DiskSalvor| You see… | Most likely | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| "Format the disk?" on a drive that worked yesterday | File-system structures damaged (often after an unplug or reboot during writes) | Cancel. First look → health check → copy files out (DiskSalvor Get your files). |
| Drive not detected at all | Cable, power, bridge, or electronics | Different cable and port, external power. Then the first look. |
| Detected, but shows 0 bytes or a tiny size | Bridge or firmware fault, or an empty card reader | Check the card; try another adapter. Don't initialize. |
| Copy freezes, Explorer "Not responding" | Bad sectors; drive retrying | Stop. Health check, then a safe copy or a gentle file copy. |
| Clicking or beeping | Heads or motor | Power off. Recovery lab. |
| Files deleted by mistake | Index entries marked unused | Stop writing to the drive. Look for deleted files; on SSDs act at once. |
| Card says write-protected | Card locked itself, or the slide switch | Check the switch; otherwise copy and replace. |
| First sectors look random | Encryption | Unlock with its own software or the original enclosure. |
| Drive offline in Disk Management | Signature clash or an earlier error | Don't Initialize. DiskSalvor can still read it. |
Common situations: what to do
Start here if your drive is failing · Drive asks to be formatted, isn't detected, shows 0 bytes, clicks or is very slow: the most likely cause of each, and what to do first.
Free help for a failing drive
DiskSalvor is free, open-source data recovery for failing drives on Windows. It never writes to the drive, gets the easy files off first, goes back for the rest round by round, and explains what it's doing in plain English. No file limits, no paid edition, no account.
Start here if your drive is failing
- Windows pop-ups on a damaged drive: what to clickWhat Windows' format, scan-and-fix and initialize prompts mean on a damaged drive, and which button keeps your files safe.
- When the file index is damagedWhy a drive turns RAW after a power cut or unplug, why your files are usually still there, and how they're recovered.
- Bad sectors, retries and hangsWhat a bad sector is, why one bad spot can freeze Windows for minutes, and how to read a failing drive without making it worse.
- The drive's health log (S.M.A.R.T.)What S.M.A.R.T. values like reallocated and pending sectors mean, why a failing drive can still say 'passed', and which numbers matter.
- How the safe copy worksWhy copying a failing drive once, easy parts first, protects your files, and how an image lets you recover from the copy instead.
- What can be fixed, and whenBoot sector, partition table, file index, bad sectors: what can be repaired, and why repairs should wait until your files are safe.
- Deleted, quick-formatted, fully formatted, wipedWhat deleting, quick formatting, full formatting and wiping change on a hard drive, SSD or memory card, and the chances for each.
How drives work
- The big picture: a drive is a stack of layersFrom numbered sectors to partitions, file systems and your files: the layers of any drive, and why 'format the disk' usually means one is damaged.
- Kinds of drivesWhat's inside each kind of drive, how each usually fails, whether deleted files can come back, and whether it keeps a health log.
- How a drive connects, and why it mattersWhy the same disk behaves differently in different USB enclosures, and what bridges and card readers mean for recovering data.
- Inside: platters vs flashHow hard disks and flash drives store data, why disk order matters on a hard drive, and why deleted data on an SSD is usually gone.
- Sectors, LBAs and clustersThe smallest units a drive and a file system work in: sectors, 512e and 4Kn, logical block addresses and clusters.
- Partition tables: MBR and GPTWhat MBR and GPT partition tables hold, which one has a backup copy, and why a USB stick with no partition table is normal.
- File systems comparedWhere each file system is used, how it finds files, what safety features it has, and how good the chances of recovery are.
- Inside NTFSHow NTFS finds your files through the Master File Table and folder listings, and why files can be recovered when parts of the MFT are lost.
- Inside FAT32 and exFATHow FAT32 and exFAT store folders and file chains, what deleting changes, and which deleted files come back whole.
- What Windows does when you plug in a driveDrivers, Disk Management, indexing and thumbnails: what Windows does to a drive on its own, and how to stop it straining a failing one.
- What has a backup copy, and what doesn'tWhich disk structures have backups (GPT, the NTFS boot sector, the MFT mirror) and which don't, so you know what can be rebuilt.
- EncryptionHow BitLocker and enclosure encryption affect recovery, where the keys are, and why some WD drives only read through their own USB bridge.
Reference
- Where DiskSalvor fitsHow DiskSalvor reads a drive as raw sectors, layer by layer, without writing to it, even when Windows calls the volume RAW.
- GlossaryPlain-English meanings of bridge, carving, CHKDSK, LBA, MFT, RAW, S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and other drive and recovery terms.