how to share back the portable hard disk ?
Tue, 07/01/2008 - 18:59 — cy
Our Brother Anonymous asks for help:
does anyone knows how to share back the portable hard disk ? I have accidentally unshare the portable hard disk after plugging into my notebook n thereafter, regardless of which computer i plug in, it is unable to detect. thus, i reformat the hard disk, n it becomes only 30GB when it should be 120GB. Now i am trying to recover all the data in the other 90 GB n unable to do so. Can anyone help ? Really appreciate.
When you format a disk, as far as the average user is concerned the data has gone.
Yes, you can retrieve it if you know what you're doing - but let's face it, a user who reformats his disk if there is a minor problem will not be the type who can retrieve the data.
I'm afraid that your info has gone and the best thing you can do is move forward and forget it. Next time you have a disk issue, if you don't have any backups of that data, take it *very* slow and don't do anything rash like wiping it (reformatting it).
If you want to put that disk aside, learn more about disks and partitions, then download and try some 30 or so different data retrieval applications, there is a chance you'll be able to get the data back. But for all practical purposes, in your situation, it's gone. Sorry.
I just went through all this for a disk that died on me so I know what you would have to do to get that data back. I have access to dozens of data retrieval apps and only 2 out of all those programs showed any sign of being able to cope. The data retrieval run for 100GB+ of data on my semi-dead USB disk took 3 days runtime to index the disk, running on a spare PC (after 1 hour it had completed about 1% of the disk...). It worked, but let's just say it's not an easy job. That's why if you pay a commercial lab to do it they charge $$thousands.
chris.p
What did you actually use?
EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard
All the other apps I tried failed. And I mean all - every name you can think of. The problem was that the boot sector had been corrupted and the disk appeared to be completely blank, no partitions or data.
[Western Digital 150GB USB disk - wrecked it by a bad case of the hand trembles, switching it on - went on - off - on rapidly LOL]
Got the usual message of course: "Your disk needs formatting. Would you like to format it now?" Er, not just now, thanks all the same.
Must remember to take a shot of rum before working with stuff - trembles are too bad without that first...
Stripped the disk (that was fun). Won't ever buy a store-bought USB disk EVER AGAIN. Make your own, it's 1000% better (see my tute in Best Free Disk Imaging apps).
Got the data, but "It's data, Jim - but not as we know it". Lots of files with no names etc. Still, at least it worked, all the big name apps failed - couldn't see anything. Took forever though.
chris.p
hi,
is a portable hard disk USB-drive, i do not remember the brand. Since it is USB, i plug into the computer. In Explorer, no drive letter is assigned to this removable drive. Thus, i go "My computer -> disk management. Then the hard drive appears as "Disk 1" as 30 GB. But i cannot access it. So i right click at the "Disk 1" to format it. After formatting, now it is shown as "New Volume" under Explorer and i can use it. But all my data which is saved in this drive is gone. And the original size of this hard disk is 120gb.
If you do not have any critical data on it, I recommend going back to Computer Management > Disk Management; but this time right click on the 30GB (visible) partition and delete it.
Once the entire 120GB disk is raw (unallocated), you should be able to create custom-sized partitions (although I won't recommend having multiple partitions on USB disks).
This is a little confusing, you format the HD and you expect to recover data ?!?!?, or are you saying you created a 30 GB partition and you cannot access the 90 GB partition?
Also give us the HD brand and tell us what tool you used, if Windows or third-party.
There are a variety of utilities for doing this, but most would come from unix. I think that Gizmo wrote an article about creating a unix boot cd that gave one access to all the tools from unix without having to actually load unix onto a computer. Unix isn't likely to pay much attention to the share/unshare status if it accesses the disk through a USB port.
My guess is that the disk was removed from the USB without hitting the "safely remove" button, so the disk has become corrupt.
- wf
One year ago I had a similar problem with a WD USB HD, the only fix was to activate the warranty...
Can we have some information on
- your operating system?
- your portable hard disk is a USB-drive?
- what exactly do you mean by 'reformat the hard disk'?
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