External drive data Lost - Windows 10

callahan34 · 08 Nov 2023

Hi everyone. My drive data seems to have disappeared. I think the file system may be corrupt? My back up failed some time ago and I have never got around to making a new one. Now I feel like a complete idiot.

Any help would be appreciated. Have lots of photos of the kids on that drive and would really like to get them back.

What I have done so far:
I can see the drive in file explorer... Drive E. ...but i am not able to access it. I attach an image.
I have been reading threads on this site for assistance and attach image of partition Wizard.
I have also run MiniTool Pawer Data Recovery but it gets stuck around the 53% mark. i attach image.

Hope someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

Thank you for your time

Samuria · 08 Nov 2023

Welcome to the forum. It's not clear so the drive shows up has a drive letter so when you try and access what happens any error what does disk management show post a screenshot. Has it been in the pc all long or just added

dalchina · 08 Nov 2023

First please do the obvious thing.. check the disk.

Hard Disk Sentinel (includes SSDs, portable version available) is very good.
Simply run it, click the tab for that drive on the left and look at the GUI.

Post a screenshot.

callahan34 · 09 Nov 2023

Thank you for your replies.

When I try to access the drive from file explorer I receive the following message.

"E:\ is not accessible. The file directory is corrupted and unreadable"

I attach a screenshot.

External drive data Lost - Windows 10-dfnhsrb.jpg

- - - Updated - - -

I have downloaded Hard Disk Sentinel. I have run a hard disk test. I attach results.

External drive data Lost - Windows 10-sdgmjhm.jpg

External drive data Lost - Windows 10-nfdgg.jpg

External drive data Lost - Windows 10-mjdghnrstg.jpg

dalchina · 09 Nov 2023

Let's ask for some advice.. @jumanji - hi, this appears to be a potential case for data recovery. Would appreciate your thoughts. Thanks!

I also note it's marked Active, and there's a pagefile.sys on it - so presumably has been a system disk at some point.

callahan34 · 09 Nov 2023

Perhaps many years ago? I have not had an operating system on this drive and used it simply a drive to store data for as long as I can remember.

Samuria · 09 Nov 2023

As it states it's lost connection with the drive so it could be cable or connection if possible put in the pc that would rule out cable connection interface

dalchina · 09 Nov 2023

It hasn't lost connection -not entirely- although that shouldn't be the case. It's also possible that count is historic rather than recent, so needs more investigation. The count does not mean communication was erratic during the test for example.

However, it is indicative of an issue. Is the cable fixed or removable?

callahan34 · 09 Nov 2023

The drive is housed in an enclosure and connects to the computer via a USB cable. I have tried various USB slots on the desktop. Including the ones at the back of the PC. This did not resolve the problem. I then purchased a new enclosure hoping that would resolve the problem but it did not.

hroldan · 09 Nov 2023

callahan34 said:

The drive is housed in an enclosure and connects to the computer via a USB cable. I have tried various USB slots on the desktop. Including the ones at the back of the PC. This did not resolve the problem. I then purchased a new enclosure hoping that would resolve the problem but it did not.

Try drive properties and assign a letter to your drive. Sometimes... out of weird reasons this is lost and then Windows won't show your drive, other times it will show using whatever letter Windows thinks it's ok. If this doesn't work, I suggest trying to boot with a diff OS, like Linux. The best thing to do is trying non invasive things first.

Then, try diff enclosures, diff USB cables, or diff USB ports, or mount your drive internally. If all of these things fail, then move to check disk, or data recovery.

Personally... I avoid USB hdds, yes I have them and use them for backups, but I don't keep them connected. I really appreciate the use of USB, but I don't trust it enough to depend on it fully connected at all times, cable failure or moving your setup might affect your system.