How to recover data from HDD Format Disk issue

I have been using 1 TB 'WD Passport' external harddisk which had three partitions - 500 GB and two 250 GB. I had stored lot of data in it. I wanted to transfer files out of this hard disk and had connected this hard disk to my laptop. To my surprise, instead of showing three partitions with data in it that I had created and dumped, it was showing data only in two of the 250 GB hard disk with data in it. I could see the 500 GB disk but when clicked, it had asked me to format this partition instead of showing the content in that partition. I just wanted to recover data at any cost and had no option.

I tried with different options like connecting it on different machines, went through forums, downloaded and tried different free and trial versions of data recovery, tried in command prompt and on Mac machine as well to recover data. Nothing worked and I had given it to one of my friends to recover data. But before giving it to my friend, I had tried trial version of one of the recovery softwares named 'DiskInternals NTFS Recovery' which did a great job in scanning the corrupt files and identified if the files could be recovered or not. But to recover all data, I had to buy full version of the data recovery software. There are many such data recovery softwares available in the market. My friend used the same software to recover data from the corrupt hard disk and recovered all 500 GB of data.

Note that scanning of files in the corrupt partition takes really long time and depends on the size of the disk and the data in the partition. Once the scanning is done, it will show the list of all the files. Files with a red cross mark cannot be recovered and those without a red mark can be recovered. Full version will allow you to save the the recoverable data. In my case here, the hidden 'System Information' files where corrupt.

Also check: How to find duplicate images on hard disk

The solution that is given here may not always work and the reason for this issue might differ. It's better to contact the product service desk for more information and help. Do not break open the hard disk as it might cause permanent damage or warranty may not be given and the parts may not be replaced by the company. Please try this at your own risk.