What to do when external hard drive not formatted error come out?

Several cases of External hard dive not formatted error

"I have a Seagate 160 GB External Hard Drive that I've been using for about 2 years or so. Recently, I ran into a problem accessing it. When I turn it on, Windows assigns it a letter and I can see it under My Computer like normal, but then when I click on it, it says my external hard drive is not formatted and asks me if I want to format it. I assume reformat it would erase all of the data I have on it so I didn't do it. I tried plugging it into a different usb port and I tried plugging it into my other computer, which is a Sony with Window XP, and it still didn't work. The computer I'm using is an Hp with Windows XP."

"I have the same problem so I put the external hard drive in the computer as a slave drive and now have access to it.
I still don't know why when I remove a working drive from a computer and put it in a USB external case it says external hard drive Not Formatted, this never used to happen just recently why? And it happens on any computer."

This kind of problem is frequently asked by most of the people in the forum like I posted above and I cannot control myself to post some ways to solve the problem when the external hard drive not formatted error come out.

Why External hard dive not formatted error pops out?

Before we discuss how to solve such kind of error, let talk about why this pops up. Here is the explanation: the disk you are trying to access either hasn't been prepared for use with your OS, or it has been damaged and the data can no longer be read. Every floppy and hard disk needs to be formatted to prepare the media for use with a particular file system. It often happens when you try to access the partition and the following box will pop up.

How to solve External hard dive not formatted error

One way is to click "Yes" to format the partition and then you can access. However, all the data will disappear after a format.

Another way is to recover data from external hard drive when it indicates not formatted and then click "Yes" to format it and then you may access the partition. In this case, some reliable data recovery software will help you out. Please follow the steps to get your data back from external hard drive.

Get started Now

Download Data Recovery Wizard to recover files from not formatted external hard drive.

After installing the trial version of this file recovery software, please follow as bellows:

We can recover files from not formatted external hard drive by choosing "Complete Recovery". The other two modes, "Deleted File Recovery" is used to recover deleted files and "Partition Recovery" is used to recover lost files from lost partition. Here are 5 steps for external hard drive recovery:

1. Click the "Complete Recovery" button on the main window of the Data Recovery Wizard.

2. Select the file types you want to recover.

3. You can see the list of logical volumes found on your computer.

4. Click "Next" to begin Scanning for Files.

5. Select the files or directory that you want to recover and to save the files.

After the 5 steps mentioned above, you can recover your lost data from the external hard drive and then you may format it to access the partition again.

If you are seeking for Mac data recovery software, please go to see EaseUS Mac Data Recovery Wizard.

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