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Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 11 Aug 2020, 21:28
by Tallmale
Hi everyone,

I started scanning my 1 TB imeoga external hard drive yesterday and I left the computer on all night so that it could continue scanning. The scan has continued all through today but it has only managed to scan 21%?

Does anyone know why it is scanning the external hard drive so slowly? And is there anyway to speed the scan up?

It also has a read error displayed on the scan as well.

The reason why I am scanning is because I mistakenly unplugged my imeoga external hard drive from my computer without safely ejecting it and ever since my Windows 10 computer does not recognize it and I cannot access the drive.

I do not need to recover any files from the external hard drive. I would just like to reformat it and to be able to use it again to save new files.

Many thanks

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 11 Aug 2020, 22:21
by recuperation
Testdisk does not provide you with a function to format drives.
It somehow appears pretty strange what you are doing.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 11 Aug 2020, 23:17
by Tallmale
Hi there,

I assumed that you had to scan the damaged external hard drive before it could be repaired?

If I want to repair the external hard drive what would be the best way to go about it? I would just be happy with a blank External Hard drive I could use again. I am not bothered about recovering any files.

Many thanks.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 11 Aug 2020, 23:59
by recuperation
You cannot repair hard drives that have hardware issues with software tools.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 12 Aug 2020, 00:11
by Tallmale
Thanks I did not know that.

How can I repair this external hard drive then? Is it possible? Or should I just throw it away?

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 12 Aug 2020, 17:31
by recuperation
You can't. Yes it is possible. Ask a professional lab. Ask your manufacturer. Pay 4 digit USD prices. Throw it away if you don't mind others recovering your data.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 12 Aug 2020, 18:23
by Tallmale
Thanks but why do you say that this external hard drive has hard ware issues? It was not dropped or damaged physically. I just pulled out the usb cable before properly ejecting it as I should have done and it is this that has led to the drive not working.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 12 Aug 2020, 18:37
by recuperation
Tallmale wrote: 11 Aug 2020, 23:17 Hi there,

I assumed that you had to scan the damaged external hard drive before it could be repaired?

If I want to repair the external hard drive what would be the best way to go about it?
Tallmale wrote: 11 Aug 2020, 21:28 It also has a read error displayed on the scan as well.
I don't know if your drive is dammaged.
You stated that.

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 02 Oct 2020, 17:59
by Coripe
If your case is that your disk in raw format is not recognized by the system, use a tool to format the disk. Install the utility in your system ;) will recognize the damaged disk and can reformat it. Of course the files on the disc will be lost, but I understand that this is not relevant to you. May I suggest Niubi who has a free app. Good luck!

Re: Help - Test Disk is taking forever to scan my external hard drive

Posted: 03 Oct 2020, 07:36
by recuperation
I don't understand the added value of a commercial product when formating a drive compared to formating with Windows!