My 500GB Samsung G2 suddenly stopped working after my pc restarted impromptu,the error message I got when I tried to open it was "Drive not accessible,parameter is incorrect,I tried checking it out via the disk manager,found out the format is raw,I then tried check disk repair on the cdm command prompt which had always worked for my other hard drive but now after restarting my pc,all I've been getting whenever I tried opening the drive is format drive,please has this ever happened to a nairalander? And is there any possibility I might recover my files or repair the drive?

You actually ran chkdsk on your OS drive.

Chkdsk would not work on a raw disk.

Do not format the drive.

Download and run testdisk to try and recover the lost partition and data.

Then, you can back up your data and run chkdsk /f on the external hard drive. Be sure to specify the appropriate drive letter as well.

sheikshegetto:
My 500GB Samsung G2 suddenly stopped working after my pc restarted impromptu,the error message I got when I tried to open it was "Drive not accessible,parameter is incorrect,I tried checking it out via the disk manager,found out the format is raw,I then tried check disk repair on the cdm command prompt which had always worked for my other hard drive but now after restarting my pc,all I've been getting whenever I tried opening the drive is format drive,please has this ever happened to a nairalander? And is there any possibility I might recover my files or repair the drive?

Thanks for replying bro..you're Godsend,I will try and see if that works.

sheikshegetto:
Thanks for replying bro..you're Godsend,I will try and see if that works.

I hope you are comfortable using command line because Testdisk is a command line interface program. Also run Testdisk as Administrator. See here for a step by step process to recover partition

www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

shawlxAk:
You actually ran chkdsk on your OS drive.

Chkdsk would not work on a raw disk.

Do not format the drive.

Download and run testdisk to try and recover the lost partition and data.

Then, you can back up your data and run chkdsk /f on the external hard drive. Be sure to specify the appropriate drive letter as well.

I normally would format the drive and immediately run recovery on it using a combination of Testdisk/Photorec and GetDataBack or Easeus

The testdisk run steps procedure seemed much more complex than expected,please can you kindly list out the steps to follow,because i don't want to further complicate the issue on ground by making it worse

sheikshegetto:
The testdisk run steps procedure seemed much more complex than expected,please can you kindly list out the steps to follow,because i don't want to further complicate the issue on ground by making it worse

Follow the link I provided

Thanks,i simply could not risk formatting first because most file recovery apps tends to recover 20mb to 1Gb file space except if paid for,I've got over 300Gb worth of files on the drive

sheikshegetto:
Thanks,i simply could not risk formatting first because most file recovery apps tends to recover 20mb to 1Gb file space except if paid for,I've got over 300Gb worth of files on the drive

Well, there are ways and means of getting those paid for apps without erm *coughs* actually *clears throat* paying. Testdisk is quite robust enough for such recoveries. Plus I'm actually revealing to you tools I use when I charge clients N5k+ a pop for these types of job.

Lol...i really appreciate your help bro,I'll try my possible best to take to your instructions,and if all else fails,I'll contact you for assistance,one last thing tho,do I need to get another hard drive for the recovery while i run the testdisk or i only need that if and only if I want to backup or use a file recovery app like you suggested.

sheikshegetto:
Lol...i really appreciate your help bro,I'll try my possible best to take to your instructions,and if all else fails,I'll contact you for assistance,one last thing tho,do I need to get another hard drive for the recovery while i run the testdisk or i only need that if and only if I want to backup or use a file recovery app like you suggested.

Your first line of action is to repair your partition using Testdisk. For this you aren't going to need a 2nd HDD.

If the above fails and you have to format and recover your files then you WILL need a 2nd HDD as you cannot save the recovered files to the HDD where you are recovering from. This is so 5hat you do not overwrite yet-to-be-recovered files

It's safer to recover the lost partition first. That way, you have a better chance of recovering all lost data.

airsaylongcon:


I normally would format the drive and immediately run recovery on it using a combination of Testdisk/Photorec and GetDataBack or Easeus

Formatting may reduce your chances of recovering all lost data. Again, testdisk will do the job just fine, as long as your drive is not physically damaged.

sheikshegetto:
Thanks,i simply could not risk formatting first because most file recovery apps tends to recover 20mb to 1Gb file space except if paid for,I've got over 300Gb worth of files on the drive

I had faced exactly same problem previously. I tried Testdisk tool to recover my data from inaccessible hard drive but found its recovery steps too complicated and it didn’t recovered my data. I looked in some other forums and found stellar data recovery tool however the tool is not free but recovered all my data. Hope this helps!!

Hmmmmmm

Hi guys,sorry it took me a while to give some feedback,the testdisk scanning alone took 12 straight hours,and with the erratic power supplies I could barely manage to get it completed,well the teskdisk was unable to create a partition after hours of scanning,I managed to acquire a m3 data recovery app which also failed to change the hdd raw format,I then finally scanned it using the app's file recovery option,I was able to retrieve some,if not all my files,will I be able to change my hdd from raw back to fat32 by formatting the drive?

Testdisk is for power users. I should have given you the exact steps to follow in an easy-to-understand manner. Backup your recovered files to a safe location first. And yes, format the drive to create the desired filesystem.

sheikshegetto:
Hi guys,sorry it took me a while to give some feedback,the testdisk scanning alone took 12 straight hours,and with the erratic power supplies I could barely manage to get it completed,well the teskdisk was unable to create a partition after hours of scanning,I managed to acquire a m3 data recovery app which also failed to change the hdd raw format,I then finally scanned it using the app's file recovery option,I was able to retrieve some,if not all my files,will I be able to change my hdd from raw back to fat32 by formatting the drive?

shawlxAk:
Testdisk is for power users. I should have given you the exact steps to follow in an easy-to-understand manner. Backup your recovered files to a safe location first. And yes, format the drive to create the desired filesystem.

Thanks for replying,I wouldn't mind having another go at the testdisk because I noticed the file recovery omitted quite a few of my data,especially the games and media folders,most especially the games cos I realised they no longer launches,and I'm yet to acquire another hdd of a similar size to back up on,the few files I managed to recover on my pc seems to have lost a few data

Files that were omitted, were probably corrupted.
Send me a message on Whatsapp -- details on my profile.

sheikshegetto:
Thanks for replying,I wouldn't mind having another go at the testdisk because I noticed the file recovery omitted quite a few of my data,especially the games and media folders,most especially the games cos I realised they no longer launches,and I'm yet to acquire another hdd of a similar size to back up on,the few files I managed to recover on my pc seems to have lost a few data