How to Fix External Hard Drive not Formatted Error

Theo Lucia

Jan 27, 2024 • Filed to: Answer Hard Drive Problems • Proven solutions

Several users of external hard disk drives come across different kinds of problems upon plugging the device into their computers. For instance, they sometimes display different error messages suggesting that the device is not properly formatted or not formatted at all. Since we keep many important files on our external drive, formatting it is not usually the best option. So if you are wondering how you may fix external hard drive not formatted error, you have come to the right place as this article discusses how you might be able to make the most out of such a situation.

• Part 1: External Hard Drive not Formatted Error
• Part 2: Solution to Fix External Hard Drive not Formatted Error
• Part 3: How to recover deleted data from your external hard drive

Part 1: External Hard Drive not Formatted Error

Different formatting related error messages come up due to many different reasons. The most common ones in this regard are discussed below:

• A sudden outage of power while you are in the middle of copying files to the external drive
• Improper removal of the external drive from the USB port
• Bad sectors
• Virus attacks

Regardless of the reason behind this kind of error messages, there are a few different solutions that might be opted to fix external hard drive not formatted error. Some details in this regard are shared below.

Part 2: Solution to Fix External Hard Drive not Formatted Error

To fix external hard drive not formatted error, you need to go through the steps mentioned below.

Step 1 First of all, you need to click on the Start menu button and open ‘Run’. You can also do that by pressing the Windows key + R.

Step 2 When the ‘Run’ window appears on the screen, you need to type in ‘cmd’ and press enter to open up the command prompt. You can also do that by typing ‘cmd’ in the search bar in the start menu.

Step 3 When the command prompt has opened, you need to type in ‘chkdsk ‘drive letter’:/f’. For instance, if your drive letter is ‘J’, you need to type ‘chkdsk j:/f’ and press enter.

Typing in this command executes the check disk process for your external drive. It takes a few minutes to complete. Once the process is finished, it is recommended to restart your computer and try opening your hard drive up again. There is a good chance that your hard drive starts working normally.

More Related:
Fix Device Has Either Stopped Responding or Is Disconnected
Fix Unspecified Error When Copying a File or Folder in Windows

Part 3: How to recover deleted data from your external hard drive

In case the above-mentioned solution doesn't work, you can always format your external hard drive to make it useable again. In such scenarios, you can make use of different software applications to recover data from external hard drive. Recoverit data recovery software is such a tool that allows you to carry out this kind of data recovery from your external hard drive. It is a high-end data recovery tool with many powerful features. The most notable ones in this regard are listed below:

Launch Recoverit Hard Drive Data Recovery and follow the next simple steps to perform hard drive data recovery.

Step 1 Select your hard drive to scan lost data.

Step 2 Scan the hard drive

Step 3 You can preview the founded files, then select the target file and click the "Recover" button.

To some the entire article up it may be concluded that getting an error message regarding the formatting of your external hard drive is a pretty normal thing. In such scenarios, you need to try running the check disk option first. In case you are unable to get your hard drive up and running again, it is recommended to format it and use some kind of data recovery software like Recoverit data recovery software to get your files back. This software offers several high-end options to carry out the data recovery for any kind of files that might have been accidentally deleted or formatted from your drive.