External Hard drive file system corrupt

Okay. I have an external 40GB Maxtor that is connected through USB to my system, which I use for GW screenshots and other stuff I don't remember (like past reports/documents I won't need). Well it got corrupted and now when you try to open it it says it is not formatted.

I can recover the files with third party programs but the thing is I am wondering if I can fix the file system and just get it to work again. The drive is about 3 or 4 years old and it hasn't failed me til now.

Luckily it wasn't my boot drive XD

Try getting "Easy Recovery Pro", that is able to recover most data or partitions that have been corrupted, else get "Spin Right" which will do a low level scan and repair of your hard drive.

You should be able to correct this hopefully without 3rd party programs, if you haven't already tried this.

go to My Computer, right click on your HD icon and select Properties, in the Tools Tab there is an error checking tool which should check for any errors and attempt to repair them.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7
Date: 9/16/2006
Time: 5:28:24 PM
User: N/A
Computer: PC
Description:
The device, \Device\Harddisk1\D, has a bad block.

from my event log
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Ran PC Inspector and got the important files out, so I'm set there. Now I have to find a way to get many Gigs of GW screenshots out -.-

I can't access the drive via windows explorer because it makes it freeze.

Click your START-button and select RUN

Type cmd

That will give you a command prompt

now type chkdsk d: /f /r /x

That will check the drive for bad sectors and correct any errors there might be, but you should scrap the disk after salvaging the content because once it starts to develop bad sectors it will only get worse.

Btw. this will probably take a while.

well if i read your post right you said you already recoverd your files you needed with third party apps. So your looking for a way to get the hd back to working condition right?

If that is the case just format it disk. TO do this just right click on hd. Then select format. In the new window that comes up check quick format then click start.

That should make the disk usable again. However it will delete all the files that were on it but like i said if i read what you said right thats not a problem

That was the first thing I tried because I have had this happen on win98 machines back in the day. But on this ext. HD it gives an error because the file system is really messed up...

I mean working condition without taking about 5 hours to reformat and put all the crap back on it... I know how to reformat -.-

Download Powermax, run it and see what it says about the drives condition.

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/ma...&downloadID=22

If the link doesn't work, maxtor.com, search for Powermax

You don't sound like a hardware noob so I assume you know that if it's not just the filesystem but an actual defect on the drive you should scap the disk, sure reformatting will map out any defects but once your drive starts failing it's just a matter of time before it happens again.

Also since it's 40GB I assume it's pretty old and you can get 200GB drives for cheap now, just open the casing and put a new drive in it.

Tried PowerMax, it only works on the primary hard disk... not external.
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I figure I will be moving all my GW screenshots to my Xdrive account anyhow (since I don't access them daily). Seriously though the size of the screenshots folder is enormous!
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Basically I followed this guide which is basically for linux users but testdisk has a windows version, which I'm using now: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/420

which is based off
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced_FAT_Repair and http://www.geocities.com/thestarman3/testdisk.html
(since it is a FAT32 disk not a NTFS or FAT16)

The error I get is
The most sense i can make of it is that one of the parts of the disk is messed up. o dam.


Edit: Got it to work by completely overwriting the boot record with the boot record backup, using testdisk. Now I need to see what went wrong on my HD and take all my GW stuff off it.

nice that you got access again

good luck

Yeh, problem is I have to take everything off it before it screws over again -.-

It goes to show you Linux is better than Windows, because it doesn't rely on things that Windows does to do the same thing.

No thanks to windows and crappy windows file management, I wasted the whole weekend fixing this problem when I couldve been playing GW for the double faction AB or doing coursework in advance that is due in october for more time to play nightfall >.<.

Linux Live Ditributions > Windows.

QFT! Linux has saved my system twice (I'm on dualboot but have a couple of Live CD's just in case both of my disks get corrupted) and well, it's just cooler than Windows imo.
And a friendly advice, don't get a Maxtor again. Many people are having problems. But Maxtor is no more, and I'm happy.

Well the main problem was that it was a FAT disk, Windows XP doesn't really support that format very well - and for a good reason since it blows chunks (the filesystem that is).