2T Passport Ultra, unplugged during write/read, said needs formatting for use

Obviously I don’t want to wipe my files, so that is not an option. I did some internet searches, found some reference to trying to run check disk, which I did. 

Before running check disk, the drive only showed up as drive G on my old Windows XP PC, as well as my Windows 7 Professional laptop at work, and my Windows 7 home addition HP Envy laptop. After running scan disk the drive now appears in the drive list as My Passport as it normally would, but I get an access denied message when I try to view it’s contents. 

I did some more searching, found some reference to taking ownership of the files, and I followed that proceedure, during which it displayed the familiar list of file names on the drive (albiet at near LIGHT SPEED lol), so that was somewhat comforting, as I know they are at least still there.

However, from that point, no further luck, and the really weird part is, when I look at the contents of the drive, it shows to be empty, but I know that’s not true because I saw the file names still there when I took ownership of them.

How can I get back control of this drive?

I would first replace the USB cable in order to discard the possibility of a connectivity issue. On the other hand, data extraction can be performed by means of a free data recovery application since the hard drive is still functional.

Regards,

Trancer, I have already tried a cable swap, as the guy who sits next to me at work also has the same WD 2T drive. The cable did not help, and we even went so far as to try his drive with my cable on both his and my computers, and his works fine on both, so it’s definitely not the cable. 

What data extraction software(s) would you recommend? I was about to send it to a data recovery service, and the pricing for a “logical” issue (non-mechanical) goes from $99 to $900. I have over 15 years of pictures and videos, and documents on this drive (I backed up my ancient Windows XP PC and made the mistake of deleting the items I backed up from the hard drive and then wiping it … UHG!), but I’m not going to spend more than a couple hundred dollars on it to recover the files. It’s just not worth it to me. If there’s a cheaper way, I’m all for it.

I do realise this is an old thread… but just incase the recovery wasnt done…

You can try a free tool called TestDisk.

I have managed to recover data from disks that show the need to format message on Windows Explorer using this software.

1 Like