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Summary
Learn how to fix a mobile hard disk that won't turn on and retrieve your data. This authoritative article provides solutions and data recovery methods.



cant access external hard drive

I. What are the reasons why the mobile hard disk cannot be opened?

When the mobile hard disk cannot be opened, there may be the following error prompts:
● Deny access
● File system errors
● Storage device drivers are outdated
● Device not formatted error
● Unsupported file system
● The request failed due to a fatal device hardware error
● unknown disk is not initialized
hard drive inaccessible
The reasons why the mobile hard disk cannot be opened usually include the following aspects:
● The hard disk is removed abnormally
● The file system is damaged
● The power connection failed or the device connection failed
● Sector corruption or disk write error
● virus infection
● No administrator rights/no rights to modify or read the hard disk
● The hard disk driver is not updated in time
When the mobile hard disk cannot be opened, the data in it will not be able to be accessed normally. In order to avoid damage or loss of hard disk data when repairing this problem, you can first recover the data through the following data recovery methods.

II. Use Renee Undeleter to recover files from mobile hard disk

To recover important data in the mobile hard disk, it is recommended that you use professional data recovery software to recover inaccessible file data, here we recommend you to use Renee Undeleter to operate.

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter It is a software specially used to restore various data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation. Therefore, it can help you solve all possible data loss problems that may occur during system use in an all-round way, which is very convenient.
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Image creation Create a partition image to read and back up data;

Supported devices SD card, SDHC, SDXC, USB flash drive, hard disk and computer.

Easy to use Recover data by 3 steps;

Multiple scan modes Fast partition/whole partition/whole disk scan;

Supported devices SD card/USB/hard disk.

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2. How to recover mobile hard disk data with Renee Undeleter?

Restoring data with Renee Undeleter is very simple, the specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter, select the (Partition Recovery) option on the main interface.
Note: Do not install on the disk that needs to restore data, so as not to cause data overwriting.
Select partition recovery option
Data recovery function introduction:
File Recovery – Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.
Formatted Recovery – Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.
Partition Recovery – Analyze and get partition information and perform a full scan of the entire partition.
Create Mirror – You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Next, select the mobile hard disk device to be scanned, and then click (Next). Select (default setting) on the advanced setting interface.
Select target device for partition recovery
Step 3: After that, the software will analyze the drive device. After the analysis, a prompt window of “Select the partition you need to scan” may pop up. You can select the corresponding partition according to your needs. will be longer. After scanning, you can preview the files in the preview window on the right, then select the files you need to restore, and click the (Recover) button in the lower right corner to restore the selected files.
Partition recovery scan result presentation
Step 4: Next, select the target folder, click (Browse) to select another disk to save the recovered files, and then click the (Recover) button to start the file recovery command, you just need to wait patiently.
Partition recovery data recovery interface
After you restore the data in the mobile hard disk through the above methods, you can perform further repair operations on the mobile hard disk that cannot be opened. We continue to learn.

III. How to solve the problem that the mobile hard disk cannot be opened normally?

1. Obtain administrator privileges and reset account privileges

Sometimes the failure to open the mobile hard disk is related to the fact that the system account does not have read and write permissions to the hard disk. You can first obtain the administrator permission, and then reset the account to read, write, and modify the hard disk.
Step 1: Run the Windows computer, enter (run) in the “search bar” in the lower left corner to open the run window. Next, enter the (gpedit.msc) command in the search box and click the (OK) button to open the Local Group Policy Editor.
Run the input command
Step 2: Next, in the left function bar, find (Computer Configuration-Windows Settings-Security Settings-Local Policies-Security Options).
find security options
Step 3: Next, double-click the (Account-Administrator Account Status) option on the right, and check the (Enabled) option in the new page that opens to successfully obtain administrator privileges. Restart the computer after the operation is complete.
Enable administrator privileges
Step 4: After the account obtains administrator privileges, right-click the mobile hard disk, select (Properties), and click the (Edit) button under the “Security” tab to set the permissions of an account on the disk (including full control, modification, read and execute, read, write, etc.). Click (OK) when the operation is complete.
Modify hard disk permissions

2. Update the driver of the mobile hard disk

The method of updating the mobile hard disk driver is relatively simple, and the specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the Windows computer, connect the hard disk to the computer, and press (Windows key + R) on the keyboard at the same time to open the running window. After entering the command (devmgmt.msc), click the (OK) button to enter the Device Manager.
Enter the device manager command
Step 2: Next, in “Disk Drives”, right-click the removable hard disk that you want to update the drive, and select the (Update Driver) option.
Select the update drive option
Step 3: Next, select the (Search automatically for updated driver software) option, and then follow the instructions in order to complete the update of the hard disk driver. After the driver update is complete, restart your computer and see if the problem is resolved.
Select the Automatically search for updated driver software option

3. Use the chkdsk command to repair the hard disk

The mobile hard disk has problems such as bad sectors or file system damage, and it may not be able to be opened normally. At this time, the mobile hard disk can be repaired through the chkdsk command. The chkdsk tool is a command to check the current state of the disk. It can display the disk state, memory state, and the discontinuous number of specified files in the specified path, and can also repair the disk. It is very simple to repair the mobile hard disk with the help of chkdsk tool. The specific operation steps are as follows:
Step 1: Connect the mobile hard disk to the computer, directly search (cmd) in the search box in the lower left corner, and select (run as administrator) to open the command prompt tool.
run command prompt
Step 2: In the opened command prompt window, enter the command ( chkdsk G: /F ) (G refers to the disk number of the mobile hard disk), and press (Enter) to fix the error. After the repair of the mobile hard disk is complete, restart the computer and connect the hard disk to check whether the problem is resolved.
Enter the disk repair command
In addition to the above methods, you can also try to use the disk error checking function that comes with Windows to scan and repair the mobile hard disk, or in Disk ManagementFormat the mobile hard disk , reset the file system of the mobile hard disk.