Receive the “external hard drive not formatted” error when you try to access or open it? Don’t worry about it. This article will tell you the possible reasons and how to fix it without losing data.
Unlike the internal disk, the external disk is more convenient, so many users are willing to use it to store their precious data, such as family photos or videos, or working documents, and share it with other people.
However, sometimes you may also encounter disk errors, such as external hard drive not showing up, external hard drive access denied, device not migrated external hard drive, etc. Here we focus on the external hard drive not formatted error and tell you the possible reasons as well as solutions to fix it without data loss.
“Recently I plug my Seagate external hard drive into my Windows 11 and try to open it, but it tells me ‘The disk in drive X: is not formatted. Do you want to format it?’. I don’t want to lose any of my data. Is there any way to fix the external hard drive not formatted error? Thanks in advance.”
Apart from formatting, Microsoft doesn't offer you other options, but that's not to say there aren't other feasible methods. Don’t format external hard drive now. If you do as suggested, you may lose all of your data or receive the following format failure prompts:
The external hard drive not formatted error means your disk is not ready for data storage and it’s not accessible. Generally, in this situation, your drive becomes RAW and you can confirm it in Disk Management.
Why does this format disk error happen? You may be curious about it and I’ll show you the common causes below. Maybe you can find some clues to fix it.
Some users may try to fix format disk error in external hard drive using CHKDSK, but receive “CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives”. That’s because this method can only work for recognized file systems. If it’s a RAW drive, please try the other 6 methods below. However, in order not to risk your data, please get them off with data recovery software first.
MyRecover is a reliable and easy to use data recovery software for Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc and Windows Server. Thanks to its two advanced scanning methods and high success rate, you can easily find out and recover data from unformatted external hard drive.
To get started, download the Windows data recovery software- MyRecover and install it on your Windows PC.
Step 1. Launch Windows data recovery software- MyRecover. Hover the mouse over the external hard drive saved deleted files before, and click Scan.
Step 2. The software will automatically scan the selected drive and display all the deleted or lost files.
You can also filter specific files if you don’t want to recover all the data on the external hard drive. Here are two ways in the following:
Notes:
Step 3. Select the files you want to recover and click Recover xxx files. You don’t need to wait for the final scanning result if you find files that need to recover.
Note: MyRecover displays the number of files to be recovered and their full size. You can use this to determine if you have selected all the Shift Deleted files.
Step 4. Select a new folder to store all the permanently deleted files on your drive. Then, confirm it and click Select Folder. It will automatically recover the selected files on this folder. Don’t save them to original location as it may cause data corruption or permanent data loss.
Notes:
Here are collections of some simple fixes to fix external hard drive not formatted with NTFS, FAT32, FAT, etc compatible file system. You can try them and see if it works.
If your external hard drive does not have a drive letter, you can try to assign it with a new one.
Step 1. Press Win + X and select Disk Management. Then, find out the unformatted external hard drive.
Step 2. Right-click this disk and select Change Drive Letter or Path.
Step 3. In the popup window, click Change. Then, select a new drive letter and click OK to confirm it.
If you don’t update disk driver for a long time, you can also try this.
Step 1. Press Win + X and select Device Manager.
Step 2. Expand Disk drives, right-click the unformatted external disk and select Update driver.
Step 3. Click Search automatically for drivers. It will install drivers for the selected disk automatically.
Both SFC and DISM command helps to scan file system and fix corrupted system files, such as SYS, EXE, or DLL files may cause format disk error in external hard drive.
Step 1. Press Win + X and select Windows PowerShell(Admin).
Step 2. In the command prompt window, type sfc /scannow and press Enter.
Step 3. Then, type DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and press Enter.
You can also choose to delete partition and recreate a new one in Disk Management. This process will delete data on the partition. If there are any important data, you need to recover files first.
Step 1. Open Disk Management and find out the problematic disk. Right-click it and select Delete Volume.
Step 2. In the “Delete simple volume” prompt, click Yes to confirm this deletion.
Step 3. After deleting, you will see a new unallocated space. Right-click it and select New Simple Volume.
Step 4. In the “New Simple Wizard”, click Next.
Step 5. Then, you will be asked to specify volume size, new drive letter, and format it. Click Next and wait for the operation to complete.
If you end up using the format method, please be sure you get your data off or save copies of them. Because the formatting process will delete all the data on external hard drive.
Step 1. Press Win + R and type diskpart in the Run window. Then, click OK to open it.
Step 2. Enter the following commands and press Enter after each line.
Anyway, you are able to fix external hard drive not formatted error and recover data from it. In order not use experience this error and potential data loss, you need a good usage habits or do some necessary precautions.
If you are experiencing external hard drive not formatted error, you can try 6 effective methods above to fix it. At the same time, it’s important to recover files from external hard drive if there are critical data for you. Otherwise, you may lose them forever.
In addition, if you want to prevent this error in the future, you need to perform a good habit, such as, use safe eject option, turn on antivirus software, save copies of your files, etc. Hope it helps you. If you think it’s helpful, please share it with your friends.