Windows 7 wants to format my external HDD

[temminato184]

Hey guys, I hava a serious problem.

 

I copied files to my external hard drive and then a .txt file in the root directory on my hard drive was lost.

I restarted my PC and now when I click on the F:\ drive on my Computer windows 7 wants to format my drive?

 

My System:

Windows 7 Pro x64

ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme (with the Microsoft Drivers because when I install the Drivers from the ASUS Homepage it don't see my external Drive)

Western Digital WD30EZRX Hard Drive in a Fujitsu Siemens Storagebird 35ev840 USB2.0 external case.

 

I had swapped the USB Connectors at the back of my PC but it doesn't work...

I had read that non-UEFI Mainboards had problems with hard drives >2TB but until now I doesn't had problems.

 

So what should I do to get access to my files?

I have uploaded a screenshot that you can see my problem.

[RyzenUp]

Croped drive but just to make sure plug it into another computer

[Radium_Angel]

17 minutes ago, bounty96 said:

Hey guys, I hava a serious problem.

 

I copied files to my external hard drive and then a .txt file in the root directory on my hard drive was lost.

I restarted my PC and now when I click on the F:\ drive on my Computer windows 7 wants to format my drive?

 

My System:

Windows 7 Pro x64

ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme (with the Microsoft Drivers because when I install the Drivers from the ASUS Homepage it don't see my external Drive)

Western Digital WD30EZRX Hard Drive in a Fujitsu Siemens Storagebird 35ev840 USB2.0 external case.

 

I had swapped the USB Connectors at the back of my PC but it doesn't work...

I had read that non-UEFI Mainboards had problems with hard drives >2TB but until now I doesn't had problems.

 

So what should I do to get access to my files?

I have uploaded a screenshot that you can see my problem.

Sounds like the controller died.

 

[Jimkirk363]

Try running some data recovery software on it, its worth a try i suppose.

[temminato184]

Ok I tried the hard drive on two different computers with the same result.

As soon I plugged the drive in it prompts me to format the drive. (One PC with Windows 7 and the other one with Windows 10).

 

28 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Sounds like the controller died.

I don't think that the controller is dead because other hard drives and usb sticks or my printer, mouse and keyboard are plugged in to the same controller. and they are good.

 

23 minutes ago, jimkirk363 said:

Try running some data recovery software on it, its worth a try i suppose.

Which software would you recommend? I do not know about data recovery and don't want to mess up things any further.

But the data would still be there, I just can not access it anymore, right?

[Radium_Angel]

21 minutes ago, bounty96 said:

Ok I tried the hard drive on two different computers with the same result.

As soon I plugged the drive in it prompts me to format the drive. (One PC with Windows 7 and the other one with Windows 10).

 

I don't think that the controller is dead because other hard drives and usb sticks or my printer, mouse and keyboard are plugged in to the same controller. and they are good.

 

Which software would you recommend? I do not know about data recovery and don't want to mess up things any further.

But the data would still be there, I just can not access it anymore, right?

The external hard drive controller. Not the one in the PC.

Use ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery) for data recovery.

If it can't traverse your drive, you might have to pull it out of the enclosure and plug it in directly on the PC.

[temminato184]

25 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

The external hard drive controller. Not the one in the PC.

Oh ok. I will try now with the ZAR program.

I have some other external drive cases (all the same) so I can test another.

The problem with the drive directly connect to the SATA ports is that the PC only see about 700 GB.

That was the problem when I bought this drive and then I took it into a external USB case.

I think my motherboard is too old to work with drives >2TB.

[Radium_Angel]

Just now, bounty96 said:

Oh ok. I will try now with the ZAR program.

I have some other external drive cases (all the same) so I can test another.

The problem with the drive directly connect to the SATA ports is that the PC only see about 700 GB.

That was the problem when I bought this drive and then I took it into a external USB case.

I think my motherboard is too old to work with drives >2TB.

How old IS your system?!

If it can see 700GB, then it should see 2TB.

Assuming it's formatted NTFS....

[temminato184]

The PC ist from about 2009. It has the first Core i7.

It is a Core i7 950. 6GB RAM, a GTX280 and a ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme motherboard.

 

I have read somewhere that the old Mainboard with only Sata2 interface and a BIOS instead of UEFI doesn't can handle hard drives which are that large.

 

The hard drive was NTFS formatted. When I bought it, I have tested it internal on the Sata2 interface where I had this 700GB problem.

Then I took it in the external case and a friend of mine had formatted it on his pc (which is a very newer pc then mine).

First it showed me even with 700GB but then I deleted the ASUS driver for the USB controller and let windows search the driver itself and then

I was able to get the full 3000GB space.

 

And today it crashed and I am don't be able to get my files...

[Radium_Angel]

5 minutes ago, bounty96 said:

The PC ist from about 2009. It has the first Core i7.

It is a Core i7 950. 6GB RAM, a GTX280 and a ASUS Rampage 2 Extreme motherboard.

 

I have read somewhere that the old Mainboard with only Sata2 interface and a BIOS instead of UEFI doesn't can handle hard drives which are that large.

 

The hard drive was NTFS formatted. When I bought it, I have tested it internal on the Sata2 interface where I had this 700GB problem.

Then I took it in the external case and a friend of mine had formatted it on his pc (which is a very newer pc then mine).

First it showed me even with 700GB but then I deleted the ASUS driver for the USB controller and let windows search the driver itself and then

I was able to get the full 3000GB space.

 

And today it crashed and I am don't be able to get my files...

It has been my (professional) experience that external drive controllers suck rocks, and oftentimes die before the drive does.

Pull the drive out, and I'm willing to be dollars to donuts the drive is okay. Take it to a computer shop and have them pull data off it to a flash stick or something.

[temminato184]

Yes I think the drive is fine. And I bought the drive a few weeks ago so it isn't very old too.

 

So I first try to get back my files with this ZAR program and if I don't get back my files I will go to the next computer shop.

[temminato184]

At the moment I try to rescue my files with this ZAR program and there is this 700GB problem which I had before.

 

Ok it says 746,5GB but thats the same problem as I had with the original ASUS driver for the USB controller.

 

The HDD case is (or the controller of that) is fine because it's the external case from my backup drive which I have used a few minutes ago.

 

I have uploaded a picture that you see what I mean.