Recover Lost Data from Toshiba External Hard Drive
Today, the most reliable hard drives are manufactured by trusted vendors like Western Digital (WD), Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung and Toshiba. Toshiba external hard drives are widely used for backing up data, and they are often the preferred choice of users as computer hard drives since they are good at rebuilding multiple external partitions to better manage files.

You might have or might be using a Toshiba hard drive as an external drive or maybe within a Toshiba laptop. However, these hard drives are also prone to problems like inaccessibility or total loss of data stored on them. This article will be covering the reasons behind the loss of crucial data on Toshiba hard drives, their common fixes and recommended data recovery solutions.
Reasons for loss of data on Toshiba hard drive
External or internal hard drives though look sturdy in appearance, are often delicate pieces of technical excellence. Occurrences which seem minor like power outages or rough handling can often lead to permanent hard drive damage.
Here are some of the most common data loss reasons on Toshiba hard drives:
- Uneven power surges or voltage fluctuations while the drive is being used.
- Sudden system shutdown.
- Improperly disconnecting the drive from the system if it is an external one.
- Accidental deletion of important data (often resulting from a Select All + Shift + Delete operation).
- Unplanned formatting of the hard drive.
- Virus / Malware attack.
- Damage or deletion of the hard drive’s structures.
- Improper handling or dropping of the hard drive.
Any of the above mentioned reasons has the capability to render the hard drive permanently useless. Hence, your data should always be backed up and you should take proper steps to ensure the hard drive’s smooth operation like installing reliable anti-virus, handling the drive properly, connecting and disconnecting it properly etc.
Common fixes you can try out
Here are a few common fixes you could try out before you start panicking and consider rushing to the experts. Often, fixes like these actually work:
1. If your laptop or computer is not booting at all, remove the drive and connect it to another computer. If it boots, but you can’t access your data, all you might need is a good data recovery service. However, if the other computer also does not boot and you hear a faint clicking sound, the drive might have suffered physical damage and might need professional help.
2. In a case of physical damage too, there is something you can do. If you’ve done it before, take the drive apart. You could find the reason behind the fault such as a bad interface board or faulty PCB. If it is indeed a faulty PCB, you can get a now one from the Internet based on a comprehensive search according to the model number of your drive. However, attempt opening the drive only if you have knowledge about it or else you might worsen the damage.
3. If you can access the hard drive but cannot access your data, owing to accidental deletion or formatting, probably the best thing you could do is stop writing any new data to the hard drive. This is because even after deletion, your data is not erased from the system; you just loose access to it. The space occupied by deleted files is marked as “available to reuse”, so the deleted files remain physically intact on the drive until they are overwritten by other files. Hence not writing new data could guarantee a better chance of data recovery.
4. You could use the Recovery CD or DVD included with most Toshiba notebook computer models to repair the hard drive.
5. Some Toshiba laptops include the Toshiba Hard Drive Recovery Utility, which is stored in a special partition on the hard disk drive, along with the system files. This utility can be used for the ‘recovery’ of the hard disk drive to its original factory state (in terms of contents).
Here are the steps to use the Toshiba HDD recovery utility on Toshiba notebook:
- Restart the computer while holding down the 0 (zero) key.
- You will see the utility’s screen listing down 3 options:
- Restore original factory image (recommended).
- Restore partition C: of HDD without changing current partition size (Advanced option).
- Restore image to C: partition with user-specified size (Advanced option).
Thereafter, the process is a simple instruction follow procedure. The steps to repair hard disk through recovery CD / DVD are also the same.
Limitations of These Fixes
Though the fixes mentioned above often work wonders, sometimes, they fail to owe to the following limitations:
- Taking the hard drive to service center professionals could prove to be quite expensive. This option should be undertaken only if the hard drive has suffered extensive physical damage.
- Attempting some of the fixes requires technical expertise and field knowledge which many users don’t have.
- Some users might not have the Toshiba HDD Recovery CD / DVD.
- The Toshiba HDD Recovery Utility is available only on some notebook models.
Recommended Solution
Unless the hard drive is severely physically damaged, perhaps the best way to repair the drive would be to format it. Thereafter, to recover your data you should go for premium quality Toshiba hard drive recovery software.
