I recently bought an external hard drive to move some files, specifically a game. However, when I tried to create a shortcut for it, my cursor got stuck on loading. After restarting my computer, I was intermittently able to create shortcuts, but each time I did, the drive would disconnect and reconnect, forcing File Explorer to reopen. So, I decided to experiment by putting a random photo on it, but it prompted that the file might be corrupted. I then ran a check disk command and got the following output:
"C:UsersUser>chkdsk D: /f /r
The type of the file system is exFAT.
Volume Serial Number is 847F-E0B8
Windows is verifying files and folders...
The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters detected in file
erd.png of name 15204354.
Corruption was found while examining files in directory (16).
100 percent completed...."
Next, I tried to reformat the drive to NTFS after hearing it was better, but I didn't realize the hard drive isn't compatible with NTFS. Now, I can't access the HDD at all—it's showing up as RAW, and I can't do a chkdsk or reformat it either. I'm getting an error stating that the volume doesn't have a recognized file system. I'm feeling desperate and would appreciate any help since I'm in a tight financial situation.
2 Answers
Have you tried using Diskpart? Here's how: Open Command Prompt as Admin and type 'diskpart'. Then, list the disks with 'list disk', select your disk with 'select disk X' (replace X with your disk number), and run the 'clean' command to wipe everything. From there, you can create a new partition and format it. If that doesn’t work, you might want to change the partition scheme to GPT.
Let me know if you run into any errors. If you do, we can troubleshoot together!
It sounds like your hard drive might be defective. If it's new, you should definitely claim the warranty. If you bought it used, it might be best to discard it to avoid further data corruption.
I'll try that first and let you know how it goes, thanks!