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General discussion

can't access external harddrive problem with "E:\$ft.

Aug 29, 2010 4:15PM PDT

I have a seagate 500gb external usb drive (no O.S. just data). While accessing it on my gateway laptop the power got detached and now when I access it, even on other computers I get this balloon message:

"Windows - Delayed Write Failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file E:\$Mft. Please try to save this file elsewhere."

My device manager and diskmanager show nothing for that harddrive but computer > explore does show the 17gb partition I gave it when I first took it out of the box a year ago. It contains no info just in case I want to put an o.s. on it. In fact the computer explore window shows the partition to be the entirety of the harddrive and no other space. A big fat missing half a terrabyte. I am certain that at least some of the 270ish gbs of info couldn't all be erased
afterall it was a sudden ejection of the usb cord or whatever. So How can I recover ANY data. I'm thinking some partition tool cause they seem to be more inclusive as to what they detect. Also when ever I plug it in the "E:\$Mft" thingy pops up every so often(the balloon I mean).

Hope you can help me and thanks.

Discussion is locked

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Try this from MS
Aug 29, 2010 6:57PM PDT
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can't access external harddrive problem with "E:\$ft.
Aug 29, 2010 10:31PM PDT

Hmmm. After more research Im thinking my direction should go towards reading the broken partition or fixing it. I've downloaded some C-NET downloaded some popular hd and partition like programs. I'm currently trying Partition Wizard home edition. It offers checking for all partitions and if that doesn't work it lets me read what info is on the disk, I hope. Chkdsk was a no go by the way.
I think I'll be optimistic. Let you know one way or another. Thanks for your help. (the current scan from this program indicates that at this rate it will add 9 more hours to the 2 hours already.
Lovely.Wink