We recommend using Stellar Data Recovery Professional software for this purpose. The software works impressively to accomplish the process of recovering lost, deleted, or inaccessible data on Windows based drives and removable media. You can rest assured of regaining access to your precious data in no time.
Final Words
So, the next time your Toshiba hard drive lands up in a problem, you know what to do and what to avoid. After the drive has been repaired, go for a good data recovery solution like Stellar Data Recovery Professional to securely reclaim all your inaccessible files.
I have a 1TB Toshiba external hard drive but it is not longer working, it is not being recognised when put on a laptop. Could help me with how i can repair it and save my data on it. This is urgent as i have to hand over my work laptop but it has lots of my data.
Regards
Hello Goodsons,
Sorry to hear your problem.
Have you tried to change the cable/port? If not, please proceed.
Data Recovery through the software would not be possible in this case. We suggest to avail Data Recovery Services from the unrecognized hard drive. We have Class 100 clean room labs where the data can be recovered manually.
We do not provide drive/media repair services for non-detectable hard drives.
Please assist in recovering lost MS office files from 2 TB Toshiba external hard drive?
Hello Mattie,
Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery
Please, free download the official Stellar Data Recovery Professional (link share below) software and select the Office documents from the main interface screen.
Link: https://cloud.stellarinfo.com/StellarDataRecoveryProfessional-B.exe
Hi, I have a Toshiba external 2.5″ drive connected to my Mac via USB 3. The drive works fine but I accidentally deleted some files and I’m trying to use StellarDataRecovery to recover. The program sees other drives attached to my Mac, but not this one. It is Mac formatted and recognised in disk utility, and after running first aid in disk utility it says there is no issues. After restarting etc the software still doesn’t see that drive, so I went to the “Can’t find volume”, then searched and found it as “TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 Media” and hit “search”, but it says it found no lost volumes. As I said, Mac OS has no issues seeing the volume and accessing files, and StellarDataRecovery has no issue with other drives such as a Lacie external USB drive. I have tried it on different computers and different cables, but the same issue. Have you ever heard of this problem before, and do you know of any fixes? Running Mac OS Mojave 14.1 and StellarDataREcovery v9.0 – thanks!
Hello Harry,
Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery
Our support team member will contact you soon.
My Toshiba canvio advance started clicking like a month ago. It will not even be detected by my laptop but it makes a constant clicking noise. I dont know if it is damaged or not. It was working fine before the clicking. I would like to retrieve my data. Any suggestions?
Hi Mu,
Thanks for contacting Stellar Data Recovery!
As per your query, the clicking noise is usually associated with the physical hdd error which will be best take care by take recovery expert (services), I suggest to either contact our support team on support[@]stellarinfo.com or any experienced local data recovery expert.
The software works really like a wizard, when quick scans fail, deep scan recovers my lost Toshiba hard drive partition.
Thanks Tony
Stellar File recovery software works well with my 1 TB Toshiba Hard Drive.
Hello Whitney,
Thanks for the feedback.
HI MY NAME IS MAHAVIR KUMAR.I HAVE TOSHIBA HARD DRIVE ITS 2 TB HARD DRIVE.ONE SUDDENLY ITS STOP TO WORK.I FORMAT THE DRIVE NOW I WANT TO BACK UP THE I HARD DRIVE PLZ TELL ME SOLUTION.HOW I BACK UP THE HARD DRIVE. I HAVE HP LAPTOP INTEL i3. TELL ME WHICH SOFTWARE I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD TO BACK UP THE HARD DRIVE. ITS ALMOST 1.5 TB IS USED.
Hi Mahavir,
Please have a look on our Stellar Insta Backup software. It is Windows data backup software to create backup of selected files, folders, volumes, and email databases.
Here is link: https://www.stellarinfo.com/windows-tools/backup-data.php
Thanks
Can data recovery possible by software in case of physical damage? It was dropped from the height of the 4-5 foot. Since then, it was not showing in file explorer.
Hello Miley,
Feel bad to hear about your Hard Disk.
Data Recovery is possible depending on the condition of the hard drive. On maximum occasion, under such scenario, it was a physical damage, which will be better take care by data recovery professionals. Still, you may try your luck with Stellar Free data recovery software.
This is good to know new things. Toshiba external hard drives are widely used for backing up data. Thanks for sharing this post.
