[Solved] help with external hard drive

[kiltedscotsman]

can any one help

im waiting on a new hard drive coming so last night I thought id download windows 10 on to my usb stick in preparation of new drive coming heres the trouble I accidently downloaded the files onto my external 4tb hard drive instead of my usb stick and now my external hard drive is showing 32gig size instead of 4tb and all my files are not there I think there still there but cant access them any help be apprecieated

Edited April 26, 2020 by KenB

[KenB]

Hi Andy,

I assume that you have other files on your 4TB drive other than the Windows files that you downloaded.

Is this correct?

I assume that you do not wish to lose these files ?

 

Do the following please:

 

Connect the problem external drive to a USB port.

In the Search Box bottom left - type ..... devmgmt.msc .............hit Enter.

 

Click the > next to USB Serial Bus Controllers

If there are any yellow exclamation marks right click on this and select Update driver

 

You will need an internet connection

 

Select Search Automatically

 

==========================

If this is unsuccessful please do the following: [ with the problem drive connected ]

 

In the Search Box [bottom left] type diskmgmt.msc ..............hit Enter

 

You will see something like this:

 

Disk 2 above shows a large drive with 32 GB of space "Healthy" and a much larger "Unallocated" space.

The "Unallocated" space cannot be accessed by Windows.

 

To get the external drive back to its full capacity is a simple matter.

What is less simple is that the content [ files etc ] will not show when the drive is showing its full capacity.

Efectively they will have been deleted.

 

Is yours showing like this?

 

==========================

 

Let me know how you get on.

Edited April 23, 2020 by KenB

[kiltedscotsman]

hi kenb thank you very much for trying to help appreciate it , I have sent a pic of what you told me to look at ,and yes I have loads of photos and documents I would hate to lose , now ive been told by a friend that the windows download I did put files on as an iso which is a different file structure and he thinks I would have to take it to a specialist well ive been looking at a few online and quoting £200 upwards more than the hard drive lol if theres any more you can suggest please do I may have to face fact ive lost all the data on another note if I have lost all data can I get the hard drive working as before showing the full space available 4tb ive only used about 1tb and half that films not worried about losing that any way look forward to hearing from you again take care in these testing times andy

[KenB]

Hi Andy,

 

I thought that may be the case re: Unallocated Space.

 

Yes - specialist recovery is very expensive and the bigger the hard drive the more expensive [ generally ]

 

I should be able to get your Hard Drive back to full capacity - but first let's see if we can retreive any lost data from the unallocated space.

 

Your main drive isn't very big - the software I am going to recommend gives you 2GB of recovery for free.

I suggest that you create a folder on the desktop to save any recovered data to.

 

If this works you may want to purchase a licence to try recoving more / all of your data.

Keep in mind that your smaller drive will probably not be big enough to hold the data on you problem drive.

 

Let's see what we can find.

 

Download Easus Recovery from here - click here - you want the FREE TRIAL

Install it - it will put an icon on your desktop

With the problem drive connected run Easus and it should show something similar to what you posted.

 

It should ask you where you want the recovered data saved to.

 

Click on "Select Folder"

Navigate to the folder you created on the Desktop.

You should then be able to select the Unallocated space to scan.

Let Easus scan the Unallocated space.

 

Hopefully it will find folders etc on the hard drive.

If you are looking for photos and you know the folder - if you click on that folder it should open up to show the contents.

You can select a complete folder or individual files to recover by putting a tick in the boxes.

 

Remeber you only have 2GB with this free version.

I think the paid for licence is about £50 - we can find out if this works.

 

Let me know how you get on.

Edited April 24, 2020 by KenB

[kiltedscotsman]

h kenb sorry been a day before getting back to you , success with getting my files retrieved over 800 gig , I got it back with your recommendation for easeus recovery worked a treat but took absolutely hours upon hours next thing is to try get my hard drive back on line as a 4 tb would using a partion programme help me to do this thanks again with help for data amazing result

[KenB]

Hi Andy

Pleased that you were able to get your data back.

