External HDD not Initializing, Not in "This PC", Need Recovery!

Last night I was copying files from External HDD over to my computer. It was a very long process and in my sleepy state I put my computer to sleep during the copying.

When I logged back in the following morning the copy process appeared paused but when I went to restart the external HDD could not be found

I have disconnected and reconnected the HDD into several USB ports without any luck.

I have tried to search for forums but my problems seems to veer off from the track of others. Will try to post as many pics as I can.

Please let me know if further information is required!


PLEASE HELP. IN THAT STATE OF PANIC
lost all my files while trying to back up and omg SSD please get cheaper these thing ALWAYS BREAK!


*Reposting in general support

Trying everything I'm finding and just keep hitting dead ends or I reach a point I don't understand.






Does putting a PC to sleep really kill any HDD that is copying to it? How can one button corrupt so much data....why isn't there any safety in place??

I can only commiserate with you as I find the use of Sleep and Hibernate and sudden power interruptions to be highly problematic when doing file management, things happen too quickly to stop/interrupt which can indeed cause data corruption. Have seen where External USB HDDs got changed to the RAW format which can be difficult to recover from. I usually turn Sleep and Hibernation off and use battery backups [UPS] when doing critical work to prevent issues as much as possible.

Thank you so much for your response Berton! Any help is greatly appreciated at this stage.

So when I hit the sleep button it was like putting a gun to my HDD and pulling the trigger....sad
I do wish Windows might have stopped this task or at least interrupted the copying safety. It hit the sleep button most nights and was going so bed not thinking properly.

RAW format is new information for me! And deeper into the rabbit whole I shall go

Thank you SimRick! Would this tool be at all similar to this?
I am realizing that this free tool is not recognizing the HDD.
Does the software your recommending have a greater chance of seeing my HDD

or is it simply not being seen by other recovery software because of some prerequisite or corruption?

Hi, Post a full screenshot of Windows Disk Management with only your faulty external drive plugged in, following the guidelines here Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of

OK! so I plugged the HDD into a new computer (surface pro) and it did recognize the device. I was able to pull up the files and see them.

Problem solved right?....WRONG!


Moments (approx 2-5min) later an error came up saying:
"The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned and windows does not recognize it"

Also my desktop wallpaper messed up...not sure how that's connected

So it worked for a little while but then just stopped working. Maybe when it got to a corrupted file?

I can't seem to find it in disk management on the surface pro either.


Will keep updating

Jumanji!!!!!
Thank the heavens. I have been actually trying to follow your help on other forums. But my problem hasn't been quite the same.



This is looking like its trying to read it.


trying to get the picture your asking for jumanji but its still just showing this