Recover Lost Data from Toshiba External Hard Drive

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:

1. Restart the computer while holding down the 0 (zero) key.
2. 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:

1. 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.
2. Attempting some of the fixes requires technical expertise and field knowledge which many users don’t have.
3. Some users might not have the Toshiba HDD Recovery CD / DVD.
4. 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.

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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.