Please Help I have lots 10,000 pictures on my External Hard drive

[Katzboy]

I have a WD pocket external hard drive that I am not able to open. I took the USB out of the computer to early. I hope it didn't erase my thousands of pictures. When I go to my drive it tells me that I must re format this drive before I can use it. I truly hope that I can find a way to recover all of my pictures. Hope someone will be able to help me. I have lost years of pictures of my grandchildren.
Desperate ! ! !

[Halina]

There are many ways to fix this problem. First check if the USB cable isn't faulty. Next check the port itself isn't faulty or malfunctioning. For that you can swap it to some other ports. Some times it also occurs if the USB port is not capable of provide enough power to the hard drive to turn it on. Next you can even repair your hard drive by selecting it on My Computer - Properties - Tools - Check Now. This will fix all the bad sectors on your hard drive. Also scan it for viruses because your antivirus might not allow it to run if it contains any malicious software.

[Katzboy]

Hi Halina, Thanks for all the ideas. I really appreciate it. I have tried different ports. All say the same thing. Not accessible. Nothing has helped so far.

When I insert the USB for My Passport, no name My Passport" comes up just the drive and it tells me that the drive must be formatted. I am really worried because when I click on properties it tells me that the file is empty.

In addition to the above, when I tried to run a Norton scan on my H:/ drive the computer says Location is not accessible H:? is not accessible Data error (cyclic redundancy check), then it tells me to format this drive.

[EINSTEIN_007]

The error Cyclic redundancy check, or "CRC" error, means that there is a bad spot on your hard drive. Therefore it is very hard to get back the data properly with formatting the drive. In any case you can try to rocver file by opening command prompt and typing the below command:

C:\>CD (to wherever the file is located)

C:\wherever>copy Outlook.pst NUL
1 file(s) copied.

For more information check here.

[Katzboy]

I'm sorry, I have read your info over and not sure in Windows 7, where I go for the :/ prompt and not clear how I can copy data when it doesn't show any when I view in properties. I talked with a person that does data recovery at $50 an hr. WOW anyway he was telling me that it's a good sign that my computer recognizes the hard drive and knows that it needs to format it. But that I should plug it in only briefly because the longer it is live the more data that is lost. Is he handing me a story.

[Una]

Try to rescan the drive properly using a power antivirus tool. It will scan the drive thoroughly and then make this possible ailments to be fulfilled for you as required. As it is been done I do not think your device may need to be formatted. Check out.

[Katzboy]

We have Norton 360. When I put my cursor on other drives in the computer Norton gives the option to scan the drive but when I put my cursor on the My Passport drive I get no option to scan. I have even let Norton take control of my computer to see if they could get it to run but no luck. I thought this problem was from removing the harddrive to quickly from the USB port but I think this problem is because it slipped of the CPU tower and fell about 12 to 16 inches to a carpeted floor while still attached to the computer .

[Solomon]

I was able to get my files recovered from my dead hard drive (it was not so dead but wouldnt read files and was giving me same issue like yours) by giving it to a technician who worked for data recovery department, as he was one of my friend therefore he didnt charge me anything but in your case you would be charged. Also after recovering the data, the hard drive was of no use and therefore my friend bought a new drive and transfered all the files their.