Error: You need to format the disk In drive before you can use It.?

Question

There are tons of important files stored on the faulty disk. What can I do to address the error other than formatting it?

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

See if this will help you.

    At the Start button, click Run.    Type “cmd” into the blank and hit Enter key.    Type “chkdsk n:/f into the Command Prompt window and then press the Enter button.    It will start repairing damaged files and you will see some of your filenames before it finally asks if you want to save lost chains into another location.

Answer 2

What sort of disk are you using?

Answer 3

File system is corrupted. Use chkdsk to repair it, as someone else provided that command to do the job.

However if the partition itself got wanked, there is little you can do EXCEPT formatting it.

Answer 4

Do not format it.  That will destroy any information on it and make it unrecoverable.  You did not tell us what kind of a disk this is - hard drive, CD, DVD, usb memory stick, internal drive, external drive.  Each has different steps for recovering data off them.

Answer 5

Use Recuva to recover your files. From the looks of it, you won't get everything. This is a good time to learn the value of back-ups.