Question Run chkdsk /f BEFORE running chkdsk/r on an external hard drive?

[Lani2]

My windows 10 laptop recognizes my external hard drive but cannot access it. Error message: D:\ is not accessible; The paramter is incorrect. From what I've read online, chkdsk r/ may take hours or days. Would it be wise to run chkdsk /f first, and see if that corrects the problem? Then, if the drive is still not accesible, run chckdsk /r? I haven't been able to find an answer to that question online. I'm also concerned about the possibilty of losing data on my external hard drive, which I foolishly did not back up! This is my first post on this forum, so please let me know if I've not posted this question in in the proper area. Thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

which I foolishly did not back up!

Problem #1 !

My windows 10 laptop recognizes my external hard drive but cannot access it.

Does it recognize the drive, or the enclosure?

What s the make/model of this device?
What was the last thing you did before this happened?

 

[Lani2]

Problem #1 !


Does it recognize the drive, or the enclosure?

What s the make/model of this device?
What was the last thing you did before this happened?

It's a Samsung external hard drive, but I don't have the model information. I purchased it many years ago. It is recognized by my laptop, as it appears as drive D: in Windows Explorer -- but it cannot be accessed. I had been working on a MS Word file that resides on the external hard drive, and was preparing to save and shut it down for the night and, at that time, I heard a number of alert dings, although I wasn't aware of the cause. I shut the computer down and the next day when I tried to access my external hard drive again, it could not be accessed,.

 

[fzabkar]

Can you retrieve a SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl?

 

[Lani2]

Can you retrieve a SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl?

Disk Manager shows that the File System is RAW.