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Logged onto my computer tonight, pulled up my external hard drive, a Fantom 500gb, FAT32. Working hours ago, now it's apparently not formatted. Only thing I've run recently is CHKDSK, doubt that could have had an effect, but I dunno.
Sorry for the awkwardly formed request, but are there any good recovery utilities out there that can restore a FAT32 external? Will I have to take it to a shop? And is it possible my computer just forgot how to read FAT32? (And if so, what can I do about it?)
Other information to throw out:
Running XP Pro, recently installed Service Pack three.
Just updated video drivers yesterday
Hard drive connects w/USB2.0, remains connected to the PC just about all the time.
PC and Harddrive plugged in through surge protector
The Hard Drive shows up as RAW formatted, and empty.
I looked around online and found a few problems where the boot sector of a FAT32 had been deleted, however the program mentioned (dskprobe.exe) to move the backup in sector 6 and rewrite it over the lost or corrupt boot sector was last updated as part of Windows 2000. Also, the hard drive views as having a partition so I don't know if repartitioning it is necessary like the instructions said, or a good idea at all, if deleting the existing, albeit blank, partition might just finish the job and make me lose everything.
Let me know if there's anything else you need to know to help diagnose.
Sorry for the awkwardly formed request, but are there any good recovery utilities out there that can restore a FAT32 external? Will I have to take it to a shop? And is it possible my computer just forgot how to read FAT32? (And if so, what can I do about it?)
Other information to throw out:
Running XP Pro, recently installed Service Pack three.
Just updated video drivers yesterday
Hard drive connects w/USB2.0, remains connected to the PC just about all the time.
PC and Harddrive plugged in through surge protector
The Hard Drive shows up as RAW formatted, and empty.
I looked around online and found a few problems where the boot sector of a FAT32 had been deleted, however the program mentioned (dskprobe.exe) to move the backup in sector 6 and rewrite it over the lost or corrupt boot sector was last updated as part of Windows 2000. Also, the hard drive views as having a partition so I don't know if repartitioning it is necessary like the instructions said, or a good idea at all, if deleting the existing, albeit blank, partition might just finish the job and make me lose everything.
Let me know if there's anything else you need to know to help diagnose.
