My computer recently crashed and we took out the hard drives and a so called computer guy transferred what data he could from them to an external hard drive. Computer now back up and running but nothing on hard drives and when we try to open documents and photos which were copied to external hard drive they just open up in undecipherable text and photos display no image! Is there any way of getting these documents back especially photos?
There are a lot of things that can happen when you find yourself in this situation. It’s possible that the data that your tech transferred was corrupted before the transfer, and that’s why you are unable to read them.
More likely, and hopefully the problem, is that the external hard drive is formatted in FAT 32 while your internal drive is in NTFS. If this is the case, it may be possible to reformat the data on the external hard drive and convert it to a format that your operating system can read. Converting to NTFS is usually a one-way street and you can’t convert back to FAT32, but without knowing the specifics, it’s hard to tell what happened.
FAT32 vs NTFS
A quick study of formatting files may help you understand what is happening. There are different ways for your computer to store and organize the information it contains. NTFS stands for New Technology File System and is a format that most newer operating systems use. FAT, specifically FAT 32, stands for File Allocation Table 32 (the 32 standing for the amount of space it contains) and is often used in external hard drives. Depending on how your tech saved your files to the external hard drive, you may be able to convert your FAT 32 files to NTFS.
Find Your Format
First, you should find out what kind of formatting your drives have. To do this, go to My Computer, and then right click on the drive that you are working with - in your case, you will check both the external drive and the internal drive that you are trying to transfer the files back to. Choose Properties and then see if it says FAT 32 or NTFS. This is all assuming that your system recognizes the external hard drive.
Convert FAT Files to NTFS
There is a way to convert your FAT 32 files to NTFS. Go to Start and then All Programs, then Accessories and Command Prompt (or just go to Start and Run). At the prompt, type in convert (drive letter):/fs:ntfs. You will need to insert the correct drive letter in the command. If you want to convert the external hard drive, and the letter for that drive is e, then the command would be convert e:/fs:ntfs . If you are converting the drive that contains the operating system, the computer will have to restart - you will see an error message to that effect if this is the case. If you are getting error messages while attempting this process, you can check with Microsoft Troubleshooting for conversion problems.
Data Recovery Programs
There are a number of freeware programs out there that can help you gain access to corrupted or accidentally deleted data. Without seeing exactly what is going on with your files, I can’t say whether it will work or not, but it might be worth a try. One popular program is Paretologic Data Recovery.
Hopefully, this has pointed you in the right direction. Because your files are important, it might be worth the money to take your drive to a professional rather than risking damaging the files to the point of no return. It goes without saying, that if you are able to get your information back, you should quickly create a reliable backup for your valuable photos and other data.
