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I have a old USB drive 2.0. When plugged in, it gives an error " You need to format the disk in the drive" I tried various troubleshooting methods online.

1) Uninstalled and reinstalled the usb drivers manually and also using software then rebooted- still the same error. 2) Updated BIOS settings of my OS - Still the same error. 3) Tried, data recovery tool "Recuva" this does not detect the drive.

I need data from it and this drive possibility might be encrypted. Please suggest me all the possibilities.

Format error when plugged in

USB doesn't showup in Disk Management

SECTEST oncu
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3 Answers3

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Here is the thing, if you don't know whether it is encrypted, I assume you don't know the key it would be encrypted with. If that is the case, the data cannot be recovered without breaking the encryption or brute-forcing the key/password. It is impossibly unlikely you would be able to recover the data in this case.

If it is not encrypted, you could try to make an image of the whole drive and then examine it for example in hex or by a specialized tool, that may be able to distinguish, what filesystem it used and whether it was damaged and move from there. This method may also indicate to you whether the drive is encrypted or irreversibly damaged.

Peter Harmann
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Windows is not as good at this as linux, in my honest experience. I highly suggest you plug the drive into a Linux operating system (ubuntu, for example) and see if it just auto recognizes it. If it doesn't there are a multitude of tools to help you on linux. These for example:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/recover-data-linux-tools/

bashCypher
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Looks like the partition has been changed. Try accessing the disk using diskpart.