It happens that the computer does not open the external hard drive. Despite this, the device is quite successfully recognized by the system. In this case, an error appears like: “To extract files, formatting is required.” It is clear that if you follow the proposed procedure, you will no longer be able to obtain the contents, since as a result of formatting, all data is safely destroyed. What to do in this case?

How to open an external hard drive without formatting

Option 1

1. Open the Disk Management folder and view the status of the device you need. Most likely, it will be described as follows: “type: primary, file system: RAW, good.” This means that the file system has been corrupted in some way, which is where the problem with reading data lies.
2. System recovery programs will help correct the situation. Acronis Disc Director or RawRecovery, one of the internal Easy Recovery plugins, will do.
3. Install the selected program on your computer and enable scanning of the damaged device.
4. Run file system recovery.
5. After the manipulations have been carried out, the content will be available for viewing and other actions.

Option 2

This method helps if the device is detected, it is possible to safely remove it, but it is not displayed in Explorer. This method will help if the problem is caused by missing partitions on the hard drive. Everything is corrected by creating partitions; for this, a standard Windows tool is used:

1. Click the "Start" button and select the "Computer" tab from the main menu, then "Management".
2. In the drop-down menu that appears, click on the Disk Management tab. A window will open in which the status of the hard drives is described: under the designation “Disk 0” the built-in hard drive is hidden, and under “Disk 1” is the external one. Opposite the latter you will see the inscription “Not distributed”.
3. Right-click on the label and a menu will appear, the first line of which will be the command “Create a simple volume...”. Choose this command.
4. The Simple Volume Wizard window appears. From this point on, you need to follow the instructions of the system, or, more simply, click the “Next” button.
5. After completing the wizard, the data you need will immediately appear in the “Explorer” folder.

What to do to prevent the problem from recurring

The easiest way to avoid data corruption on your hard drive is to properly remove the device from your computer. How it's done:

1. After the files are finally downloaded to the device's memory, find the icon for the USB connection of the external hard drive to the computer.
2. Hover your cursor over it and right-click.
3. From the context menu that appears, select “Safely Remove Hardware.”
4. Wait for the system to respond, after which you can disconnect the connection cable.

This simple rule is ignored by many users, and as a result they have to deal with data corruption.

You may also find it useful to read our article.

If, after working with an external hard drive, the device is improperly disconnected from the computer or a failure occurs during recording, the data will be damaged. Then, when you reconnect, an error message will appear asking you to format it.

When an external hard drive does not have important information, you can simply format it, thereby quickly fixing the problem. Then all damaged files will be erased, and you can continue working with the device. There are several ways to correct the error while saving important data.

Method 1: Check via the command line

You can check your hard drive for errors and fix possible problems using standard Windows tools. This same option is especially relevant if you have discovered a failed NTFS file system before RAW.

Procedure:

When the check is completed, all faulty data will be corrected, and the hard drive can be used to record and view files.

Method 2: Format the disk

If there is no important data on the hard drive, and the main task is to regain access to the device, then you can follow the advice of Windows and format it. You can do this in several ways:

After this, all files that were previously stored on the external hard drive will be deleted. You can try to recover some of the information using special software.

Method 3: Data Recovery

If the previous method did not help resolve the problem or another error appeared during the process (for example, due to a file system type mismatch), and there is important data in the device’s memory, then you can try to restore it. This can be done using special software.

We recommend choosing R-Studio for this purpose, but you can use any similar software. The program is suitable for working with external hard drives and other removable storage media. Capable of recovering data from a faulty or accidentally formatted device.

Using portable media to store important information is a mistake many people make. In addition to the fact that a flash drive can be easily lost, it can fail and valuable data will be lost. An example of this is the situation when it is not readable and asks to start formatting. We'll talk further about how to access the necessary files.

Let us immediately clarify that we are talking about an error, which is shown in the image below.


It usually occurs when the file system is corrupted, for example due to improper removal of the flash drive. Although it does not work, its contents are not damaged in this case. To extract files we use the following methods:

• Handy Recovery program;
• program ;
• Recuva program;
• Chkdsk command.

It should be said right away that data recovery from a portable device does not always end in success. The probability that the above methods will work can be estimated at 80%.

Method 1: Handy Recovery

This utility is paid, but has a trial period of 30 days, which will be quite enough for us.

To use Handy Recovery, do the following:

As you can see, using Handy Recovery is completely simple. If after performing the above procedures the error does not disappear, use the following program.

Method 2: Active@ File Recovery

It’s also a paid application, but the demo version is enough for us.

Instructions for using Active@ File Recovery look like this:

Method 3: Recuva

This utility is free and is a good alternative to the previous options.

To use Recuva, do this:

If you have any problems, you may find a solution in our article on using this program. And if not, write about them in the comments.

If no program sees the media, then you can format it in the standard way, but be sure to check "Quick (clear table of contents)", otherwise the data will not be returned. To do this, just click "Format" when an error occurs.

After this, the flash drive should be displayed.

They are a very popular and convenient means for storing and transferring information between computers. They are very reliable, can be rewritten many times, and are practically not affected by external factors such as a magnetic field, the sun, and in many cases even moisture. However, the USB storage device may experience problems from time to time. One of the most famous is that when the computer is connected, the computer starts writing that the disk requires formatting, and the flash drive itself does not want to open. When viewing the properties of the drive, its capacity is displayed as 0 bytes, and the file system is RAW.

There are several ways to open a flash drive without formatting.

