External Hard Drive not Ejected Properly – Troubleshoot the Issues
Sometimes, when someone accidentally unplugs his portable hard drive,. Due to any issues, the external hard drive not ejected properly. Then there is a high chance of losing all the files permanently. Checking the hard drive for any such data loss issue should be the first step whenever such a thing happens. To make it clear, we will take on the user query below.
Disk Not Ejected Properly: A User’s Query!
Last week, I had mistakenly unplugged my external hard drive without properly ejecting it. Some of my PowerPoint presentation files that were inside that external hard disk drive were still being used on my MS Windows 7 OS computer system. Now, all of my data files, including those PPT presentations, text files, movie files, audio files, and all others, are now completely lost. After that, I need to know that whether my hard drive has got corrupted, or damaged due to my rude drive ejection. What is happening now is that whenever I make an attempt to access that drive on my system,. I got a prompt message on my PC saying that your external drive will not format. Please let me know how can I recover data from a damaged external hard disk drive?
What If You Can’t Safely Eject an External Hard Drive?
- Data Corruption: If you do not safely remove your external hard drive, data corruption may occur and you may lose important data and information.
- Hardware damage: Abruptly removing an hard drive can cause physical damage to the drive, including damage to the USB port and internal components.
- Data Loss: In extreme cases, if you do not safely remove an hard drive, data loss may occur and the data stored on the drive may become unrecoverable.
- System instability: Removing an external hard disk can make your system unstable and cause computer and performance issues.
If you are forced to remove your external hard drive and lose data, don’t panic. You can recover delete or lost data file using data recovery software.
External Hard Drive Not Ejected Properly Windows: Recovery Chances
In the above section, we have mentioned the user’s query, which is quite evidence that the user’s external drive has possibly become logically corrupt. However, it is apparent that it might not have been completely killed so far. Also, the probability of losing all the important data existing within the drive. When that external hard drive won’t eject, it might not be as high as you might be thinking. Honestly speaking, as the user has not really done anything to his external hard disk yet, he has damaged data, which he wants to recover. There is still the possibility of recovering deleted files from a Seagate external hard drive with Hard Drive Recovery Tool.
But, before doing that, users must first go and check the drive’s actual current state. For use of this utility, users can download and install the utility on any version of Windows OS.
Also read:- Turn Off Computer without Doing a Shutdown?
1: Reconnect the Drive to the Computer to Check its State
Whenever a hard disk is ejected, removed, or dropped out of any computer system without following the safe removing protocol,. That is done by clicking “Safely Remove Hardware” and, after that, waiting patiently for the OK sign to appear on your screen. Then, its chances of driving corruption increase. However, this does not always imply that the incorrect ejection caused your hard drive to be severely damaged or destroyed.
In fact, your hard drive is still getting recognized on your computer and asking you to format it. Then, it clearly shows that your hard drive is apparently logically damaged and can still be restored. So, nothing to panic as such! on “External Hard Drive not Ejected Properly” error. Also, the data files stored in it can be used to recover deleted partitions from hard disk data. So, first, reconnect your external hard disk to your system and check for its current state to evaluate the chances of recovery. To do this,
- Open the drive.
- Open the properties interface.
- Or open computer Disk Management.
- See if the drive is listed there.
2: Scan the Drive to Recover Lost Data from Hard Drive
Before formatting the drive, you have to rescue the data files lying in it like documents, video files, audio files, and other information, using a recovery tool. Which often performs a thorough scan of the drive to find all the original drive contents.
3: Run CHKDSK for Repairing the Drive After Formatting
If you have a view that simply doing the external hard disk drive formatting is not enough in your case to eliminate all your fears and worries, then you can also run the CHKDSK command on this hard drive to check its real state.
4: Safely Remove the Drive-in Future
Once, you experienced external hard disk data loss trouble due to an external hard drive not being ejected properly. Then, in the future, always remember to be very cautious and careful while you remove your hard drives from your computer. This precaution is not only for external hard disk drives but also for any SD cards, flash drives, Micro SD cards, CF cards, mobile phones, cameras, and other such storage devices as well. The only thing that you are required to do to be data-safe in future is to click the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon before ejecting any device or hard drive out from your machine.
