test Another USB Port and Computer
Check if the problem pertains to your port, you are using to connect your device to the computer. Use another port this time to plug in your hard drive. Take note- if it is not working in one port but working in another, then probably you have a dead USB port.
Even after attempting both the methods your external device not displayed on the disk management then try the third method.
3. Search with Troubleshoot Driver Issues
Identify a shortcut to the Device Manager under the same Windows + X menu mentioned earlier. Or else, enter devmgmt.msc into the Run dialog to open it.
Now, expand the Disk drives category. But, if you see any device with a yellow exclamation point next to them that means that the device has a driver problem. The point at the device having trouble and right-click the device. Check Properties and look at the error messages.
Attempt for driver update with the button and restart your machine. If still the problem is there then again right-click the troubled device and pick Uninstall device option with an OK.
Reboot your system and connect the drive again. Check the drive in the file explorer. If you don’t find the drive, then update the drive drivers from the manufacturer’s website and again restart your machine. If this method fails then try to recover undetected external hard drive with the next one.
4. Create a New Drive Volume
The removable drive shows Unallocated space, then create a new partition on it. To do so just right-click anywhere on the Unallocated space, select New Simple Volume, go through the wizard to create a new partition. If still Unallocated space is there then change the Drive. To do it begin with a right-click on the removable drive’s partition and go with the Change Drive Letter and Paths. To choose a new letter when the device doesn’t have one already, click Add and choose one. In case you are in the opposite situation then click Change and try another one.
5. Format the Drive
If the drive is having partitions, but you cannot enter it, then perhaps it’s partitioned with a different file system. You can use the Disk Management feature or the DISKPART utility to fully format the drive. You can make a choice to low-level format your affected hard disk by using the HDD LLF tool.
Make a note– formatting will erase all files on your drive. So, copy all your important files on another device before format.
6. Removable Media Data Recovery Easier way
As you have already tried out all manual methods but failed to recover undetected external hard drive. We had sourced an easier alternative to help you with Removable Media Data Recovery. No worry if you deleted your data by a mishap or any other way. With a Professional approach get the deleted File Recovery in the original form.
Final Thought
To solve your questions about how to retrieve data from external hard drives, we have shared some interesting approaches. In order to save time, go for a professional approach to get deleted file recovery, today.
