Advice please... I need a 2013 happy PC guru please

I've stoopidly pulled the cable from my usb to external HDD whilst it was reading/ writing.

When I reconnect the drive it requests me to format.

No access into the drive, but it shows as being there as drive J.

I've tried google & utube but I'm going round in circles.

I've d/loaded freeware [PC Inspector File Recovery] but it keeps crashing.

.

What now?

Do I format and use a data recovery app.??

OR can I still do something without formatting the HDD.

It's windows xp / western digital 500Gb/fat32/

with 300Gb of files I need to recover..[.not valuable just a nuisance]

Anyone been there?

Sound like the HDD systems files have been corrupted.I would try using Recuva first and see what you can retrieve off the HDD before formatting.If it doesn't work then you'll prolly have to do a quick format and try using Recuva after that.

Can you remove the HDD from it's casing ?.I had this before and just removed the HDD and connected up to my PC.Let windows do a check disk and fixed it straight away.

Any chance you can try to open it on another comp (with win7 or linux installed). Win7 will possibly suggest 'repair file system' rather than 'this needs to be formatted before use'.

I imagine that linux would let you see all your files, and copy them to another HDD.

Well, these approaches are worth a try, recovery software is a steeper learning curve.

Good luck, AA

Don't worry, you can recover your data but firstly DON'T format the drive. That will just make recovery more difficult.

I can recommend a free but well respected utility called CGI Testdisk which will be able to recover your lost partition very quickly. You can download it here.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

It may look a little complicated but if you just follow the step by step instructions here you will almost certainly get everything back the way it was.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

Don't worry, you can recover your data but firstly DON'T format the drive. That will just make recovery more difficult.

I can recommend a free but well respected utility called CGI Testdisk which will be able to recover your lost partition very quickly. You can download it here.

http://www.cgsecurit...stDisk_Download

It may look a little complicated but if you just follow the step by step instructions here you will almost certainly get everything back the way it was.

http://www.cgsecurit...sk_Step_By_Step

Whow. Nice Tool !

Dork's Tool is really nice !

First: Dont use the drive .

Second: Use ether dork's solution or a more simple tool like Recuva

open an administrator command prompt and type "chkdsk :letterdrive /f" and you'll get everything back once the scan is completed, the MFT is simply corrupted.

Thanks to everyone, I used the Recova app and recovered 60%... which I'm happy with.

The HDD is in a plastic casing, no screws, so opening it would be my last resort.

I've downloaded the "Test-disk" app and I'll try it later today as I need to learn more.

I don't have access to win 7 or linux just now [ I'm too impatient to wait until after the hols].

I'm now going to try the chkdsk command as it seems too easy.

I sure asked in the right place. All the best for 2013