Hello,
Thanks for encouraging us. We are happy to share more such information in future.
my thosiba external hard disk 1TB ….its fall in down ..i connect laptop not detected and i want recover may data’s …how its possible …will you give the possibilities.
Hello Prabu,
Feel bad to hear about your hard drive.
Please try below mentioned steps.
Start with Manual Ways
Try to connect your hard drive with any other working PC/Laptop.
Check the connecting Cable, sometimes it may be faulty.
Check the ports.
If still, you are not able to access your required data, please take help of Stellar windows data recovery software.
No doubt, recovery of data is painful. Data loss can happen with anyone and on any drive, whether it is Toshiba, Transcend, etc. But, it becomes easier with the data recovery software. Thanks for the post!
Toshiba is one of the most popular hard drive manufacturing company. It provides plenty of hard drives for their users. The Toshiba hard drives stay for a long but, data loss is such a situation which can be faced by anyone at any time. Best option to avoid this is ‘Data Backup’.
What is worst then, your backup drive is not showing any data which you saving since long. Yes, it happens with me a few days back when my Seagate hard drive stops showing any data. I found this informative post very useful and try all the fixes mentioned above. Luckily, the data is back. Thanks, Stellar!!!
Hey, thanks for sharing wonderful fixes. I have recently faced a data loss issue from my Toshiba hard drive but has recovered it with the help of a Stellar software. Thanks for the post.
Toshiba is a top brand selling hard drive company. I, myself is using a Toshiba hard drive. But, unfortunately, my another Toshiba hard drive got infected. Whenever I connect it to my system, it does not detect it. Therefore, I planned to purchase the mentioned software. And luckily, I found this. Now, I had made a copy of the same drive as a backup. Thanks Stellar!!!
I accidentally deleted the disk image files of my 1 TB Toshiba external hard drive (dead now)? It was on the desktop when I moved it to trash and later emptied it? I have no further back of my Toshiba external hard drive. It will be great if you can reply me urgently.
Wesley.
Hi Wesely,
Stellar Mac Data Recovery program can help you recover the deleted disk image (.dmg) file of Toshiba external hard drive. I suggest you run Deleted Recovery on your startup disk and let the scan finish completely. When the scan gets done, you can preview and save your disk image file and other such data. Download link for Mac Toshiba external hard drive recovery goes here https://www.stellarinfo.com/data-recovery-mac.php
Kind Regards
Vishal
Toshiba, no doubt, is a best hard drive that can store a large amount of data inside it. But, if somehow the hard drive got damaged, then what will be the first step should we think to take? The first and the most important thing is data, which resides inside it, have to recover. For this, we have to purchase a data recovery software that can easily recover lost or deleted data. I, myself, had lost my data from my Toshiba hard drive and wanted to recover it; so, I had purchased this software and had recovered my data with the help of it. Thanks Stellar!
Hai, I also have a problem with my Toshiba 1 TB external harddrive.
The thing is I placed it in the same pocket as my roll on as I was travelling and some roll on sipped into the USB port, when I tried to connect the harddrive to the computer it said USB not recognized but the white led goes on and I could fill the harddrive spin but of late it still says usb not recognized and the harddrive does not spin no more.
Question, If I get another harddrive with the same size and swap the PCB would it be able to help, or what could the solution be?
I appreciate your help in advance.
Hi Mwandwe,
I think you should search your external hard drive in the Disk Management. If you didn’t find your hard drive there, then use the above-mentioned data recovery software which can help you in recognizing your hard disk.
Kindly acknowledge.
My 5 years old Toshiba external hard drive becomes RAW. Will this software can recover my data from my RAW hard drive.
Yes,
This software is quite efficient to recover data from RAW hard drive by using its strong algorithm. Thanks for asking a question.
I know that this might be a silly question but anyway it is always worth the try.
I have the Toshiba hard drive before I had to plug it into my Macbook Air I did had some files and pictures saved in the drive and so I wanted to add some other pictures that were saved in my Macbook Air but for some reasons it did not let me copy or paste anything from the macbook to the hard drive and after googling it, I figured that I had to go to disk utility and format the hard disk to my macbook air, now unfortunately i forgot to save what I had from the drive and so when I changed the format everything got deleted, and now I am hoping that there is a way somehow to return my files that I had from before. I know that it is impossible but I do have some hope. please help!
