I seem to have deleted an external drive, can data be recovered?

loclhero · 27 Apr 2017

I just brought home a new computer with Windows 10 and have been transferring files from my old Windows 7 computer. In addition, I have an external drive that I've used to keep some tax records and many personal photos etc.

I plugged it into my new computer and was organizing files on the external drive, moving some onto the new computer and at some point I noticed in File Explorer that the F drive that I had it on was showing up twice. I don't know why but I actually hit delete for one of the two f drives that was showing up and now the external drive is not showing up at all. I tried plugging it back into my old computer and it doesn't show up. I went into Disk Management and it's not showing up in there either. Have I completely lost everything on there? And even if I have, how do I get the drive to show up again? My worry though is that I've lost everything.

SoFine409 · 27 Apr 2017

loclhero said:

I just brought home a new computer with Windows 10 and have been transferring files from my old Windows 7 computer. In addition, I have an external drive that I've used to keep some tax records and many personal photos etc.

I plugged it into my new computer and was organizing files on the external drive, moving some onto the new computer and at some point I noticed in File Explorer that the F drive that I had it on was showing up twice. I don't know why but I actually hit delete for one of the two f drives that was showing up and now the external drive is not showing up at all. I tried plugging it back into my old computer and it doesn't show up. I went into Disk Management and it's not showing up in there either. Have I completely lost everything on there? And even if I have, how do I get the drive to show up again? My worry though is that I've lost everything.

Hi loclhero and welcome to the forum. I doubt you've lost your external drive. Try shutting down the Win 10 PC then unplug the external drive. Reboot the PC and then shut it down again. Next plug your external drive in and then turn the PC on again and see if you can access the external drive. If not does it show up in Disk Management?

Frozenoem1 · 27 Apr 2017

Anything can be recovered But, I'm about to hit no signal for a week range.

Mountains- you might like to Google Hirens or Knoppix CD to examine the disk (they boot off cd/DVD/flash drives).

Or perhaps someone else can assist you. I had one of your moments around 2001 when someone did a complete wipe of my drive to DOD clean before the backup had completed.

Got it all back after a couple of days. Trouble at the moment I can't recall all steps other than Hirens, knoppix and one other program from holland or Germany freeware and it was Linux based.

Best I can offer.

indianacarnie · 27 Apr 2017

Welcome to the forums loclhero!

Easiest first, have you ran Windows built in diagnostic's? Settings > Update and Security > Troubleshoot > Hardware and Devices.

loclhero · 28 Apr 2017

indianacarnie said:

Welcome to the forums loclhero!

Easiest first, have you ran Windows built in diagnostic's? Settings > Update and Security > Troubleshoot > Hardware and Devices.

Well I wound up just unplugging power supply and then plugging it back in and it came back.

Thanks everyone for your help!

SoFine409 · 28 Apr 2017

loclhero said:

Well I wound up just unplugging power supply and then plugging it back in and it came back.

Thanks everyone for your help!

Thats great. As far as I could tell you didn't do anything that would have resulted in a loss of data. All you did was cancel out of a view.

dalchina · 28 Apr 2017

It is a peculiarity of Win 10 - and has been for a long time- that external drives may be shown twice in file explorer's navigation pane. It's possible to correct this, but the problem usually recurs.