Trying Not To Freak Out: Windows 7 not reading my backup drive

I installed windows 7 and used a brand new USB drive for my Windows Easy Transfer -- I also drag and dropped all my files in addition. Now I'm updated to Windows 7 but while its showing my drive as being plugged in with Drive Letter E indicated, it's not letting me access the drive saying the drive needs to be formatted. Not sure what to do.

 

Have you tried the drive in another system?

Windows Easy Transfer backs up to a single compressed file; it doesn't format a USB key or anything like that.

You could run a CHKDSK (in read-only mode first, no flags) to see if that would reveal any problems.

 

The drive is showing as filetype RAW. I think that mean I'm going to have run a disk recovery program on it -- any recommendations? Easeus seems to have good reviews.

 

I'd at least do a CHKDSK (no arguments, read only) first. Perhaps it's a file system error that can be fixed.

I'd also try seeing if any tools on the Ultimate Boot CD or Ultimate Boot CD for Windows could help.

 

I had something like this happen only a few days ago. I tried a plugging the external hard drive into a different port (after repeatedly trying one port, and realizing nothing was changing) and then it read all the files fine.

 

Did your files show up as RAW in your device manager? That's the primary issue I'm encountering -- the drive appears to still have its data but has lost the partitioning (NTSF or FAT32) which would enable Windows to access the files. As a result, I'm having to do a data recovery. I'm using easeus software but it is incredibly slow and cumbersome.

 

I didn't look closely enough, but what I do know is it was repeatedly reporting that it needed to be formatted before use, and of course I didn't do that.

What kind of USB driver is this (a flash drive/mechanical/solid state)?

My issue was with a mechanical hard drive.

Try rebooting, connecting to the internet (so Windows can get drivers for the drive if need be), and reconnecting your drive to a different port (or just let Easeus finish if it's close).

 

It's a mechanical drive-- Buffalo Technology JustStore 640 meg. It's on my secondary laptop at home right now being recovered (hopefully) by Easeus. The estimated time it will take, according to Easeus is... wait for it.... 331 hours. Is this normal? Is there some faster, more efficient way of doing data recovery?

 

331 hours????? Surely, that must be wrong! Your folders/files are not encrypted are they?

 

No; there's no encryption. Has anyone who used Easeus ever seen anything like this? Lines, have you used Easeus or something similar?

 

No I have not, but 331 hours is certainly not normal. However, there have been a few cases - mine being one of them - where recovery of files l=took about a day or so. But 331 hours?

 

Time-To-Recovery is adjusted on the fly, and can vary.

I recall the days when System 6 or 7 on the Mac might tell you 9 days, then switch to a day, then hours, etc. when copying files. The same is true today of Windows 7, and of numerous other applications and operating systems.

That said, if recovery time stays very high for a long time (after several hours), it may be an indicator that the software is having difficulty doing a recovery on the drive.

 

"Did your files show up as RAW in your device manager?"

Files don't display in the device manger....

"the drive appears to still have its data but has lost the partitioning (NTSF or FAT32) which would enable Windows to access the files."

The drive cannot possibly appear to have data and yet lost the partition contol blocks.

Renee