I'm having an issue on my PC. I went to open the hard drive that I use for all my photography stuff and I get a pop up message that says, "The disk in drive F is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

WHAT???? It was working fine when I went to bed last night. Please tell me that I did not lose everything on the hard drive. I just switched to a Mac last week and have not had a chance to take much of anything off of the old PC yet.

PLEASE HELP!!!

Thanks,
Matt

Read this

But My Advice -
Send the drive off for recovery or at least contact your local computer geek store.
Do not do anything else to/with it.

Do you have dvd backups of everything?

Thanks Johny. Pray for me...I'm freaking out. I regularly back up my client images, but I'm not so good at backing up anything else on that drive including all my business documents and personal/family pictures.

No problem. Same thing happened to me a couple of years ago.
The situation was a little different I guess, we had a major power spike and it fried my external HDD's. All data was lost and unrecoverable. I spent a lot of money sending to different Data Recovery places... total drive failure on all drives. I had everything backed up except for 1 wedding I had JUST shot (that was fun) and almost a year of family photos...

Sometimes we have to learn the hard way. But I will pray for your situation and that you don't lose anything.

hey Matt,

OK I have not used this program but have read where several other people have and with great success.
They received the exact same error you got.
download free trial from http://www.ptdd.com/
Partition Table Doctor V3.5


Read the situations and resolve from others like you >
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-3...mat-it-now.html

Hope this helps and let me know if I can do anything else.
Dave

Thanks. I downloaded the program. I'll have to try to figure out what exactly to do. Their instructions are not that clear...to me at lest.

From what I am reading you are wanting it to examine the drive and it will tell you what is needed.

Here are some instuction from the website


4. How to recover lost or deleted partition?
MBR And Partition Table Error:
SYMPTOMS:
- When we try to boot after hardware testing procedures, we see just blank screen without any messages
- Not found any [active partition] in Hard Disk
- DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER
- Invalid partition table
- 'Invalid Drive Specification' messages
- Partition deleted by FDISK or PQMAGIC

Please run Partition Table Doctor and select "Rebuild Partition Table" on menu "Operation". There are two modes of searching process: the "Auto" mode and "Interactive" mode. The Auto mode can automatically save each partition found without any process control. This mode process is applied in most situations. While the Interactive mode allows you to select each partition found by Partition Table Doctor. When errors occur in rebuilding the partition table in Auto mode, you can switch to the Interactive mode. Searched partitions will be displayed on screen in time sequence. You can search repeatedly till the partitions you need has been found, and then save the results by pressing the "Ctrl+S" key or selecting "Save" on the menu "General".
For more detail: Rebuild Partition Table.


6. After saving, please reboot the computer and backup all desired files. If you are not satisfied with the results of the repair after restarting the computer, click the "Undo Changes" on menu "General" immediately.

7.After copying all desired files, shut down the computer, remove the bad drive, put the bad drive in a safe place.

If there is not any mechanical problem on your drive, you can install Partition Table Doctor on the bad drive or use emergency floppy disk or bootable CD of Partition Table Doctor to recover partitions. You may go to step 4, 5, 6 directly. However, we recommend that you follow our steps to recover partition and backup data.

We also recommend that you build a brand new system now if your bad drive has been severely corrupted. Use another device other than the bad one. Install the operating system, then install the programs from their installation CD-ROMS. Finally you can import the recovered data to the new drive.

Verify that you have got back all the data you need. Do not recycle the bad drive unless you are absolutely sure about all wanted data is in place. It is a good idea to wait for 4 weeks before re-using the bad drive. If the bad drive has any mechanical problem you definitely must not use it again.

If you notice that there is any mechanical problem on the drive such as bad sectors and unusual noises, you need immediately stop the recovery and make a drive image first (You can use our Free Sector by Sector Backup software - EaseUs Disk Copy). When it is successfully created, you can recover from this drive image as the same as recover from the original drive. A mechanically damaged drive can fail entirely at any moment. It must be your primary goal to fetch all the raw data from such a drive as soon as possible. Making an image also reduces the drive load because each sector is read only once. Professional Data Recovery companies always make an image of the drive before trying to retrieve any file.

