Windows 10: External Hard drive formatted / deleted while installing windows 10

It seems to be a problem with the Anniversary Update
Have a look here:
Windows 10 Anniversary update problems, not recognizing external hdd

If it's the same problem then the advice seems to be: do NOT try to recover the data. It's most likely still there and the issue is that the Anniversary edition of Windows 10 isn't reading it properly.

More links:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...1-f1872b7b4ba1
https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/c...nked/?sort=new

 

Forget partitioning. The more you do to the drive, the more likely it is you WON'T get your data back. I'm assuming you've never used a recovery tool before, so leave the drive exactly as it is. Install the recovery software and then connect the drive to your computer and follow the steps.

 

I wouldn't even do that.

If it's the same as the other thread then the cure seems to be to rollback to the previous version. In that scenario there's nothing wrong on the drive itself that needs recovering - the issue seemed to be Windows Anniversary Update itself.

It would be interesting to see if the recovery software reads the drive but I wouldn't let it make changes.

 

I was not able to install windows 10 and still my laptop has windows 8 working. My windows 10 backup is also gone.
When I plug in External hard drive, its recognizing but only showing FAT 32GB and 1TB.
Other part which is 899 GB is showing unallocated through disk managment.

 

you think doing recovery with multiple tools can damage hard drive ???
I am thinking of using multiple recovery tool if single recovery is not able to recover all data.

 

My apologies - I didn't work out that you were still on Windows 8.

 

Sam,

Don't over think this ... tenforum members have a breadth and depth of knowledge that you can use or not use at your discretion.

Minitool Partition Wizard (PW) is a two step process

1) analyze - running a feature with different options
ie Quick scan or Full scan

2) fix - pressing the Apply button
This is the point where you want to be cautious

If you launch PW and post a screen shot of what the first Quick scan reports, members can advise you further.

Here's the screen from the tutorial:




Here's how you can grab a screen shot that shows the issue and attach it to a new post.
Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Ten Forums - Windows 10 Forums

 

I will preface this by saying I didn't read the thread you linked, but if Disk Management is showing the drive as only having a 32 GB formatted partition, I wouldn't be worrying about OS versions as a solution. I don't see how rolling back to a previous version would restore the formatting to a drive that already had a new partition created over the existing one. I would see that as either fixed with recovery software or gone completely.

 

Some machines aren't reading external drives (some even report secondary internal drive) after updating to 1607. The symptom is the drive is raw or unallocated, but the drive is fine on another machine or on the same machine if the OS is rolled back.

I don't think that is the case on this thread, though.

The Disk Mgmt capture in post# 1 looks as though sam1964 put the install media on the 1 TB drive and not on a flash drive.




I've almost done this, select the wrong device, but caught my mistake before committing.

The best hope is to recover the partition(s) (I think we agree on that*Wink)

 

The Anniversary Update of Windows 10 is reading the external hard drive just fine. It is showing EXACTLY what is on that drive. The OP reformatted his external drive and installed the Windows 10 installation ISO to it. When the OP clicked NEXT, there was a warning on the screen that the USB drive would be erased - and that is exactly what happened when he clicked NEXT. It doesn't matter how many computers he connects the external hard drive to, and what operating system he connects it to. It is going to show exactly what is on that hard which is one 32GB FAT32 partition with the Windows 10 installation files on it.

 

NavyLCDR, what about this? Thread starter
-- purchases 2-3 good quality equal size usb sticks or good quality 2TB HDs
-- using Macrium Reflect portable version -- either clones source usb stick AS IS onto target usb stick, or
-- using Macrium Reflect portable version -- full images source usb stick AS IS onto target ext HD, maybe make two full images at least
-- now, having two or more "AS IS un-fixed un-altered copies" of the source usb, he can experiment with the original
That worked in the older W95-98SE days, will that work now?

 

It should work - you can do an exact copy for forensic examination:







Then do the recovery on the image. I would begin as @Slartybart suggests, and recover the partition(s) first, then go for the data itself.

 

The cool thing about PW partition recovery (probably EaseUS as well) is that once you recover the partition, the data is there.

I'm afraid the first 32 GB won't be completely recovered, but the ISO is only a few GBs so only that much data would be affected by overwrites. I was surprised how well it worked the first time I used it. When it works, it's a beautiful thang, when it doesn't there are other tools. PW partition recovery is the first thing I suggest - if it can't find the partitions ... on to another tool to recover the data.

I'll bow out until sam does something that needs my attention. Other members know PW as well as I do, perhaps better - so we're all waiting on sam.

I'm just having a conversation now *Wink

 

There are many people around with Problems in External HDD, including I myself, where there is nothing wrong with HDD itself.
Seems that Windows can not handle properly external USB HDD and I think an attempt to FIX the HDD may end in LOST of all Data.
My advise is: DO NOT TRY TO RECOVER data, it is all there, just WIndows can not read USB/NTFS properly and is showing RAW.
I had a issue with my USB HDD, it was working normally, suddenly there was an error, I could not access the HDD, I run Scan and Fix and at end I LOST almost 1TB of Data.

 

Yeah that's what I thought at first as well... but the fact that there's a new partition and the size is 32GB is a giveaway - I think NavyLCDR and the others are right and this isn't the same problem as you had.