How to Carry Out Toshiba Hard Drive Recovery

Have you run into an issue with your Toshiba hard drive that has caused some of your data to become lost or deleted? You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. But your chances of recovering that data depend on a few factors, particularly what caused the data loss and which steps you take to recover the data.

Can You Recover Data From a Toshiba Hard Drive?

Yes, you can recover data from a Toshiba hard drive that has suffered from data loss. The route you take to recover that data depends on where the issue originated. While both internal hard drives and external hard drives can suffer from most of the same problems, each is more susceptible to a specific set of issues that can arise over time. We’ve left out basic data loss scenarios like regular file deletion and formatting, instead focusing on more complicated situations.

Toshiba Internal Drives

Even if you’re using a Toshiba drive to host your operating system, recovering data from an internal hard drive is definitely possible in a lot of circumstances.

Here are some common issues that cause data loss on internal hard drives, along with an estimation of your recovery chances:

Toshiba External Drives

External hard drives, like those of the Toshiba Canvio range, are essentially internal hard drives in an enclosure that allows you to use them as an external device. Therefore, in addition to many of the problems that internal drives face, external hard drives also have some unique issues that commonly appear.

These are a few issues that plague external hard drives in particular:

While this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the possible causes behind Toshiba hard drive data loss, it should cover most of the big ones. With that in mind, let’s look at what you need to do to prepare for Toshiba hard drive recovery.

Before We Begin

Your chances of performing a successful recovery decrease with time. To give yourself the best chance at recovering your data, you should take into account a few important points before you do anything.

• ✋ Stop using the drive – Continued use of the drive increases the chance of your data being overwritten. As data is written to the drive (even temporary files created by the OS), there’s a chance that new data will be written to the same physical space where your deleted data resides. If that happens, data recovery becomes near-impossible.
• 🙅‍♂️ Do not format – Logically damaged drives may suggest you perform a format when you connect them. Formatting a drive will delete your data and further hinder your attempts at recovery, so you should always attempt recovery first.
• 📀 Copy the data – If you know your drive is malfunctioning, you need to back it up before recovering the data. Hard drives that are starting to fail will show symptoms like long wait times to open files, disappearing data, and generally erratic performance. In an unstable state, the added stress of data recovery may cause the drive to fail entirely, rendering the data unrecoverable. We’ll show you how to create a copy of the data below, which also applies to drives that are otherwise inaccessible.

You can recover data from a disk as long as long as it appears in Disk Management and shows the correct capacity. You can find Disk Management by opening the Start menu and searching “Disk Management”. If the disk either (a) doesn’t appear in Disk Management, or (b) shows the incorrect size, it’s a sign of mechanical failure and it should be fixed before you attempt data recovery.

How to Recover Data From a Toshiba Hard Drive

To recover data from your Toshiba hard drive, we’re going to use data recovery tools. Data recovery tools can scan your drive for recoverable data and retrieve it for you. You can even use them to recover data from hard drives that no longer boot. The three recovery tools we’ll focus on are Disk Drill, Windows File Recovery, and Recuva.

Option A: Disk Drill for Windows

Disk Drill is first on the list for a few reasons, but primarily for its ease of use and versatility. Not only can it recover files that have been deleted, but it’s also capable of recognizing and scanning corrupted, formatted, or RAW Toshiba hard drives that either don’t appear or constantly prompt you to format.

Step 1: Creating a byte-to-byte copy

You can create a backup right within Disk Drill, just bear in mind that you’ll need a Disk Drill PRO license to recover 500 MB or more from it.

Follow these steps to create a byte-to-byte copy with Disk Drill:

1. Download and install Disk Drill.
2. Click Byte-to-byte Backup.
3. Select your Toshiba drive and click Byte-to-byte Backup.
4. Give it a name, select an output location, and click OK.
5. Return to the Storage Devices screen and attach your disk image by clicking Attach disk image.

Step 2: Recovering the data

The actual data recovery process is very straightforward. It’s important to note that there is never a time when data recovery can be guaranteed, as it’s dependent on what data remains on the drive at the time of scanning.

Follow these instructions to recover data from a Toshiba drive (or disk image) using Disk Drill:

1. Select the drive or image you’d like to scan, then click Search for lost data.
2. Click Review found items to see what Disk Drill found on your Toshiba hard drive.
3. Select the files you want to recover. Use the preview function to confirm the files are worth recovering, then click Recover.
4. Choose where you want to store the recovered files. This should be on another physical storage device to avoid corrupting the data you’re recovering. Click Next to finish data recovery.

Option B: Windows File Recovery Tool

If you find navigating a terminal interface too daunting, a graphical wrapper is available called WinFRGUI. Learn more about it in our WinFRGUI overview.

Here’s how you recover files from a Toshiba hard drive using Windows File Recovery.

1. Get the Windows File Recovery tool from the Microsoft Store. Once installed, open it.
2. Type winfr E: C:\RecoveredFiles /regular. Replace E: with the drive letter you want to scan. Replace C:\RecoveredFiles with the output location for the recovered files. Press Enter.
3. Press Y to continue

If your files weren’t recovered this time around, try replacing the /regular parameter with /extensive in step two. This will do a deeper scan of your drive, but may take a little bit longer.

Option C: Recuva

Regardless of this bonus, free tools very rarely compare to professional ones. This is highlighted in our comparison of Recuva vs Disk Drill. Furthermore, Recuva’s safety has been called into question on more than one occasion due to its parent company’s past controversies regarding data safety.

