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Imagine a situation, you have finished working on an important project and saved all your data on the Western Digital hard disk. But the next time you connect your hard disk, you notice something unusual. You are unable to locate your files, the drive won’t open, or Windows doesn’t recognize the drive. It is always frustrating to lose your important data, but there are ways to get it back. We have tested the best and most reliable methods to recover data from Western Digital hard disk. The solutions mentioned in this article have helped thousands of users to recover their important business files, personal data, backups, videos, etc.
One of the most common mistakes users often make after a data loss is that they continue to use the drive as before. They try to install recovery software on the same drive or run repair commands that can hurt the chances of successful data recovery. We will explain every aspect of safe data recovery from a Western Digital hard disk if you have mistakenly deleted data, the hard disk is formatted, or has become RAW.
Common Reasons For Data Loss in WD Hard Disk
Before discussing how to recover data from Western Digital hard disk, let’s understand the common scenarios for data loss.
- Deletion by Mistake: When you delete an important file using Shift+Del while removing unwanted data, or accidentally empty the Recycle bin from a Western Digital disk.
- Formatting the Drive: Accidental formatting of the drive is another common reason for losing important data. Sometimes users receive the message “You need to format the disk before you can use it.” Many users, due to ignorance, click on the format button.
- Corrupt File System: A corrupt file system leads to various errors, such as the drive becoming inaccessible, slow disk performance, CHKDSK errors, or missing files and folders.
- WD Hard Disk Not Showing Up: The hard disk sometimes doesn’t show up when you boot your system. The main reason behind this is a faulty cable, a corrupt partition, or an unupdated hard disk driver.
- Bad Sectors: Bad sectors in your hard disk can make your files unreadable and cause the system to freeze when you try to write data to the disk.
Situation 1: Recover Deleted Files from Western Digital Hard Disk
Accidentally deleted a file permanently using the Shift+Del key? Or emptied the Recycle Bin after deleting it. Don’t worry, you can still recover the lost file from the Western Digital hard disk. Actually, when you delete a file, the reference to the file is deleted in the File Allocation Table, and that space is marked as free. The data is still there until the space is overwritten with the new data. You can recover a deleted file from File History if you have it enabled.
File History is an inbuilt backup feature in Windows operating systems that automatically saves a copy of files stored in Libraries, Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos, and other selected folders.
- Open Control Panel.
- Click Restore your files with the File History option under File History.
- Browse for the available backups.
- Locate the file you want to recover.
- Select the file and click the Restore button to restore it to its original location.
If the File History option is not enabled on your system before the files were deleted, then you can take the help of professional data recovery software such as BLR Data Recovery Toolkit to recover deleted files. The process to use the BLR Data Recovery Toolkit is described in the next section.
Situation 2: WD Hard Drive Recovery After Formatting
Data recovery from formatted hard drives is also possible, and it depends on the type of format performed on the disk. There are two types of formatting: Quick format and Full format. The Quick format is similar to regular file deletion; it deletes the pointers to the data, and the data remains intact. The Full format clears every block or sector on the drive; all the data is overwritten, removing any chances of recovery.
By default Windows quick format the drive whenever a user chooses to format the drive unless the user intentionally unchecks the quick format option. If you want to recover data after a quick format stop using the drive immediately and use BLR Data Recovery Toolkit to recover data from Western Digital Hard Disk. Follow the steps given below:
- Download & install BLR Data Recovery Toolkit onto your system.
- Connect your WD Hard drive as an external drive.
- Run the software and select the PC Recovery option.
- Select the Western Digital Hard drive to scan.
- Once the scan is completed, all the recoverable files will be listed.
- Select the files you want to recover.
- Choose the destination to save recovered files.
Situation 3: Recover Files from RAW WD Hard Drive
When the hard disk turns RAW, Windows is not able to recognize the drive anymore, and users receive messages such as “You need to format the disk before you can use it” or “Drive is not accessible.” The RAW disk doesn’t mean the data is lost; it is still there. With the help of the right recovery method and professional data recovery software, the data is recoverable. The symptoms of RAW drive are:
- Shows RAW in Disk Management
- Drive asks for formatting
- Files become inaccessible
If your WD disk is showing as RAW drive, then follow the instructions:
- Don’t format the drive
- Scan the drive with BLR Data Recovery Toolkit
- Recover files to another drive.
- Format the drive after successful recovery
Conclusion
Learning methods to recover data from a Western Digital hard disk can save important data, but it depends completely on how quickly the problem is addressed. Whether the files are deleted, the hard disk is formatted, or the disk becomes raw, with the right approach, it is possible to recover data. Whenever any data loss situation arises, it is recommended to stop using the disk to avoid overwriting the data. Moreover, we have also shared a professional data recovery software, BLR Data Recovery Toolkit, that can help users to recover data from any possible scenario with ease.
