How to Recover Files from Formatted or Re-partitioned External Hard Drive
Updated on Nov 11, 2023 | by Jeremy
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Many users face the frustration of losing files due to formatting their external hard drive, like a Seagate drive, or accidentally re-partitioning it, resulting in RAW data. This is a common issue, with users seeking help on how to recover files from a formatted external hard drive. To avoid such data loss, it's essential to understand the causes of data loss, such as formatting or re-partitioning, and take preventive measures. If data loss does occur, knowing how to recover deleted or lost files is crucial, making data recovery a vital skill for PC users.
There are many reasons which can cause data loss:
- Accidental deletion of folders/files from an external hard drive, typically caused by pressing "Shift+delete" instead of "delete", can result in permanent data loss. This is because the operating system immediately overwrites the deleted files with new data, making it impossible to recover the lost files using the recycle bin or other data recovery methods.
- Unexpected formatted or re-partitioned external hard drive;
- The external hard drive, when connected to a computer, displays as RAW instead of its actual file system, and a prompt appears asking if you'd like to format it. This is likely due to the drive not being properly initialized or formatted, or possibly the file system on the drive has become corrupted.
- Data becomes inaccessible due to virus infection, incorrect or incomplete formatting, or partition issues.
How to Avoid the Data Loss from External Hard Drive?
Regularly backing up your files, photos, videos, documents, and excels to different locations such as external drives and cloud storage is the cheapest and most convenient way to ensure their safety. This way, you can recover deleted files from the recycle bin, avoid virus attacks by running antivirus software regularly, and take care of your external drives to prevent corruption or damage. Additionally, consider using cloud drives like OneDrive, which allows business users to roll back to any version of a document in the last 30 days, and make a copy of crucial data before executing any disk partitioning or formatting operations. This will help you avoid data loss and ensure that your important files are always accessible.
How to Recover Files from External Hard Drive
If you've accidentally lost files from an external hard drive due to formatting, re-partitioning, or deletion, you can try using an external hard drive data recovery software to retrieve them. The lost files still exist on the drive as long as they haven't been overwritten by new data, but they're invisible to us. To access them, you'll need a third-party software, and I recommend trying Deep Data Recovery, a powerful and user-friendly data recovery tool that can help you recover files from an external hard drive on both Mac and Windows.
Your Safe & Effective External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
- Files can be recovered from various situations such as accidental deletion, formatted drives that display as RAW, system crashes, and virus attacks.
- The software supports over 500 types of files, including photos, videos, audios, documents, archives, and emails.
- External hard drive data recovery software can recover files from various storage devices, including local hard disks, SD cards, external hard drives, digital cameras, and video players.
Steps to Recover Files from Formatted or Re-partitioned External Hard Drive
Step 1. Download and Install External Hard Drive Data Recovery Software
To recover data from an external drive like a Seagate, you need to download and install software on your computer, connect the external drive, and then launch the software to scan and detect the drive.
Step 2. Select File Types to Scan
The project will first display the available file types to choose from, allowing users to select all or specific types. Upon completion, clicking "Next" will prompt the user to select the desired location for data recovery.
Step 3. Select External Hard Drive to Recover Files
If your external hard drive has multiple partitions, select the partition where the file is missing. If there are no partitions, select the external hard drive itself. Then click "Scan" and the software will list all lost files after scanning.
Step 4: Recover Files from Formatted or Re-partitioned External Hard Drive
After the scan is complete, you can view the recovered files, select the ones you want to retrieve, click "Recover" and save them to a different location.
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