External Hard Drive wont boot

Hi, I have a WD 2TB HDD1021 external drive and when I connect to my Windows 10 PC I get what looks like the partition in the drive ( 31 GB)which shows the following files;
Bootmgr.efi
bootmgr
setup.exe
autorun.inf
boot
efi
sources
support
All my back-up files are not showing

I went in to Disk Management and found the partition where the my files were backed up, was showing as unallocated. I allocated a drive letter, but now I'm getting the following message;
The Volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure drivers are loaded and the volume is not corrupted.
I'm being prompted to format the Hard drive which I know will delete my back-ups. Can anyone please help.

I'm running Windows 10, version 1909

To assign a letter you must have it formatted. Don't do anything.
The files you mentioned are from a installation drive. Tell us the story of this installation files. How and when they were transfer to the drive.
- Did the disk had these files when you were able to access your data?
- Did you use any program (like Rufus) to make it a boot able drive?

Open Disk Manager, expand the window and the columns so we car read them and with the snipping tool take a snapshot of the whole window. Post the image here as an attachment.

1) Open disk management > by default some columns are compressed > widen each Status and Volume > make sure the contents within the parenthesis are in full view and that none of the characters are cutoff > view disk 0 > widen this row as needed so that all of the characters are in full view > post an image into the thread
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

2) Download and install Minitool Partition Wizard > click launch > post an image of the results into this thread
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com
MiniTool Portable Partition Magic Brings Easier Disk Management

3) Run Crystal Disk standard edition:
CrystalDiskInfo – Crystal Dew World
Post images into the thread.

4) Run Sea Tools for Windows
long generic test
Post an image of the test result into the thread
SeaTools for Windows |
Seagate
How to use SeaTools for Windows | Seagate Support US




Take Screenshot in Windows 10
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...re-screenshots
How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files at Ten Forums

Hi, thanks for the very prompt reply.
I have no idea how the files were added, however when I looked at the "exe" file, it is a Windows Installer which was added on the 7th April.
I use this drive very infrequently and I don't know when the files were added.
I have never used Rufus to make a bootable disk.
I have attached my disk Management file for your perusal

After posting the results for steps in post #3:

a) Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste (all at one time):

Code:

bcdedit / enum all
reagentc /info
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par

When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

For what I can see, the HDD was used to create a Windows installation drive. To be able to boot as UEFI, the disk was partitioned (32G) and formatted as Fat32. The remaining partition remained unallocated.
Open /sources. Do you have a install.wim or install.esd ?

The F: drive 32 GB Fat32 partition is named ESD-USB. This is the standard name used by the Media Creation Tool when it makes USB install media. It is almost certain that this USB extenal HDD was chosen by mistake as the destination USB when running the MCT.

Bree said:

The F: drive 32 GB Fat32 partition is named ESD-USB. This is the standard name used by the Media Creation Tool when it makes USB install media. It is almost certain that this USB external HDD was chosen by mistake as the destination USB when running the MCT.

I also suspect the same thing, that is why I asked to OP to confirm if he has a install.esd file.
I think the chances to retrieve the data is very low.

Megahertz said:

...I think the chances to retrieve the data is very low.

The partition table and the first 3 to 4GB will have been overwritten by the MCT (8GB if the MCT was making media for both x86 and x64). Data there would be lost forever, but the rest of the drive would have remained untouched and may be recoverable. Or at least it may be as long as @Agh55 hasn't made any further writes to the drive.

@jumanji knows a thing or two about data recovery and may be able to help. The important thing is for nothing further to be done to this drive until advice is received.