5: Run the Windows Hardware and Device Troubleshooter
Windows is never behind in providing application to solve your issue. Built-in troubleshooting tools are there for a reason. You can use these when you get stuck on a problem. If you are having trouble with an external hard drive, you can execute the hardware and device troubleshooter to solve your problem. Here are the process to do so.
- First of all, you need to press “Windows key + I,” and it will open the settings.
- After this, then to go to Update & Security option.
- Here, you need to find the Troubleshoot Option.
- After searching the troubleshooting panel, scroll down and find “Hardware and Devices“.
- In the final step, you need to choose it and select “Run the troubleshooter. “This will hopefully fixed Here are the steps to do so: the dilemma.
6: Remove the Disk using Disk Management
- First, you need to go to the Start menu, type “diskmgmt.msc,” and press Enter.
- After that, you need to find the external hard drive that you want to remove.
- Also, right-click on your hard drive and select Eject.
- One thing to remember is that if you remove your external hard drive, it will go offline. So, when you use the hard disk on your computer again, be sure to set it to Online in Disk Management.
7: Update USB Driver
USB controllers are also to blame for this. To resolve this issue, you need to check if the USB driver is working properly. You can check using device manager; the steps are as follows:
- The first step is to go to the Start menu and type “Device Manager” to open it.
- When opened, expand the list of Universal Serial Bus controllers.
- Mark the entries with a yellow sign, as you need to click on them and select Update Driver.
If there is no exclamation mark, you need to remove the driver and restart your computer. Then it will be installed, and the problem will be solved.
8: End the Task using Task Manager in Windows 10
- Firstly, you need to open your Windows 10 Task Manager.
- Right-click an empty area on the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager. This will open it.
- If you do not want to witness the detailed work, click “go to details.”. You can view all running processes in the Processes tab.
- In the last step, you need to right-click on any processes or programs that seem strange. Then pick the end task option to close it.
- You can now safely remove your hard drive in Windows 10.
Still Having HDD Detection Issues?
If you have performed the above-mentioned steps to solve the hard disk detection issue,. Then, You can try contacting some commercial service provider. You should prefer one of the leading companies for the matter of Data Recovery Service Provider. So that you can resolve the external external hard drive won’t eject and its detection issues.
What Happens If You Do not Eject Properly?
If you forget the Not Ejected Properly warning & easily unplug your hard drive, there are risks involved. The most serious issues are:
- Data Corruption: You may lose files or experience errors when accessing them later.
- File System Corruption: If a drive’s file system becomes corrupted, the entire drive may become unreadable and data recovery may be difficult.
- Drive Corruption: Repeated improper ejection can damage an external hard drive, making it more susceptible to failure.
Final Words
After reading this blog, hopefully you have gotten the solution to the external hard drive not ejected properly issue. In this blog, we have provided you with simple tips and tricks to cure your data loss problems.
Questions and Answers
Q: Is it safe to remove an external hard drive without removing it?
Ans: No, this is not safe. Although nothing bad will probably happen, you should remember that the advantage of using the Windows eject function is that all read and write processes on the device are aborted. This eliminates the risk of corrupting data on the device when you remove your external hard drive.
Q: Is it not possible to delete it while it is in use?
Ans: No, you shouldn’t. The problem with erasing a storage device that is in use is that the read and write processes are interrupted, potentially leaving the file structure you are working with “incomplete.” This is called data corruption. Corrupted files are difficult to understand and this kind of corruption is very difficult to “repair.”
Q: How to safely eject an external hard disk?
Ans: To safely remove a removable device, click the taskbar arrow in the lower-right corner of the screen. This will display a list of all connected “removable” devices. hit on the option corresponding to your hard drive and wait for a while. A message appears when it is safe to remove your device.
