Lost partition on an external drive

Don't try to do anything at all on it before you have had guidance from the excellent @jumanji, whose attention has been drawn to this thread.

Best of luck,
Denis

Joe,

I urge you to wait for Jumanji.
Don't run chkdsk unless Jumanji recommends doing so.
Jumanji is widely respected in this forum for his expertise in the subject of recovering files from failed disks.

Denis

joejoe3 said:

Thanks for the replies
I will check back in few hours

While waiting, you may want to browse this thread: Suspected dead HDD

Hello @joejoe3,

I totally agree, wait for @jumanji, he is VERY well versed in this sort of diagnostics and analysis.

If all else fails, you could probably use a Linux Live Bootable USB to extract your important Folders, Files, etc., which we can advise you on if that is the recommended method of extraction.

I hope this helps.

@James,

I am liking your nicely presented posts.

Hi @joejoe3

Your local time shows as 2200 hrs. My local time is Tuesday 25th Jan 0930hrs. So expect delayed response as others pointed out. I am not sure you will catch up this post before you go to sleep. Never mind. Respond when you wake up tomorrow.

OK,
1. Post a full screenshot of Windows Disk Management with only your faulty external disk plugged in. ( Safely remove all and any other external disk/s plugged in to avoid clutter).Follow the guidelines here.How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

2. If you have any version of MiniTool Partition Wizard installed, post a screenshot of how your external disk shows up in it - the very first screen when you launch Partition Wizard..

If you do not have any version of Partition Wizard installed, download,install and run MiniTool Partition Wizard version 9.1, and post the screenshot. Download from here Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1 for windows - Filepuma.com ( If we decide only Partition Recovery is what is required, you will use this version. Partition Recovery is not free in later versions of PW)

Do not, do not, do not run check disk even if your external disk partition has a drive letter. ( Under certain conditions, you may end up losing all data)

No.

This question was even raised in Seven Forums. I said No.

Tutorials on Data Recovery can be most confusing to the readers. There is a very good tutorial by a learned author on fixing RAW drives. UPDATED How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became RAW – Unknown Kadath Yes, I rate it as excellent because I can understand it but a user reading it will have lots of difficulties in understanding it and quite likely lose track while executing it - may even make irrecoverable/incorrectable mistakes... In my opinion, it is best to go on a guided routine to help the user even if it is time consuming.

If I start writing a tutorial, I myself will get lost , since in Data Recovery there is no "one size that fits all"