Hard Drive Initilized on the Tv, and is now not recognized on laptop.

[Laquicia]

Okay so my step dad accidentally initialized my hard drive to the smart tv. Due to this when plugged into a laptop I can not access it, I can see it, but it doesn't show up in PC, but I can go into devices and see it, but still not access it. The light blinks, and i'm scared it erased everything and well I can't access it on my laptop.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, Laquicia!

I'd advise you to check how the external HDD appears in Disk Management as well. If you are able to get the drive detected there, make sure that the file system is NTFS or FAT32/exFAT and that the status is healthy. While there, you should try right-clicking on its volume and see if you'd be able to change the drive letter & paths. This might help you get access to it from This PC/My Computer.
As soon as you do that, make sure you backup all the data from it elsewhere and have one more copy of your files. This is the best way to prevent any potential data loss.
Did your stepdad initialize the hard drive after you had stored any files on it? Did you/he transfer any new data onto it after the re-initializing on the TV?

Keep me posted.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Laquicia]

Welcome to the community, Laquicia!

I'd advise you to check how the external HDD appears in Disk Management as well. If you are able to get the drive detected there, make sure that the file system is NTFS or FAT32/exFAT and that the status is healthy. While there, you should try right-clicking on its volume and see if you'd be able to change the drive letter & paths. This might help you get access to it from This PC/My Computer.
As soon as you do that, make sure you backup all the data from it elsewhere and have one more copy of your files. This is the best way to prevent any potential data loss.
Did your stepdad initialize the hard drive after you had stored any files on it? Did you/he transfer any new data onto it after the re-initializing on the TV?

Keep me posted.
SuperSoph_WD

There were thigns already on the Hard drive and no he didn't add anything new

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

This is still concerning, Laquicia! 🙁 I'm afraid you'd need the assistance of a professional data recovery company if the data you have on that external HDD is very important to you.
Your other option would be to use some third-party data recovery tools at your own risk. However, nobody can determine how successful these attempts would be.

I'd advise you to always keep at least 1-2 other copies of your data stored in different locations (off-site and on-site). This is the best way to prevent such unfortunate experiences with your data in the future.

Hope I was helpful. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD