Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

WD 3TB & SEAGATE 4TB "NEED TO FORMAT"

Nov 23, 2014 2:43AM PST

The above mentioned drives have files on them that more than likely will be erased if I reformat them. The drives are 1 year old and 4 months old respectively. Both say that formatting is needed before I can use them. Also, the 4TB Seagate drive reveals a message "F:\\is not accessible.Data error(cyclic redundancy check)" & "Location not found". No such messages arise from the 3TB WD. Is there any way to recover the files without reformatting as both have files that have been backed up to them? It seems to me if the drives allow for reformatting, there should be a way to access and copy the files wanted. In advance, I appreciate any and all assistance.

Ti Thompson
Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais Brasil

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
More would have to be known.
Nov 23, 2014 3:00AM PST

There are many titles at the top of this forum but just last week a client was trying to use such drives on Windows XP. Let me be clear, they wanted it to work on "XP", not the XP with SP3 and patches. The only way I could get that to fly was to share them over a network. Maybe you have XP but I can't tell.

Externals can go missing for many reasons. It's why we keep a few backups.
Bob

- Collapse -
Answer
Start by...
Nov 24, 2014 3:41AM PST

Disconnect one of the drives so you're dealing with only one 3 or 4tb alone. Then access it or work on the issue. If that seems to help, then go for it. I have no clue how they are mounted on your system, but see that having some huge drives and if properly formatted to begin with, I hope it was GPT mode, etc. On top fo this I ask that you check the status of each drive by using the makers own diags which usually they provide at the support website. However, that may not be 100% so with Hitachi or Samsung, because may own either as well, just use the direct approach for now. As pointed out by Robert, use the forum sticky to to link the helpful s/w that could resolve your issue. Take care not to over do it, a true problem may compound recovery effort as accessing it could furher corrept or seal it fate.

tada -----Willy Happy

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: drivers
Nov 24, 2014 4:13AM PST

I'd first try on 2 other PC's with at least Windows 7. If they work nowhere, better do what they ask: format (migth give errors, then better throw them away).
If there's data on it that you have no other copy of (a bad idea to do that!) try the free or paid titles from the top posts of this forum. They might work to copy stuff to the hard disk inside your PC (a 7TB one?) or another external.

Kees

- Collapse -
WD 3TB & SEAGATE 4TB "NEED TO FORMAT"
Nov 25, 2014 12:06AM PST

Thanks Kees_B for your suggestion yet that has been tried without success on the Seagate 4TB. BTW: 2 separate external drives. I have been able to access the WD3TB drive with some titles mentioned in the forums. Both external drives served as back ups to back up yet the Seagate has more recent backed up files that had not been transferred to the 3TB, as a question of redunancy. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated short of the exorbitant fees charged for industry data recovery firms.