I have a 120 GB external hardrive which I have been using for about a year. Recently, an error message came up saying that The disc in drive F is not formatted. It no longer recognizes the drive, and it tells me I must format it. Is there any other way to get my computer to read the drive? It seems like that is the only option, and I'm not even sure its going to work. Help!
2007-01-09 09:10:57 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Add-ons
I ran chkdsk and it said that the type of file system is RAW and that it cannot check RAW drives. is this bad news....
2007-01-11 03:10:59 · update #1
There are software tools available that will allow you to restore a harddisk format when the format has been lost. This can be a tricky operation so it is best left to someone who knows what they are doing. If really interested in doing it yourself, search the Internet for disk restore software or partition restore software.
Of course that only works assuming the harddrive has not been damaged. In which case you won't be able to format it again anyway.
2007-01-09 09:21:36 · answer #1 · answered by rbarc 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be one of two things....
1) Did the USB drop the connection to the external drive unit... I love this one since it fakes you out....
2) Do a defragment on the drive and this will tell you if there is bad sectors and if Scandisk needs to be done.... If this is the case, then I would reformat....
You can live with some bad sectors but when I run into this, I typically get rid of the hard drive....
2007-01-09 09:23:31 · answer #2 · answered by JohnS 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Typically when I get an error like this it is because the hard drive is bad. I suggest trying to check it for errors using "chkdsk
2007-01-09 09:17:54 · answer #3 · answered by Henry A 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It sounds like you may have some corruption issues with it. Before you format it, check and see if it came with any kind of utilities.
The problem with formatting is that you are going to lose all of your data. Try hooking it up to another PC and seeing if that works.
I hope it works out for you, but you might be hosed.
2007-01-09 09:19:48 · answer #4 · answered by wax 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am confused. You say the drive is a hard drive but then you say the error says the disc in drive f. sounds to me like the problem lies in the disc. and the drive it is talking about is the cd-rom or dvd-rom. you can't really format a cd or dvd drive. try other discs that you know work.
2007-01-09 09:16:22 · answer #5 · answered by rchilly2000 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