What to do right now
- Do not initialise, format or run chkdsk before your data is safe.
- Try another cable, another USB port and another PC.
- If Disk Management shows the disk, a recovery tool can usually read it.
What to check
Listen first
Repeated clicking, scraping, beeping or no spin at all means a physical problem. Stop connecting it and look for a professional lab.
Swap cable, port and power
Use another USB cable and a port at the back of the PC, without a hub. A 3.5-inch external drive needs its power adapter; a 2.5-inch drive needs enough USB power.
Check Disk Management
Right-click Start and open Disk Management. See whether the disk appears with its capacity, whether only the drive letter is missing, whether it shows as RAW or unallocated, or as not initialised.
Respond to what you see
If only the letter is missing, assigning one fixes it. If it shows RAW, unallocated or not initialised, do not format or initialise; select the physical disk in FileFix Ultimate and run partition search and a scan.
Check health, then copy
Check the SMART values in FileFix Ultimate's disk health view. If bad sectors are growing, image the disk to another disk first and copy files from the image.
What each state in Disk Management means
If the disk is missing from Disk Management entirely, the cause may be the connection, the power or the USB bridge board in the enclosure. If the enclosure can be opened, connecting the bare disk to a desktop SATA port or another dock sometimes works. Some products encrypt in the enclosure, so the original enclosure may be needed.
If the disk appears but is RAW or the partition is gone, the file system or partition information is damaged. The data area usually survives, so partition search and a scan have a good chance. A disk used on a Mac or a NAS may simply use a format Windows cannot read.
When software cannot help
- The heads or motor have failed: clicking, or the disk does not spin.
- The disk never appears in Disk Management, on any PC or cable.
- The enclosure encrypts the data and the original enclosure is broken.
How FileFix Ultimate helps
- Finds partition candidates and scans for files on RAW disks or disks with lost partitions.
- SMART and a surface read test show whether the disk is safe to keep reading.
- Images a disk with bad sectors so you can recover from the image.
- From version 1.0.4, opens NAS ext4 and Mac HFS+ disks read-only.
FileFix Ultimate is free, works offline and never writes to the drive you are recovering from. Check the signature before you run it.
Frequently asked questions
My external hard drive does not show up in This PC.
Check Disk Management first. If the disk is there without a letter, assign one. If it is not there at all, swap the cable, port and power.
Windows says I must initialise the disk.
Do not do it. The partition information is often damaged, and initialising makes recovery harder. Find the partition with a recovery tool first.
My external hard drive is clicking.
That can mean failing heads. Power it off and stop connecting it. A professional recovery lab is needed.