If your operational process differs from those above, please always make sure that you:
never install Partition Table Doctor on the mechanically bad drive,
never use the virus-infected drive as the boot-up system drive ©,
never have temporary files and folders copied on the bad drive,
never copy the recovered files to the bad drive,
make an image first if the bad drive has mechanical problems.

Note: Occasionally, if you could not get data back by Partition Table Doctor, we recommend that you can use professional data recovery software, such as Data Recovery Wizard to recover files. Our lab will provide you with the service within 24

It is not looking good. I'm running a Surface Test and it has already found over 400 errors.

any strange noises coming from the drive?
make an image first if the bad drive has mechanical problems.

Are you doing a disk copy?

Yes, there is a strange noise when I first turn on the computer. It only lasts for a few minutes and then goes away.

Make an image first? How

Disk copy? What...speak English. Or speak like I'm in kindergarten. I'm good with computer software...not hardware.

1) If the drive is making a noise then it has a mechanical problem. The instructions above say to stop everything and make a disk copy.

"If you notice that there is any mechanical problem on the drive such as bad sectors and unusual noises, you need immediately stop the recovery and make a drive image first (You can use our Free Sector by Sector Backup software - EaseUs Disk Copy)."

2) "Verify that you have got back all the data you need. Do not recycle the bad drive unless you are absolutely sure about all wanted data is in place. " This means do not power off the computer until you have all the files you wanted copied to your other drive. make sure you have enough room for the files.

You may have to upgrade the software you just download to get this option if you are not seeing it on the free download but not sure on that.
http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/index.htm

I hope things turned out OK?
You still around for an update?

No news yet. Nothing seems to be working. I may wait until Monday to talk to the IT guy at my work.

It is my son's b-day so I have other priorities today. I'm just praying that I did not lose the contents on the drive.

Most of it is still there but from what you said it sounds like the hard drive reader ARM slapped the surface of the hard drive and damaged some sectors.
If this is true then some of it will be damage beyond repair.

Did you use the copy function? or back up option?

Honestly, I could not figure out either the copy function or the back up option. I gave up for today. I did not see a copy function anywhere.

Thanks for all your help...I'll keep you posted.

Hope the Bday went well.

check here.... http://www.ptdd.com/download.htm
It says the Demo does NOT have the copy functions so unless you are wanting to purchase the software this will not work...Sorry --- $39.00 USA

Thanks David...I'll wait to see what my IT guy can do before I spend any money on that software.

David or anyone else,
My IT guy at work is going to work on my hard drive for me tomorrow. If he can recover the data, he said that I will probably have to buy an external hard drive to store the recovered data. I'll probably get an external hard drive from Best Buy at lunch tomorrow. Do you have any suggestions for a brand of external hard drives or are there any that I should stay away from?

Thanks!
Matt

The top brands are all pretty much the same.
Go with the biggest hard drive you can afford for the least amount.
USB 2.0 connections. or a couple that stack.
If your computer does not have USB 2.0 then you can buy a PCI card for the computer to attach it to... these are cheap.
I would go with a stackable drive so if you get more then 1 then can sit on top of each other.

Thanks David! The bad drive is a 160GB so I'll probably get something about that size or maybe a little bigger. Once I get (if I get) the info off the bad drive and onto the new one, I'll only be using the external on my new iMac. I don't really need that much space since I have 250GB in my new computer so I'll use the new external hard drive as a back up. I've learned my lesson about backing up!

Best buy has some good deals right now. Plus you can buy online and pick it up at the store near you.
The 500GB for 139.99 is the best buy per gig.
You know what I am going down there and pick one up!


The 500GB is going for 179.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1142290230595

This 500GB is going for only 139.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1164155963918

This 320GB is going for 129.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1164155964057

This 320GB is going for 119.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1134698030541

This 160GB is going for 79.99
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1134698030419

Wow...500GB for $139.99 is an awesome price. What is eSATA? That transfer speed of 2,400 Mbps is crazy fast.

