When the 'You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it' prompt pops up, you can actually recover the inaccessible files using hard drive recovery software like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

Recover Data from the RAW External Hard Drive If you don't want to lose the files on your device, perform data recovery first and then format the hard disk. Therefore, the most straightforward way is to format the external hard drive directly. In fact, when you attempt to run CHKDSK on a storage medium with file system errors, it will fail to repair the disk, and CHKDSK will reports RAW. Some say the external hard drive not formatted error could be fixed by running CHKDSK. Generally speaking, you need to format the disk before you can use it. With the file system, the hard drive can be used for data storage again.

That's why Windows asks you to format the device since formatting will assign a new file system to the external hard drive. It's the bridge between data saved on your device and the OS.įile system errors prevent you from accessing your external hard drive.  Notice: The file system of a hard disk or partition controls how data is stored and retrieved.

How to force format external hard drive