How do i get files off my external hard drive when it says it needs formatting

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carmilanes

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Jan 22, 2013
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This HDD was connected to my PC but it only have some video files that I can't lose. Seagate. 2TB.
Now when I connect it inside of my PC like extra HDD or using usb adapter, appear a message telling me I need to format it.
Please, somebody know how can I to save all my files in that hard drive?
 
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jameh

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Dec 14, 2014
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Followed the instructions above but I got this message: The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives. Please help. Thanks!
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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@2slojo, I can't speak for anyone else, but when I'm faced with a "raw" file system, I first examine the partition table and boot sector. If these are OK, then I examine the next component of the file system. Since the requested information was not provided, then I was unable to contribute anything.

BTW, Windows deems a file system to be "raw" if any of its critical components is damaged to the point that the volume cannot be mounted. Windows then treats it as just a bunch of bytes. If it's not too badly damaged, you can sometimes mount the file system in Linux (Ubuntu Live CD). Otherwise you just have to try various data recovery software until you find one that recovers your files, assuming it's still possible.
 
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tinkertailorsailor

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Jan 9, 2015
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THIS ABSOLUTELY WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!! I had files and pictures from 10yrs and this solution worked! My drive is working again. The only issue I had is I am the administrator and it would not let me run the command because I did not have access. I checked Microsofts website and figured it out in a couple of minutes. This works.

I will always have 2 backups now.
 
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meiyappan

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Feb 7, 2015
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Dear all, Thank you very much for your solution.
I have been facing this problem and trying to find a solution for almost 3 weeks,
this solution solved my problems just like that minutes... very very very thank you for your great help every one.

but my doubt is do we will face any problem in future, how can i backup this hdd as itself is a backup drive of my important photos
 
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mahayogi

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May 12, 2015
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Hi
I have seagate backup plus external 4T Hard drive. It stopped truing on so opened it and using Anker SATA to USB turned on but its says needs formatting. I tried the command both h and r but it says "chksk is not available for RAW drives" what should I do. Thank you very much.
 
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jlennon999

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Jun 11, 2015
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I have a slightly different problem. I actually choose the FORMAT option ( then I saw this post). Is there a way before I write anything to get the old files from some type of recovery software.
 
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ventureimages

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Jun 28, 2015
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ventureimages

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Jun 28, 2015
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Ben_3

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Aug 20, 2015
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May I ask jameh and mahayogi what are your thread of your problem. I am experiencing the same issue as yours and would like to look for some advise. Please advise, thanks.
 
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Ravina_1

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Sep 26, 2015
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YOUR SOLUTION SAVED ME, Thankyou very much, it worked!
 
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Eric Bentsen

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Sep 15, 2014
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I have a Seagate 3 TB USB 3.0 hard drive that suddenly went bad AGAIN after a few months of being good after reformatting. I tried checkdisk in Command Mode and it said this is a RAW file system, I go to Computer Management and it says the drive is NTFS and healthy. I tried to copy as much off of it as I could for a few hours but didn't get everything. I took some camera snapshots of what I still have yet to copy, (doesn't work on CRT monitors btw.)

Everytime I plug it in now, I get Autoplay locking up the drive and the HDD icon lost it's usual color & is now white with a blue ribbon, and I also get a prompt to "scan the hard drive for errors, or not?" The first scan it found 34 errors and it took hours, then told me I need to format it. Now I'm having a very hard time accessing the drive to copy anything off of it, it keeps crashing and locking up Windows Explorer. I have to unplug the drive to get Windows back.

When I had this problem months ago it was a USB driver issue, I had to download and install a very specific USB driver for this hard drive to get it to work temporarily before reformatting. I'll have to see if I can find that info again somewhere.

The guy at Staples told me that Seagate hard drives from 3 TB to 4 TB had a high return rate of 17%. This is my 3rd or 4th hard drive failure of this size. He said the Seagate 5 TB drives had half the return rate. He suggested another brand like Hitachi that had a much lower return rate of around 2%. I don't know what to get in the Columbus Day sales next week, but I'm gonna start looking around now.
 
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