DLT FORUM

A while back, my external HD decided to say "fuck you". When I tried to plug it into a comp, it would say it needed reformating and wouldn't open. I ran a diagnostic program from Western Digital's site and it said it could fix the bad sectors. Now I can open the drive, but it says nothing's on it, but if I go to properties, the space is still being occupied.

Anyone got any idea on how I can fix this thing or salvage my content?

I have some unformat utilities somewhere. I'll look to see if I can find one when I get home.

Call me a noob but, unformat? Isn't the problem here that my comp thinks the hard drive is unformatted?

grey_foxxy wrote:Call me a noob but, unformat? Isn't the problem here that my comp thinks the hard drive is unformatted?

Because it likely 'is'.

I meant to look for a recovery application. I'm at home now. I check!

I found the utility, although it is for FAT file systems, not NTFS. Any chance you know what format yours was? How big was the drive? What operating system?

http://www.smashy.net/DLT/getdataback.zip it's licensed to a friend of mine, so please don't wildly distribute.

It says it's FAT when I open it now. I'm going to assume that I didn't somehow change that while running Western Digitals diagnostic software. It was a 120 GB, 2.5 in. HD, And I'm running Vista Business. I tried it on my XP notebook and got the same results.

grey_foxxy wrote:It says it's FAT when I open it now. I'm going to assume that I didn't somehow change that while running Western Digitals diagnostic software. It was a 120 GB, 2.5 in. HD, And I'm running Vista Business. I tried it on my XP notebook and got the same results.

Did you try the program I gave you?

Ya, it's scanning right now.

You sir, are a gentlemen and a scholar.

grey_foxxy wrote:Ya, it's scanning right now.

You sir, are a gentlemen and a scholar.

Let me know if it worked. I never used it...just got it from a friend that used it to fix his busted drive.

Well, it kept telling me the license key was wrong, but it did show me that the pictures I wanted were in the bad sectors. At least it gave me closure when I reformatted the thing.

bad sectors?

Odds are that drive isn't reliable any more.

Yeah, I know. Until I can afford a new one, it's being used for anime episodes I don't care about losing.