USB hard disk error: "You need to format the disk in drive F: ..."

I have a pretty old usb hard drive and i was just moving my mp3 and video files to different drives connected to my computer, but all of a sudden it got hanged. I stopped it and went to check this drive and received this following error "You need to format the disk in drive F: before you can use it". I dont want to format this drive as there are many important data stored so can anyone tell me how should i rectify this error message? Thanks

Why dont you try to right click on the hard drive icon and then go to its Properties, and from there go to Tools. After that check for the option called Check Now in Error checking tab, once it is selected then it will start to scan the hdd for any kind of errors that it is facing and should be able to fix. Once it fixes the problem immediately make a backup of this drive, so that incase if it fails afterwards then you can easily format it.

You can try out a software called Recuva pronounced as "recover", which is used to recover lost files, like many other such utilities (including SoftPerfect File Recovery, File Recovery PC inspector). It is developed by Piriform, editor of the excellent CCleaner. It has a very simple interface simple and is very effective. You can run the scan on the volume of your choice, and the results are displayed in a very simple way. However, unlike PC inspector File Recovery or SoftPerfect File Recovery, Recuva displays detailed information on the status of the file as well as on the estimate of the condition of the file whether it is poor, excellent, etc. A search field and a tree view is also viewable, and to top it all, Recuva can run without installation on a USB stick.

Have you tried plugging the hard drive in different usb port? Rule out this problem by first checking out all the usb ports, so that you get a confirmation that it is not the drive but the usb problem. If that isnt the case, then have you tried connecting other devices in the USB port and checked if it again gives similar kind of error message? It could be that your operating system may not be able to recognize the Fat32 file format. So you may need to convert this drive into NTFS file format. And for converting it, open up command prompt and type the below code in it:

convert f: /fs:ntfs

After sometime, you will see that your usb drive has been converted to NTFS file format. Report back if this workaround is still not working for you, we will find some other methods.

I have this problem on Windows 7 with my 8GB flash drive and I would format mine but when I go to, Windows only gives me the option to format 5GB of it instead of the whole 8GB. I can access this drive on Ubuntu, in fact I did have a boot-able Ubuntu installed onto this same drive but I have been able to use it as both in the past.

try using the data recovery software such as EASEUS DATA RECOVERY WIZARD. That should help you recovery whatever data you need out of your raw drive.