External HDD format???

Ok sooooo Ive just installed W7pro (yay!)
and for some reason when i turn on my external, (which admittedly, has been slowly dying lately) W7 requests a format.

I wanna know if its possible to just p&p as it does on vista/XP/W7 RC-RTM etc.
Its only on this W7 thats asking for the format
I really cannot afford to lose everything thats on my HDD since it includes all my UNI work to date, not to mention all my music and several hundred movies/tv series.

Thanks for any info dudes

On a related offshoot, can anyone reccomend a good file recovery program?
In the event that Id have to format and lose all the data I was thinking a good enough recovery program could fish them back out

If that external drive is dying, I'd get that data off there as quick as possible - as it works on XP for some reason plug it in to that machine and copy the data off it ASAP. I don't know why only W7 wants to format it, but it isn't possible to force read it. It would be worth running the drive diagnostics utility once you have got your data from it.

Utilities like Recuva and PC Inspector are good for basic file recovery

Will do.
But I also wonder if you can recover anything after a format? Ive heard you can but I dont know to what extent



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OMFG IT RANDOMLY WORKS?!?!?!?!?

*pulls every damn thing I can fit on my internal*

If the drive is recognized under a different Windows OS and you have data on it, then Windows 7 should also detect the data. Since it tells you it needs to format the drive it isn't able to see that the drive is already formatted, which as you already said indicates the external drive is failing.

I bet if you attempted to format it it probably would simply generate an error, or still not work afterwards.

Ive managed to pull the data I wanted off of it,and dump it on another external, and yes after the format it still doesent work, I feel quite sad now. 2 years isnt really a long time, im quite dissapointed in it. I feel like cracking it open but Ive no idea where to start.

Gunna breathe life into this thread :

I opened up the case. Since the 1tb is made up with 2 500GB HDDs i figure 1 of them is dead and the other is working. The main symptom of the failure that I noticed is a failure to spin up properly, that is, the drive makes the audible clicking noise. I took out each one and turned it on to see which drive made the clicking sound, turns out BOTH do. Is that possible? Both drives dying together? or perhaps its the control chip thats failed and isnt giving the drive enough power to spin up? is that even possible? a drive failure caused by a lack of power?

HOKAY. got one of the drives to spin up right and connect to the PC, only...it dosent quite connect.


So thats the drive sitting happy enough in my devices window, however :



On the my computer screen, it dosent come up as a listed HDD.

Whats the deal?

In that case it could be the controller or the drives causing the problem, but I'm not sure what to suggest without being familiar with this device. Are they standard SATA drives that you can connect internally now that you've pulled them out?

Could you post a screenshot of the disk management section of the "Computer Management" application (just type that in on the start menu)?

I would think the controller? as when they DO connect the HDDs appear to be fine....


They are.... Samsung.... Model: HD501LJ I assume theyre standard drives, they connect the same way as my internal HDD. However when i was hooking it up, i managed damage the connector - its slightly snapped now and wont actually hold into place. F***.

Will post a screenshot if it ever connects again (I have one of the drives loose and one still connected, just ...cos)

Screenshot. All appears fine.

Sounds like exactly what happened to my external drive - constant clicking (and occaisionally clunking) when trying to read the data but Windows refused to read it. Removed the drive from the enclosure and got hold of a cheap usb sata/ide connecting kit and confirmed nothing wrong with the drive. Put the drive in a new enclosure and worked perfectly.