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Restore lost data on external HDD
I think that I know the answer to this question but I have to ask before I plunge ahead.
I have a 2TB external HDD that is attached to my media server (WDTV Live). I'm not sure what happened but the WDTV stopped recognizing the HDD. I connected it to my computer and the computer recognized the HDD but gives me the error message "You need to format the disk....before you can use it".
I didn't format it but I suspect that the Master File Table has been corrupted.
I used Wondershare Recoverit to examine the HDD. It took forever but it identified almost 300,000 files. Based on the few that I examined, many are file segments that would be worthless if recovered. (There was about 1.5TB of data on the HDD but FAR fewer that 300K files).
I'm about to try the "Windows File Recovery" tool but before I do that I have to ask - Assuming that it has been damaged, is there any way to restore the Master File Table so that the drive can be fully restored? (Based on my research, I suspect that the answer is "No".) However, this won't be the first or last time that I have missed something.
I have Win 10 Pro X64 Ver 2004 build 19041.1110.
Last edited by dsscottage; 28 Jul 2021 at 13:27. Reason: correct title