All the sudden my computer is loading the dard drive as a letter instead of “my Passport” and it’s asking me to format the disk… Can anyone help me on how to recover all the data I have in the drive?
Thanks!
It sounds like you are using Windows. Try:
- going to “My Computer” or “This PC”
- right-clicking on the “my Passport” drive
- going to the “Tools” tab
- clicking on “Check”
If that fails, I recommend that you download an Ubuntu “Live CD” and use that to get your data off the Passport.
A “Live CD” is a CD or DVD that has a full operating system on it. You can boot off that disk and use Ubuntu. Often, Linux will have better luck with damaged disks.
This Ubuntu Live CD will be able to access your boot drive, and when you plug in the Passport, it might be able access that as well. You can then drag files from the Passport to the boot drive.
This is not terribly easy, but it is also not terribly difficult. You can do this. You may need to have your smart phone or tablet by your side to Google for answers to questions as they arise. Once you are done, you will have learned more about computers than 99% of the population.
There are lots of posts like this already on the forums. Be sure to check those as well.
And if all else fails, you can send your drive to a data recovery service. But that costs a lot.
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When I get to the “check” point it tells me the disk check couldn’t be performed because is not formatted. Would you like to format the disk? So I guess I have to try the cd option?
I think that is your best option. You could also take it over to a friend’s house and have them try.
