Windows 10: External USB drive not properly ejected - now RAW fformat

So, it happened again. Installed RTM(ish) 10240 through Windows Update, then went to Gigabyte to install latest mobo drivers and tataaa, after reboot both external 2TB drives were only recognized as RAW format and chkdsk insisted that both the primary and backup file tables were corrupt.

Well, pissed again. But somehow I almost waited for it to happen lol. Anyway, since I'm awaiting another NAS on Monday, I figured those two disks would do it for a couple of days until I could transfer it back to the new NAS. Meaning, I have no backup of those couple of thousand files (they're all show episodes, correctly labeled and sorted in folders).

The reason I'm writing this is, I've been able to restore everything and I'm gonna tell you how so you dont have to panic and go through days of futile restoration efforts.

First off, I've tried them all. All of the rescue/restoration software that have been recommended to me and they're mostly useless. Even if they succeed in showing you your files, they mostly fail after restoration (the files are useless, corrupt) or they wont give you proper file names and/or folder structure.

Here's the ones I've tried:

- Active File Recovery Professional
- EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard Technician Edition
- GetData Recover My Files
- MiniToo Partition Wizard Professional
- Recuva Professional
- R-Studio Network Edition
- Runtime GetDataBack FAT/NTFS
- Runtime GetDataBack Simple
- Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Technical Edition
- TestDisk
- Zero Assumption Recovery Technician Edition

The only one that worked as described above (restore partition, file names, folder structure) was ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery). Also, it was the only software that - to me - made the most professional impression. It's still easy to use but with a clean and technical interface, good interface guidance and most importantly, a working result. It did take a long time to scan the 2TB drive but it was worth it. Give it a shot if you experience similar issues with your external USB drives.
ZAR can also recover RAID drives and partitions.

Most disappointing was TestDisk, heard good things, read good things. Was useless to me and a total waste of time.

BTW, ZAR did also find a couple of hundred "lost files" that were not properly organized into folders. But they were properly named.
I used Recover My Files (which is extremely quick in scanning the drive) to list all folders and files and exported that list to a CSV file (I think ZAR has this option too but I discovered it too late), used an Excel VBA macro to automatically create the complete folder structure on a local drive and then just moved those orphaned "lost files" that ZAR recovered back into the folder structure.

 

This really isn't a common problem, in fact you're the only person I've heard of having it. That tells me it's something specific to your external hardware, either a driver or the hardware itself.

 

Explorer crashed when I ejected my USB HDD and reading this I have just scanned it, fortunately it seems ok.

 

Really? 2.2 Million search results on Google, sevenforums, eightforums entries, tomshardware and microsoft own support forums results in the hundreds....and it isn't a common problem?

If it's not, why are so many software solutions specifically geared to this problem?

Google "windows external usb drive suddenly raw" and let's stop pretending that MS file systems and specifically their handling of attached storage doesnt suck. Still does even in Windows 10.

 

Turns out, it is my external enclosure/bay. More specifically, the chipset used by Sharkoon. Apparently it was considered a clever idea to let the idle disk define when to go to sleep, no matter if the other drive is still actively writing data or not.

 

Gee... and you decided to rip me a new one, that it wasn't possible it was the hardware....

 

Re-read the whole thing. Nowhere did I say it wasnt possible it is the hardware. I just mentioned, considering how important attached storage is, MS should put a lot more effort into interface handling (even if some chinese chipmaker messes it up).

I didnt rip you a new one. However I might have been (very slightly) miffed when you deemed this a rare issue. Google it and read a few posts on MS Support board or even 7/8/10 Forum posts. It clearly is an issue for a number of people.

 

The specific situation you describe, of this happening so frequently is what's rare. There are many things that can cause the problem, but not in the way that you were having it.

Unfortunately, if you want performance from removable media, you must take some risks that you unmounts it correctly. Otherwise, the latency for reliable writes makes it far too slow.

By the way, Windows isn't the only OS with this problem, it happens on MacOS too.