Recover Lost Data from Toshiba External Hard Drive

Written By Jyoti Prakash
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 16 Mar, 2023
Min Reading 4 Min
Share

Table of Content

Today, the most reliable hard drives are manufactured by trusted vendors like Western Digital (WD), Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba. Toshiba external hard drives are widely used for backing up data, and they are often the preferred choice of users as computer hard drives since they are good at rebuilding multiple external partitions to better manage files.

You might have or might be using a Toshiba hard drive as an external drive or maybe within a Toshiba laptop. However, these hard drives are also prone to problems like inaccessibility or total loss of data stored on them. This article will be covering the reasons behind the loss of crucial data on Toshiba hard drives, their common fixes and recommended data recovery solutions.

Reasons for loss of data on Toshiba hard drive

External or internal hard drives though look sturdy in appearance, are often delicate pieces of technical excellence. Occurrences which seem minor like power outages or rough handling can often lead to permanent hard drive damage.

Here are some of the most common data loss reasons on Toshiba hard drives:

Uneven power surges or voltage fluctuations while the drive is being used.
Sudden system shutdown.
Improperly disconnecting the drive from the system if it is an external one.
Accidental deletion of important data (often resulting from a Select All + Shift + Delete operation).
Unplanned formatting of the hard drive.
Virus / Malware attack.
Damage or deletion of the hard drive’s structures.
Improper handling or dropping of the hard drive.

Any of the above mentioned reasons has the capability to render the hard drive permanently useless. Hence, your data should always be backed up and you should take proper steps to ensure the hard drive’s smooth operation like installing reliable anti-virus, handling the drive properly, connecting and disconnecting it properly etc.

Common fixes you can try out

Here are a few common fixes you could try out before you start panicking and consider rushing to the experts. Often, fixes like these actually work:

1. If your laptop or computer is not booting at all, remove the drive and connect it to another computer. If it boots, but you can’t access your data, all you might need is a good data recovery service. However, if the other computer also does not boot and you hear a faint clicking sound, the drive might have suffered physical damage and might need professional help.

2. In a case of physical damage too, there is something you can do. If you’ve done it before, take the drive apart. You could find the reason behind the fault such as a bad interface board or faulty PCB. If it is indeed a faulty PCB, you can get a now one from the Internet based on a comprehensive search according to the model number of your drive. However, attempt opening the drive only if you have knowledge about it or else you might worsen the damage.

3. If you can access the hard drive but cannot access your data, owing to accidental deletion or formatting, probably the best thing you could do is stop writing any new data to the hard drive. This is because even after deletion, your data is not erased from the system; you just loose access to it. The space occupied by deleted files is marked as “available to reuse”, so the deleted files remain physically intact on the drive until they are overwritten by other files. Hence not writing new data could guarantee a better chance of data recovery.

4. You could use the Recovery CD or DVD included with most Toshiba notebook computer models to repair the hard drive.

5. Some Toshiba laptops include the Toshiba Hard Drive Recovery Utility, which is stored in a special partition on the hard disk drive, along with the system files. This utility can be used for the ‘recovery’ of the hard disk drive to its original factory state (in terms of contents).

Here are the steps to use the Toshiba HDD recovery utility on Toshiba notebook:

Restart the computer while holding down the 0 (zero) key.
You will see the utility’s screen listing down 3 options:

Restore original factory image (recommended).
Restore partition C: of HDD without changing current partition size (Advanced option).
Restore image to C: partition with user-specified size (Advanced option).

Thereafter, the process is a simple instruction follow procedure. The steps to repair hard disk through recovery CD / DVD are also the same.

Limitations of These Fixes

Though the fixes mentioned above often work wonders, sometimes, they fail to owe to the following limitations:

Taking the hard drive to service center professionals could prove to be quite expensive. This option should be undertaken only if the hard drive has suffered extensive physical damage.
Attempting some of the fixes requires technical expertise and field knowledge which many users don’t have.
Some users might not have the Toshiba HDD Recovery CD / DVD.
The Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility is available only on some notebook models.

Recommended Solution

Unless the hard drive is severely physically damaged, perhaps the best way to repair the drive would be to format it. Thereafter, to recover your data you should go for premium quality Toshiba hard drive recovery software.

We recommend using Stellar Data Recovery Professional software for this purpose. The software works impressively to accomplish the process of recovering lost, deleted, or inaccessible data on Windows based drives and removable media. You can rest assured of regaining access to your precious data in no time.

Final Words

So, the next time your Toshiba hard drive lands up in a problem, you know what to do and what to avoid. After the drive has been repaired, go for a good data recovery solution like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to securely reclaim all your inaccessible files.

Was this article helpful?

YES0

About The Author

Jyoti Prakash

Problem solver and Data recovery specialist. Usually share informative articles on data recovery, database corruption and ways to recover lost data.

56 comments

Ruth Hill says:

March 21, 2017 at 6:32 am

Toshiba is one of the most popular hard drive manufacturing company. It provides plenty of hard drives for their users. The Toshiba hard drives stay for a long but, data loss is such a situation which can be faced by anyone at any time. Best option to avoid this is ‘Data Backup’.