What kind of experience have you guys had with these drives? I like the LaCie drives. Is one better than the other?

I've got the 500GB Western Digital and I love it. Been using WD externals for a while now and they've always (knock on wood...) been reliable.

OK I had a reply started but accidentally unplugged the power cord to the computer when add a surge protector for the new drives.

I just got back from Best Buy and they had 3 left on the shelf... temping but I only bought 2 of them .

Matt go online to best buy and got to checkout (don't have to buy it) and put in your zip code which will show you all the best buys in your area and if they have them in stock.

Took about 5 minutes and they were up and installed with no problems.
Transferred some files over to the new drives and they are pretty fast.

Cool thing about these drives are the LCD indicator lights when they are being accessed and amount of space left on the drive

Happy dancing

Are you SURE you did not buy one for yourself and one for me??? I just checked and it shows that they have them in stock at the store closest to me. Looks like I may be making a trip to Best Buy tomorrow!

Thanks again!

Oh...and do you know what eSATA is? I've never heard of that transfer method.

They are the same thing.
If you have firewire...which most macs do, Then find one with that type of connection as everyone these days makes them.
USB 2.0 is fast enough for my useage.

I like the LCD light on the front of the WD external drives and the black color goes with everything I have ... Monitor etc...

SATA is another connection type / data transfer interface.
If your computer has this interface then I would use that because as you see it is up to 6 times faster then USB 2.0 or firewire connection / data transfers.
Plus you can use longer cables for the eSATA connections.

My system board has these internally but I have not used them.

The "e" in the eSATA means external.

Matt,

These drive are great!
They are preloaded with backup software and if you choose to back up everything or just 1 file you can set it up to do so automatically.
I saw a folder on the drive for the MAC so don't worry they got ya covered.

Cool! My IT guy is working on the drive right now. He is scanning it and finding a TON of bad sectors. I did find out that my hard drive was not what was making the strange noise. I'm not sure what it is, but it still makes the noise without that drive in the computer.

Get a can of air and blow the dust off all the fans.
Turn it back on and see if you can pin point where the noise is coming from.

It's probably a fan. Shouldn't be any other moving parts in it besides fans and optical drives.

Hey David,
I got the new hard drive (500GB MyBook Premium ES Edition). Best Buy did not have any on the shelf and I almost got a 320GB drive instead...but at the last second I asked an associate if they had any of the 500GB drives left and a minute later he came out with three of them. Unlike you, I only bought one.

Update on the bad drive
Chuck is still working on it. It scanned all day yesterday and into a good part of this morining. We got to a point were we could see my folders, but could not get to them. It looks like the data is still there...we are just trying to figure out how to get it off the bad drive now.

YAY!!!! That's great to hear matt!

They are really nice drives.
I moved a ton of stuff over to one of them yesterday and then ran Dfrag on c,e,f,g,h,j,k, drives this ended up being M and N drives.

Do you have it hooked up yet?
the bad drive should be accessable through a computer where you just transfer the data over to the new drive.

How are things going?

Hey David. We were able to recover the data!!! Praise God!!! We finished the restore late this afternoon. He restored the information to his external hard drive. We should have just restored the info to my new drive, but I was not at work yet when he started the restore process. We hooked both drives up to my compter at work and began moving aboout 100GB just before I left work. I'll have all my info back once I go back to work on Tuesday. I'm soooo excited...and man have I learned my lesson! Thanks again for all your help and encouragement!

Cool, glad things are working out.

Sweeet!!!!! Matt's got his data back!!!!! Data Dance!!!

And I've learned a valuable lesson!!!
If I don't back up...the computer will be sure to get me!

Matt,

Do you know what application was used to retrive the data?

I don't remember the name...but I can find out in about a week when my friend Chuck gets back from vacation.

Well did we get it done?

Yup! I just brought all (or most) of my data home on my new drive. A bunch of files got renamed and moved around, but at least we could save them!

That is GREAT news!

Thanks again!!!