How to get information off an external hard drive without formatting

[msbevel56]

My question is
I plug an external drive into a laptop computer, it asks me to formate the disk, if I do I lose all my information. Could you help me.

Veronica Avery

 

[firo40]

When you choose not to format the drive can you see al the information that is on it?

 

[ittimjones]

the drive is probably bad. the only way to recover information is to use a data recovery tool.

 

[msbevel56]

the drive is probably bad. the only way to recover information is to use a data recovery tool.

I just recieved the drive yesterday 4/29/2013

 

[msbevel56]

When you choose not to format the drive can you see al the information that is on it?

nothing show up

 

[fixer762]

Make your self an Ultimate Boot Disc

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/index.html

you also need a program to burn .iso files to make an Ultimate boot disc such ISO burner

as http://www.freeisoburner.com/

When you have the Ultimate Boot disc made stick it into you your laptops cd drive if it has one..if not make a usb ultimate boot disc.

Launch the application named "Parted Magic" near the bottom of the first directory you see when you boot off of the Ultimate boot disc.

When you have launched Parted Magic and have it loaded, plug in your external hdd. You should be able to copy and paste anything on that drive to your laptops hdd or to some other storage device. Hope this helps.

edit/// don't listen to the people above, the drive is likely still good. After you use Parted Magic, reboot the computer with the Ultimate boot disc still in your laptop and go to HDD then there should be something about hard drive testers. Test your external hdd for faults and errors and report the results here. On second thought you could just use Parted Magic and test the hard drive in that program as well.

 

[Saga Lout]

If the OP only received the disk yesterday, it's unlikely he has any data to recover.

msbevel56 - if it is a new drive, say Yes to the offer of formatting. Also, why did you call your thread "How to get information off etc."?

 

[Niyal]

i booted with parted magic but when i click on perform test on my external hardisk it displays the error called completed with read failure.. anyother way to get my data back without formating actually this massage 'u need format' error started show after virus attack to my hardisk this is second time happen kindly request any one to help me out please

 

[Saga Lout]

If it can't be read it will have to be formatted before it can even be recognised as a disk. Make sure you only tick the box for a Quick Format and some form of recovery will be possible afterwards. It sounds counter intuitive but it often works when I do it that way on customers' hard disks. Recuva from http://www.piriform.com is a good utility to use after the format.

 

[Niyal]

i booted with parted magic but when i click on perform test on my external hardisk it displays the error called completed with read failure.. anyother way to get my data back without formating actually this massage 'u need format' error started show after virus attack to my hardisk this is second time happen kindly request any one to help me out please