What to do in this case? Okay, if you don’t store important data on it, you can simply format it and continue to use it safely. Well, what if you can’t delete the information? Is there a way out?

Fortunately, in most cases the flash drive is damaged only at the software level, while the physical data continues to be recorded. A failure can occur for various reasons, most often due to the action of viruses, and also when the work was completed incorrectly during a recording or reading session, for example, you pulled out the flash drive from its socket or the power supply was turned off.

There are several ways to regain access. We will go over with you the working methods and methods that will help you recover files on your portable drive. All you need to do is follow the instructions carefully.

The fastest, easiest and least painless way to regain access to files on a flash drive. To do this, you don’t even need to download additional software, as all operations will be performed using the Windows command line. So, you connect the media to the USB connector, and instead of your files opening, you see a sign asking you to format the flash drive.

1. Click "No" if you really don't want to lose the recorded data.
2. Run Command Prompt as Administrator. To do this, click the Start button, enter cmd in the search bar, right-click on the utility in the search results and select “Run as administrator.” On Windows 10, you can select the corresponding item by right-clicking on the Start button.
3. After the jumping cursor is displayed after the system folder address and user name, type the command chkdsk x: /f, where instead of x, enter the letter under which your flash drive is displayed in the system. Check this information in your file explorer. To confirm and launch, click Enter.
4. Wait a couple of minutes while the utility does its job. The total time will depend on the size and class of the flash drive, as well as the number of files.

If everything goes well, you will soon be able to view the contents of your portable drive. Just in case, copy the data to your computer’s hard drive and format the flash drive to get rid of any remaining problems.

It is worth noting that it is possible that a message in the form of “CHKDSK is not valid for RAW disks” may appear, which indicates the presence of more serious problems with your device.

Unfortunately, if such a development occurs, the flash drive will need to be formatted, but if it stores data whose safety is a priority, then you can try to restore it, which will be discussed a little later.

Virus check

A very common and fairly common reason that the system does not display the contents of the flash drive and asks you to format it may be that it is infected with viruses. For example, the so-called autorun virus turns all folders and files into shortcuts, hiding them, and some other viruses generally begin to require formatting the media and do not display its contents. Therefore, if checking the disk for errors did not lead to changes, perform a virus scan.

To do this, you will need a regular antivirus or a portable antivirus scanner. Any antivirus has the ability to scan the system down to a separate folder. In the settings you need to indicate your USB drive that requires formatting and wait until the procedure is completed. If you use a free antivirus and it missed the threat, download one of the free portable scanners. By the way, we have already written a detailed review about them on our website in this article. Check out its contents. In addition, regularly monitor the security of your system so that you do not suffer from emerging problems.

Data recovery

Although in most cases the first two methods work flawlessly, let's imagine a situation where they did not help. In this case, you can try data recovery using software specially written for this purpose. There are a huge number of such utilities. Let's look at two of the best programs: TestDisk and R-Studio. They are simple and not at all difficult to understand. At the end, don’t be lazy to clean it up, because a formatted drive no longer contains damaged sectors. How to open a flash drive using each of the utilities?

TestDisk

1. Download the program from the official website of the developers - https://www.cgsecurity.org.
2. Insert the USB flash drive into your computer; when prompted to format, reject it.
3. Create a folder on your hard drive where the recovered files will be copied, and unpack the downloaded program into it.
4. Launch the recovery application by double-clicking the photorec_win.exe file.
5. Use the arrow to select the desired drive and press Enter.
6. Select your flash drive's partition table type, again using the arrows to navigate through the list. Press Enter to confirm.
7. Next, select the partition to restore. You will need Whole Disk. Move the pointer using the arrows and press Enter.
8. Select the file system type by checking Other, which will imply FAT
9. Select the folder where the recovered files will be copied. By default, the procedure you created at the very beginning is selected.
10. Click Y to start the process.
11. At the very end, go to the folder and view all the files that were recovered.

R-Studio

1. Download the utility from the official website and install it on your computer.
2. Open the main menu of the program, find your flash drive in the list of directories. It usually appears at the very bottom of the list.
3. Click the "Scan" button at the top of the screen, confirm the operation in the next window that opens.
4. Select the files you want to recover and click the "Recover" button.
5. Wait until it finishes and go to the folder where the recovered information is stored.

Low-level formatting

Quite a lengthy procedure that cannot be described in a few words. For this purpose, we have prepared a separate article dedicated to low-level formatting. In it we described the full cycle of actions, and also included links to all the necessary utilities. You will succeed if you carefully read the material provided.

Conclusion

We hope that we helped you solve the problem in which the contents of the flash drive cannot be opened, and the system says that it needs to be formatted. In the comments, we ask you to tell us whether the article helped you.

Checking via the command line

Using the Run system utility, launch the command line. Enter cmd in the line and click OK.

A hard drive that is faulty should be connected to the computer, but not formatted. Look at the letter that was assigned to it (you can do this in the Start menu). On the command line, enter chkdsk e: /f. Click on Enter and start the analysis.

It may be that the process does not start, then you should launch the command line as an administrator. Find it in the Start menu and open the context menu. Next, click on “Run as administrator”, and then you need to repeat the command.

When the check is completed, all data that was faulty will again function normally, and you can work with the hard drive again (write data to it and view files).

Disk formatting

A hard drive that fails must be disconnected and then reconnected. A small error window should appear on your screen. Click on “Format disk” and wait for the process to complete.

It may be that the error message does not appear, then go to “My Computer”. Right-click on the removable device and select “Format”.