Follow these instructions to recover data using Recuva:

1. Download, install, and open Recuva.
2. Click Next on the first screen. Recuva uses a guided, wizard-like approach to data recovery.
3. Choose what types of files you want to recover and click Next.
4. Choose where the files were located before they were lost. Click Next.
5. Click Start. Alternatively, tick the Enable Deep Scan option if you would like Recuva to do a deeper scan of your drive (which will take longer).
6. Mark what files you want to recover, then click Recover.
7. Choose where you want to restore the files.

How to Fix a Toshiba Hard Drive that Doesn’t Work Properly

Following data recovery, you can begin troubleshooting your Toshiba hard drive and implementing fixes to start using it again. The below, DIY-oriented solutions offer a methodical approach to fixing common logical problems that can prevent a Toshiba hard drive from appearing and working as intended.

Method 1: Try Another Port/Computer

The first (and easiest) step is testing the drive in another port. This will help localize the issue to the drive or port, eliminating wasteful troubleshooting. This really only applies if you want to fix an external hard drive that’s not showing up or showing up intermittently. If you’ve already managed to recover your data – you can skip this step.

Here’s a basic approach to this method:

1. Try another USB port. If you test another USB port (preferably one connected to the motherboard directly) and it works, it means the problem is with the USB port you were using. This can happen if the USB port is disabled or unable to deliver the necessary power to the storage device.
2. Try another computer. If the drive works on another computer, it means that something is preventing your computer from reading the drive and that the drive is otherwise healthy.

If you’ve tried both and the drive still hasn’t worked in either case, then you can safely say that the problem can be localized to the drive and that further troubleshooting is necessary.

Method 2: Add/Change Drive Letter

In order to access a storage device from your Windows computer, it must first have a drive letter. Without a drive letter, the drive will not appear in File Explorer, nor will it be accessible through other traditional means. While data recovery software can still read drives that don’t have a drive letter, it’s oftentimes unnecessary as the problem is very easily fixed by re-assigning or changing the drive letter.

Follow these instructions to add or change a drive letter.

1. Right-click Start and click Disk Management.
2. Right-click the volume of your Toshiba hard drive and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
3. Click Add. If you already have a drive letter, click Change instead.
4. Select a drive letter from the dropdown menu and click OK.

Method 3: Error Checking

Windows comes with an error-checking feature that makes use of the CheckDisk (CHKDSK) functionality without using a command-line interface. Essentially, it will scan your drive for any identifiable issues and attempt to rectify them.

Follow these steps to check your Toshiba drive for errors.

1. In File Explorer, right-click on your drive and select Properties.
2. Click the Tools tab, then click Check.
3. Click Scan drive.
4. Click Close. Alternatively, click Show Details to view a detailed overview of what the scan found in the Event Viewer.

Method 4: Repair Bad Sectors with Victoria911

Victoria911, also known as Victoria for Windows, is a free hard drive diagnostic utility. With it, you can perform a surface test of the drive to locate bad sectors. While it’s impossible to repair physical bad sectors, Victoria911 has the ability to fix logical bad sectors that it finds.

Follow these steps to repair bad sectors with Victoria911:

1. Download and open Victoria911.
2. Click Test & Repair.
3. Click Scan. By default, Victoria911 will mark but ignore any bad sectors it finds.
4. Change the option to Remap, then perform another scan. Victoria911 will scan again, but this time it will attempt to remap the logical bad sectors to a spare one.

Can You Recover Data From a Dead/Physically Damaged Toshiba Hard Drive?

A dead hard drive is one that doesn’t appear anywhere on your computer. To File Explorer, Device Manager, and BIOS, your Toshiba hard drive is non-existent. Typically, this happens to hard drives that sustain some sort of physical damage. Unlike logical damage, physical damage is much more dangerous and less likely to be resolved using the troubleshooting methods we’ve already mentioned.

If your drive is, for all intents and purposes, dead, then you should contact a data recovery service provider instead. A data recovery professional has the tools and expertise to perform high-level data recovery, giving you the best chance of success in comparison to any software. The caveat is that this is the most expensive option, considering you’re employing a professional (though it is possible to find ones that are cheaper). Despite that, if the data on the drive is of the utmost importance, relying on a professional is always going to yield the greatest results.

How to Protect Your Toshiba Hard Drive From Data Loss

After you have recovered your files, you want to do everything in your power to make sure this doesn’t happen again. There is never a 100% guarantee that you will be able to recover your files, so keeping them safe allows you to rest easy. Here are a few tips for keeping the data on your Toshiba hard drive safe.

• 👍 Make backups – The best way to protect your data is to create a safe copy of it. Windows comes with backup features like File History and Backup & Restore for this exact purpose. Alternatively, you can use third-party software like Clonezilla or similar backup and recovery software.
• ⏏ Eject safely – When removing any storage device from your computer, eject it safely before doing so to ensure any write processes in operation are safely stopped. Otherwise, you risk corrupting your data because it hasn’t been completely saved.
• 👀 S.M.A.R.T. monitoring – Your drive’s S.M.A.R.T. data is an up-to-date reflection of your drive’s health. You can manually check this by running the wmic diskdrive get status command in Command Prompt, or by using Disk Drill’s disk monitoring feature which will actively monitor in the background.

By taking into account the above points (most notably the suggestion to back up your data), you can guarantee that your data is safe in the event that your Toshiba hard drive fails. When your files seemingly disappear next time, you can simply restore a copy of your data in a matter of minutes rather than spend hours trying to recover it.

FAQ

Conclusion

Just like most drives, recovery is possible from Toshiba hard drives. It’s important to remember that continued use of a device that has suffered from data-loss could ruin your chances of recovering your data. If you’re ever in a situation where you’ve lost some or all of your files, keep the drive off and create a byte-to-byte backup to perform recovery from.