Did you have to pay for the 1 month licence? [ 800 GB is obviously more than the 2GB they provide free :) ]

 

Do you have the recovered files / data saved onto another drive ?

 

Have you got all that you need?

If so we can move on.

 

If you have recovered all the data that you need we can use Windows to sort your problem hard drive.

 

Go back to Disk Manager

Search box - type in ...... diskmgmt.msc ....... hit Enter

 

You will see this again:

 

Note - your Unallocated Space is in two partitions.

 

Where it says Disk 1 - ESD-USB right click on this 32 GB section.

You will see:

 

Click on "Delete Volume"

 

This should then combine the adjacent partitions - but the combined space will be "Unallocated"

 

If you still have 2 Unallocated partitions dont worry.

Right click on the one on the left and select "New Simple Volume"

Click "Next" to use the whole content.

Click "Next" again to accept the drive letter allocated.

In the next block "Volume Label" is the name of the drive - you can call this whatever you wish.

The "File Type" should be NTFS

The box next to "Perform a Quick Format" should be ticked. - click "Next"

Click "Finish"

 

If you still have an Unallocated Partition - repeat this process again.

 

You can have 2 partitions on this drive if you wish.

If there is still Unallocated space after performing the advice above - right click on it.

Select "New Simple Volume" and follow the text above.

If you want one big partition ignore the last 3 lines. :)

 

Hopefully you should now have all of your hard drive space back.

 

Let me know how you get on.

Edited April 26, 2020 by KenB

[kiltedscotsman]

hi kenb well progressing to a point ,everything went as you said until I try to right click on unallocated partition the new simple volume is greyed out cant do anything with it any ideas thanks again andy

[KenB]

Hi Andy,

 

I edited my post last night [ a couple of times actually ] I may have done this when you were posting.

If "New Simple Volume" is greyed out try this:

 

Go back to Disk Manager

Right Click on the "New Volume" partition

You should be able to "Extend Volume"

Click on this.

Use the maximum amount of space available [default]

Click "Next"

"Finish"

 

Fingers crossed :)

[kiltedscotsman]

hi kenb this is the message I get up when I try to extend the volume

[KenB]

Hi again,

 

You have not confirmed that you have the 800GB of data safely saved.

I do hope that this is the case. :)

 

Go back to Disk Management.

Right click on the Disk 1 [ the problem drive ]

Delete the volume

Then right click on the Unallocated space just created.

In the box you should have an option to "Convert to GPT Disk"

Click on this.

 

When converted you should be able to extend into the Unallocated Space [ if still there] by right clicking on the "New Volume" partition.

 

You may even be able to "Create New Volume" if you want two partitions.

 

I will check back regularly this afternoon - if you could do the same :)

Edited April 27, 2020 by KenB

[kiltedscotsman]

hi kenb as you can see the the convert to gpt disk is greyed out will check in regurlary on hour and half hour thanks again andy

[kiltedscotsman]

ok kenb think ive done it I used a third party software to do your last suggestion convert to gpd disk then came back on to diskmgmt.msc then did the extend volume and it seems to have worked just going to test out just now will let you know

[kiltedscotsman]

my computer is saying 4tb now so hopefully that's it I will now start the process of putting my data back on it thank you so much for all your excellent help theres no way I would of managed that by myself my next thing I want to do is when my new hard drive comes for my all in one pc I have to get windows on it ive got a usb stick which has all the files for that if I have any trouble is it ok if I sent you a message I believe the windows you get a month then have to buy an activation code better than buying a whole new all in one pc which my wife uses for her work

[KenB]

Glad that we got there in the end :)

 

No need to message me - just post here - somebody will pick it up.

 

I will mark this up as "Solved" :)

 

Stay Safe.

Edited April 27, 2020 by KenB