Deleted External HDD Volume

[AmuseMe]

I was trying to format my external HDD for exFAT to FAT32 so my PS3 can recognize it, and I went to my computer>manage>disk management and then deleted the volume. I don't know why I did this but I can't find it again. It doesn't show up under disk management or my computer. How can I find it again?

It also doesn't show up on the netbook, or the desktop. Hm... I have no idea what to do.

[frontier204]

IIRC "deleting" the partition doesn't actually touch the data. It only modifies the first 448 bytes of the disk where it tells the OS where all the partitions are, so there's a good chance all your data is there untouched. What I'd do though is make a BYTE BY BYTE clone of the hard drive so you can experiment with different recovery techniques without losing anything. If you have a same size or larger hard drive I'd copy to that drive and leave the original alone.

If you have any experience with Linux's fdisk, you can use it to recover the partition. Note that I've only ever tried this as an experiment for fun, so if that data has any value I'd get someone with experience or professional recovery for it. If you tell fdisk to create a new partition on the drive with the exact same starting location and size as the deleted one, going back in to Windows you will see the drive as normal again. I think one of Acronis or Norton Ghost can do this kind of editing as well, but I never actually tried this.
** Note that I'm talking specifically about Linux's console command based "fdisk" program. The other partitioning programs on Linux will very likely reformat the drive as well, which is definitely what you don't want.

Anyway, if you tell that story to any professional data recovery they'll be able to restore the partition quite easily I'd imagine.

[gingerbee]

when every i had this problem just rebooting fixed it so it showed up in disk manager again.

[AmuseMe]

Rebooting didn't help. Also, there is no need to save the DATA as it is a new drive - nothings on there :) It's formated at exFAT, but I need it to be FAT32, so the PS3 can recognize it.

[_dangtx_]

boot up a live cd if you dont feel like taking it apart? :)

[ZZLEE]

In serch box type in Format disk you want " Create and formatand disk partitons "
You should find you lost disk here ( if not check phiscal conections or drivers )
right click the volune you want and select make disk active. ( should be seeable to OS now)
(OR might need to be mounted also)

[gingerbee]

or you can try diskpart in cmd maybe it show up there. but not sure why it would show up there and not anywhere else.

[ipaine]

Go into device manager and right click on your computer name and select scan for hardware changes. That should make it re-appear, hopefully.

[AmuseMe]

I put in my W7 disk, and pressed F12 during start up blah blah blah. Under the section where you choose to install the OS, it showed the external DVD, but of course, I could not "delete", "format", "erase" or "new" anything. They simply where not clickable... Bwah!

[frontier204]

Is that drive eSATA by any chance? (that sounds like what the Windows installer does when it knows you have a hard drive but can't do anything with it due to lack of drivers)