Hard drive is corrupted and unreadable what to do? Please Help!

Bree said:

Run Winver. If you are on the Anniversary Update it will say version 1607 build 14393.351 (the last 3 digits may be lower in you don't have the latest updates). If you were updated in the last 10 days the option to go back to the earlier build is in: Settings > Update & Security > Recovery

Thank you again for your response. Currently. after my reboot, I am on version 1511 (Build 10586.633). I did another Windows update and it says everything is up to date. How do I update to this anniversary update? It seems like it is not this update that is causing my problem.

You probably don't want to go for the Anniversary Update yet, it has been known to cause such 'missing drive' problems (that's why I wondered if you had just got the AU). Let's see if others can help you get your drives working first. :)

EaseUS data recovery is good. I would still make a USB/DVD of Kyhi's recovery drive. Booting from that and accessing the drives in question will tell you if it is the drives that are the problem, or your Windows 10 installation. Given your inability to update to the latest edition of Windows 10, I would say that it is time for a clean install of Windows 10.

Bree said:

Run Winver. If you are on the Anniversary Update it will say version 1607 build 14393.351 (the last 3 digits may be lower in you don't have the latest updates). If you were updated in the last 10 days the option to go back to the earlier build is in: Settings > Update & Security > Recovery

Sorry added by mistake....

Bree said:

You probably don't want to go for the Anniversary Update yet, it has been known to cause such 'missing drive' problems (that's why I wondered if you had just got the AU). Let's see if others can help you get your drives working first. :)

I won't do, but so I understand anyway, where can I find that update? How did you update to that version? I have no clue why I can't. Sounds good. Thank you again.

NavyLCDR said:

EaseUS data recovery is good. I would still make a USB/DVD of Kyhi's recovery drive. Booting from that and accessing the drives in question will tell you if it is the drives that are the problem, or your Windows 10 installation. Given your inability to update to the latest edition of Windows 10, I would say that it is time for a clean install of Windows 10.

Thank you again for your time and assistance. Awesome! Sounds good, but I can't make this yet until I get this drives working, am I right or am I missing something? Will making a boot from those drives cause the files to not be recoverable?

Actually, I did a reboot this morning, but I am going to do it again anyway.

How did you update to the anniversary update?

You only need a storage location large enough to hold the 1 GB or so ISO file of Kyhi's recovery drive. Then you get yourself a 2 GB or larger USB flash drive. Make it bootable:

Create a Bootable USB Flash Drive

At step 9 make sure to format it as FAT32:
9. To format the partition, type format fs=fat32 quick, and then click ENTER.

For step 12, you will mount the ISO file of Kyki's recovery drive and copy all the files and folders from the mounted ISO file to the USB flash drive, then boot the computer from the USB flash drive (you will have to enter your UEFI/BIOS settings and find the boot override options to boot from the USB flash drive).

I always do the big updates like the Anniversary update by downloading the ISO file and manually updating the 12 computers in my house.

Read my quote in the opening post of Kyhi's recovery drive thread and you can make yourself a bootable USB flash drive that will boot into Kyhi's recovery drive and that you can install and/or upgrade to the Anniversary update from:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

mrje1 said:

Hi mck,
Yes, I have been using these drives since December of 2013. No, not first time use.

Here is the weird thing, I just checked again and now it is showing the name I gave it and the drive letter E: It is also saying now it is a Healthy Partition.

When weird things like that happen, it can be:

1. Power supply starting to go bad.

2. A marginal device plugged into the USB bus.
The same type of USB ports in a computer are usually controlled by the same USB controller. By same type of USB ports I mean all of the USB2 ports are one type and are controlled by a USB2 controller. All of the USB3 ports are a different type and controlled by a USB3 controller. Are the external drives plugged into USB2 or USB3 ports. (Black connector = USB2. Blue connector = USB3.)

Suggest removing all USB devices except for your mouse and keyboard. Then plug only one external drive into a USB2 port and see if it works. Then try that drive on a USB3 port and see if it works. Repeat for the other drive. It is important to not have any other device plugged in the USB ports. Do not plug both drives in at the same time in case one drive is marginal and affecting the other drive.

The funny or sad thing is I did have backups and those external drives I mentioned are the backups and the ones messed up. How crazy is that!!!!! So, yes, I was able to make backups before.

Unfortunately, I do not have another computer to test the hard drives on. The interesting thing is I never did the imaging method ever. I think I might give this a try this time. Can you point me to information so I can start learning this?

An image backup is the normal backup that a backup program does. It compresses the data from the source drive during the backup procedure, like compressing out unused areas on a drive and compressing data. It stores the backup on the backup drive as a single large file. For instance, a 1TB drive could endup as a 64GB file which will not use up the entire backup drive. So say you have a 3TB backup drive. You can store multiple backups from different drives on that backup drive. --- RESTORING A BACKUP: If the source drive fails, then a new drive is obtained and the image backup is RESTORED to the new drive. The end result is that the new drive can be booted and run exactly like the original source drive with the OS and all data exactly the same as when the backup was made. If the source drive was a data only drive, then the restored drive will be exactly the same and be a data only drive.

A clone backup is when a 1TB drive is duplicated exactly on another 1TB drive. Therefore one can just take the cloned drive and replace the source drive and be up and running asap. But only one backup per drive is possible.

Here's a link to one explanation of image vs clone backups:
Backing up your entire drive: Cloning vs. imaging | PCWorld

FWIW, a home user should be well served with doing only image backups. A business would be well served by having a clone backup as well as image backups. If a drive dies, the business can just replace it with the clone drive and be backup running instantly. ----- A home user doing a restore of an image backup only loses about 40 minutes to complete a restore of a system drive. A large original source drive could take a couple of hours to restore to a new drive using a USB2 backup drive.

I will explain further here. I believe both drives are in the same boat, but not sure. I do know that the E: drive is recognizing the name I gave it before, but the F: drive is not. It has become a raw drive for some strange reason.

The reason why I asked if your external drives are in enclosures or are bare drives plugging into a docking station is that bare drives can usually be connected directly to a PC's motherboard with a SATA cable (and power cable) and work fine. That eliminates the docking station as being the culprit. ----- Drives in USB enclosures often won't work when connected directly to a motherboard because of proprietary formatting or writing on the drive.

To clarify, drives in enclosures are ones that are in a black box where you can't see the actual bare drive itself. You just connect a USB cable from the enclosure to the PC and connect power from an a/c power adapter to the enclosure. Some enclosed drives can work with the power from the USB cable and not need power from an a/c power adapter.

mck

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update here. I was able to recover, I believe at this point, all of my files by using EaseUS Data Recovery. I will find out over time as I go through them. Fingers Crossed. I did transfer the recovered files to an older external hard drive. So, I am happy about that and a sigh of relief. The only thing is now reorganizing the files that were not placed in my current filing structure. Better to have them then not.

@mck

Thank you so much for your explanation. Helpful. Will check it out and I am sure I will have some questions as I investigate further. Thank you again. Anything else please don't hesitate to respond.

@Superfly

Thank you for your explanation, time and assistance about my concerns of using Chkdsk. As soon as I find out if it is the filesystem that you discussed previously I can give this a go and I am sure I might have a question or two for ya. Thank you again. Anything else please don't hesitate to respond.