When it comes to storage devices, very few issues are as annoying as the “You need to format the disk in drive X: before you can use it” error. A lot of people just go ahead and format, losing all their files in the process. Well, the good news is that you can resolve this issue without losing your files. This error can also come in form of “volume X: does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that all required file system driver are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted”.
The cause of this errors are pretty simple, your partition table may have been corrupted; changed from FAT or NTFS to RAW. A number of things could have resulted in this corruption; corrupted DBR, MFT/FAT, disconnecting without properly unmounting, malware, mishandling etc. sometimes it's advisable to format the drive, but not before you’ve retrieved / recovered your files from the storage device.
I'll be showing two methods on how you can retrieve your files from the corrupted drive before flashing it.
Command prompt method
Firstly, you need to find out the drive letter of the device by connecting the external storage device to the PC and checking the device’s drive letter under My Computer. It’ll be something like G, H, I, J etc.
1. Launch the Windows Start menu and type cmd
2. Right-click Command Prompt from the result and run as Administrator
3. In Command prompt, type chkdsk /f h: and press Enter
* Note: Ensure to replace h with the drive letter of the storage device and give a space between chkdsk , /f and h:
Data Recovery Methodwe’ll be using a software called M3 Data Recovery. (You could use any other data recovery software of your choice).
1. Connect the corrupted storage device to the PC
2. Download M3 Data Recovery full version
3. Install and launch the software
4. Select RAW Drive Recovery
5. Wait till all your storage devices are detected
6. Highlight the corrupted storage device and click Next
7. Wait while the files get recovered from the RAW drive / partition
8. Select the file(s) you wish to recover from the list and click Recover
9. Once recovery is finished, you can click Fix Drive
In some cases whereby the crash is pretty serious. In such a situation, go ahead with formatting the external storage. After formatting, you can use a good data recovery software like M3 data recovery or Easeus to recover your files.
After successfully retrieving your files, whats comes to mind next is to fix the corrupted Raw drive. Now, fixing (formatting) a Raw drive is like taking a walk through the park, there's nothing confusing or time wasting about it. All you have to do is:
- Navigate to My Computer
- Right-click on the storage device and select Format…
- In the format box, select the file system of your choice (Its recommended to use NTFS for large storages and FAT 32 for smaller storages) , tick Quick Format then click Start
- Wait till you get a prompt confirming that format is complete
If you have any questions kindly use the comment box below.
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