Reply
Barbara Kimberly says:

February 20, 2017 at 9:36 am

What is worst then, your backup drive is not showing any data which you saving since long. Yes, it happens with me a few days back when my Seagate hard drive stops showing any data. I found this informative post very useful and try all the fixes mentioned above. Luckily, the data is back. Thanks, Stellar!!!

Reply
John Davis says:

February 14, 2017 at 8:59 am

Hey, thanks for sharing wonderful fixes. I have recently faced a data loss issue from my Toshiba hard drive but has recovered it with the help of a Stellar software. Thanks for the post.

Reply
Peter says:

February 10, 2017 at 4:51 am

Toshiba is a top brand selling hard drive company. I, myself is using a Toshiba hard drive. But, unfortunately, my another Toshiba hard drive got infected. Whenever I connect it to my system, it does not detect it. Therefore, I planned to purchase the mentioned software. And luckily, I found this. Now, I had made a copy of the same drive as a backup. Thanks Stellar!!!

Reply
Wesely says:

February 8, 2017 at 9:35 am

I accidentally deleted the disk image files of my 1 TB Toshiba external hard drive (dead now)? It was on the desktop when I moved it to trash and later emptied it? I have no further back of my Toshiba external hard drive. It will be great if you can reply me urgently.

Wesley.

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  February 8, 2017 at 10:06 am
  
  Hi Wesely,
  
  Stellar Mac Data Recovery program can help you recover the deleted disk image (.dmg) file of Toshiba external hard drive. I suggest you run Deleted Recovery on your startup disk and let the scan finish completely. When the scan gets done, you can preview and save your disk image file and other such data. Download link for Mac Toshiba external hard drive recovery goes here
  
  Kind Regards
  Vishal
  
  Reply
Jeff Hall says:

January 20, 2017 at 9:51 am

Toshiba, no doubt, is a best hard drive that can store a large amount of data inside it. But, if somehow the hard drive got damaged, then what will be the first step should we think to take? The first and the most important thing is data, which resides inside it, have to recover. For this, we have to purchase a data recovery software that can easily recover lost or deleted data. I, myself, had lost my data from my Toshiba hard drive and wanted to recover it; so, I had purchased this software and had recovered my data with the help of it. Thanks Stellar!

Reply
Mwandwe says:

January 15, 2017 at 8:46 pm

Hai, I also have a problem with my Toshiba 1 TB external harddrive.
The thing is I placed it in the same pocket as my roll on as I was travelling and some roll on sipped into the USB port, when I tried to connect the harddrive to the computer it said USB not recognized but the white led goes on and I could fill the harddrive spin but of late it still says usb not recognized and the harddrive does not spin no more.
Question, If I get another harddrive with the same size and swap the PCB would it be able to help, or what could the solution be?
I appreciate your help in advance.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  January 23, 2017 at 8:28 am
  
  Hi Mwandwe,
  
  I think you should search your external hard drive in the Disk Management. If you didn’t find your hard drive there, then use the above-mentioned data recovery software which can help you in recognizing your hard disk.
  
  Kindly acknowledge.
  
  Reply
Paul Martin says:

January 10, 2017 at 3:45 am

My 5 years old Toshiba external hard drive becomes RAW. Will this software can recover my data from my RAW hard drive.

Reply
1. Jyoti Prakash says:
  
  January 11, 2017 at 5:33 am
  
  Yes,
  
  This software is quite efficient to recover data from RAW hard drive by using its strong algorithm. Thanks for asking a question.
  
  Reply
mary says:

December 7, 2016 at 7:15 pm

I know that this might be a silly question but anyway it is always worth the try.
I have the Toshiba hard drive before I had to plug it into my Macbook Air I did had some files and pictures saved in the drive and so I wanted to add some other pictures that were saved in my Macbook Air but for some reasons it did not let me copy or paste anything from the macbook to the hard drive and after googling it, I figured that I had to go to disk utility and format the hard disk to my macbook air, now unfortunately i forgot to save what I had from the drive and so when I changed the format everything got deleted, and now I am hoping that there is a way somehow to return my files that I had from before. I know that it is impossible but I do have some hope. please help!

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  December 8, 2016 at 8:56 am
  
  Hi Mary,
  
  Could you let us know what file system your external hard drive had before it got formatted on Mac? Was it HFS, FAT or NTFS formatted? We have data recovery software for both Mac and Windows, and as you mentioned you did the formatting on a MacBook Air, hence you can free download the Mac data recovery application and start a scan to recover erased files. This software will allow you to preview all recoverable files which were lost due to formatting. Saving the recovered files to another hard drive will require registering the application. Do let us know your further query
  
  Vishal
  
  Reply
John Patterson says:

November 4, 2016 at 4:22 am

I have a Toshiba 2 TeraByte Ext hard disk used to backup my MacBookAir. Right now, I am not able to get through the Toshiba icon, and somehow my access is halted. The drive is powering up and no other unusual activity but not able to go into it and access my files. I do feel that the drive might be corrupt. How may I get my data recovered from this hard drive?

Reply
1. Vishal says:
  
  November 4, 2016 at 4:28 am
  
  Hi John,
  
  Is your Toshiba drive mounting properly in Disk Utility? If yes, then download free Stellar Mac Data Recovery program to scan the device using built-in data recovery features.
  
  Thanks!!
  
  Reply