[homerpovey]

Ok, I know it's me again, I guess I should go on an IT course

Anyway, I was getting my desktop ready for sale and transferred my stuff onto my 500gb external hard drive. Near the end of the transfer it stated there was an error and now when I click on the drive it says it need formatting

There's so much important stuff on there I don't even want to consider that it's all been lost. I've tried PC Tools File recovery but it can't even find the drive. I'm worried if I re-format it so it can be found I'll have even less chance of finding anything.

Advice please

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by homerpovey

Anyway, I was getting my desktop ready for sale and transferred my stuff onto my 500gb external hard drive. Near the end of the transfer it stated there was an error and now when I click on the drive it says it need formatting

I'm assuming you went and sold the desktop after you backed the stuff up? If it died during the transfer you'd still have the stuff on the desktop still to back up again

[homerpovey]

I've still got the pute. I've been running recovery on it all morning, it's just there were some files on the external HD that were not on the pute.

Do you think it will recover files if I reformat or is that a long shot?

[Rhythmwiz]

I wouldn't format it, that's not going to help. Have a look at this programme, called GetDataBack. I've used it successfully to restore files from corrupted USB sticks even when Windows doesn't recognise the drives or states that they need formatting. It works very well, so I reckon it's worth your trying out, at least use the demo to see if the files can be recovered.

http://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm

[homerpovey]

I'll give that a whirl, thanks

[cupid_stunt]

I use Easy Recovery Pro, it has salvaged my files from doomed drives on many occasions, works best if you can fit corrupted drive in the pc along with the good one, a simple way to do this is to unplug your dvd writer and connect the drive to its leads, easy recovery then sees the drive no problem.

[homerpovey]

Cheers guys, GetBackData worked a treat.

[Rhythmwiz]

Originally Posted by homerpovey

Cheers guys, GetBackData worked a treat.

Good stuff, glad you got your files recovered

[Silent Bob]

Time to double back up the really important stuff then methinks.