i have a western digital external hard drive which was attached to alaptop i was formating and after that i could acess it

[Kapunzito]

i have a western digital external hard drive which was attached to a laptop i was formatting and after that i could not access it to get files backed up on it .how ever when i connect it to the laptop its being recognized but not displayed in my computer in device manager i can see it also

but cant open it to retrieve the files i have tried to use some data recovery software i can see all the files but since its not a licensed copy i can copy them

 

[WyomingKnott]

There are many kinds of free data recovery software; you should try them. My links to threads on this are at my other site so I can't put them in right now, but I'll try to get them to you. There is plenty of good free stuff. Recuva comes to mind as frequently recommended, although I have never used it. Nope, that's paid.

EDIT: Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/267620-32-best-data-recovery-tools and http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/332-free-data-recovery-backup-restore.html#BOM_comments

 

[Kapunzito]

hi wyomingnott i have tried to download free stuff but at the point of saving they are all asking for license key

 

[Hawkeye22]

Please clarify... you said you formatted the drive and after that you couldn't access it to "get files backed up on it". Formatting is destructive and it should have warned you of this before proceeding with the format. Is there a reason you did this if you already had data on it?

Have you tried going into disk management to assign the drive a letter? Drives won't show up in windows without a drive letter assigned to them.

 

[Kapunzito]

There are many kinds of free data recovery software; you should try them. My links to threads on this are at my other site so I can't put them in right now, but I'll try to get them to you. There is plenty of good free stuff. Recuva comes to mind as frequently recommended, although I have never used it. Nope, that's paid.

EDIT: Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/267620-32-best-data-recovery-tools and http://www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/332-free-data-recovery-backup-restore.html#BOM_comments

Please clarify... you said you formatted the drive and after that you couldn't access it to "get files backed up on it". Formatting is destructive and it should have warned you of this before proceeding with the format. Is there a reason you did this if you already had data on it?

Have you tried going into disk management to assign the drive a letter? Drives won't show up in windows without a drive letter assigned to them.

hello i dint format the external drive it was connected to a laptop i was formating