A drive that suddenly reports itself as unformatted is usually intact. The partition table is damaged, not the data, and the order of operations decides what survives.
**Stop writing to the drive**, image it first, then read the partition table with a recovery tool. Only rebuild the table once the files are copied somewhere else.
Every write can overwrite the data you want. Remove the drive, use a USB adapter, and make sure nothing mounts or indexes it while you work.
The disk management view shows whether the volume is unallocated, RAW or intact without a letter. Each state points to a different repair, and a volume without a letter is the cheapest case of all.
diskmgmt.mscA sector-level image turns the original into a read-only artefact. Every later attempt happens on the copy, so a wrong click costs time instead of the data.
Recovery tools look for boot sectors and file system signatures, not for the current table. A scan that finds the old NTFS or exFAT entry can rebuild it in seconds.
Restore the files to the second drive and verify a few by opening them. Repairing the original volume before the copy exists risks losing everything to a second fault.
Once the data is copied and checked, rewriting the partition table turns the drive back into a usable volume. The old table is what the recovery tool needed; the copy is your safety net.
A hardware fault, not a table problem. Stop and use a professional service; software cannot help a failing head.
An encrypted volume or a file system the tool does not support. Identify it before you attempt a rebuild.
Signature-based carving. Sort by type and size, and recover the folder structure with the partition-based scan instead.
Cable, adapter or power. Try another port and a powered adapter before concluding the board is dead.
chkdsk only helps when the file system is readable. On a RAW volume it can make things worse.
Minutes for a table rebuild, hours for signature carving on a large drive. Start with the faster method.
Nothing on the original is modified until you rebuild the table. Keep the image until the copied files are verified, then format the drive normally and restore from the copy.
Free · no account needed · tracks your progress