Hi Mary,
Could you let us know what file system your external hard drive had before it got formatted on Mac? Was it HFS, FAT or NTFS formatted? We have data recovery software for both Mac and Windows, and as you mentioned you did the formatting on a MacBook Air, hence you can free download the Mac data recovery application and start a scan to recover erased files. This software will allow you to preview all recoverable files which were lost due to formatting. Saving the recovered files to another hard drive will require registering the application. Do let us know your further query
Vishal
I have a Toshiba 2 TeraByte Ext hard disk used to backup my MacBookAir. Right now, I am not able to get through the Toshiba icon, and somehow my access is halted. The drive is powering up and no other unusual activity but not able to go into it and access my files. I do feel that the drive might be corrupt. How may I get my data recovered from this hard drive?
Hi John,
Is your Toshiba drive mounting properly in Disk Utility? If yes, then download free Stellar Mac Data Recovery program to scan the device using built-in data recovery features.
Thanks!!
hi, i have a problem with external hard disk-Toshiba. My laptop cannot read it. i am very sure, my external hard disk did not suffer from physical damage because i always careful with it. i hope Toshiba could help me to retrieve all file. the noise came from hard disk make me wonder what happen with this hard disk. i have two external Toshiba hard disk. Unfortunately, both of it have a same problem. Please help me.
Hi Azie,
To understand the concept of the clicking noise of a hard drive, I suggest you to go through https://www.stellarinfo.com/blog/hard-disk-inaccessible-recover-files/ to know more about it.
For recovering your data, I advise you to run our Professional software as recommended in the above link and you can easily recover your data back.
Kindly acknowledge the status.
My toshiba external drive says that the files were corrupted. But asper checking, the space availability is still the same. the files were not accessible but the folders were all there. I really wanted to recover all those important files..:(
Toshiba drive is corrupt and greyed out in Disk utility. Can’t afford to loose my files from this drive. I am running OS X El Capitan, kindly let me know how can I recover my hard drive?
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for writing to us!!
Your Toshiba external hard drive sounds logically corrupt but don’t worry since you can still perform Mac data recovery through Stellar Mac Data Recovery tool. Here goes the download link. Use the application to scan, preview and recovery files from your inaccessible Toshiba external hard drive on OS X El Capitan. You may reach us at 877-778-6087 for technical assistant.
Best Regards
Vishal
Hi, my hard drive is not working fine. I have 3 partitions on my Toshiba hard drive and out of them 1 is Recovery image drive, other is local drive (c drive) and the one is data storing drive. Now the problem is that whenever I open my D drive which is data storing drive it shows nothing in it and appears blank. I believe the issue is with the hard drive, please help me.
Hi John,
If you think it is because of damaged hard drive, then I suggest you to use Checkdisk command to confirm the issue. Checkdisk command is the most helpful command to detect and troubleshoot the issue with the hard drive. If this doesn’t help you, then please feel free to ask me for further help.
A friend suggests me this article to recover my data from Toshiba external hard drive. Great information thanks for sharing it.
My Toshiba hard drive is not showing any file into it, whereas it carries a number of important files stored in it. I don’t know why it happen, but want to recover my data from the drive. Is the solution you have recommended can successfully work on Toshiba external hard drive?
Hello Dary,
Yes, you can download the above-mentioned software to recover your data from Toshiba hard drive. This tool supports almost all hard drives of different companies.
Hi editor,
Recently my MacBook Pro mid-2012 with Toshiba hard drive started doing some updates where it got stuck in midway. No progress had been started in the bar for nearly 3 hours nor did it respond any type of key commands. After that, I decided to fix it but disk utilities told me it wasn’t going to work anyway. Still getting the error messages and facing problems of data loss. By mistake, I don’t have any data backup available at present. Please tell me some suitable solution to get rid from this problem?
Hey Damien, since your Toshiba Mac hard drive isn’t booting I recommend you to register Stellar Data Recovery for Mac with Recovery CD which will boot up your Mac and perform recovery of files from the Toshiba hard disk drive. You may also take the help of this post: How to recover data from non-booting Mac hard drive.
Hope this resolves your issue.
HELP!!! Please. I too have a Toshiba drive and I replaced the cable. The drive was detectable for about two weeks on a MAC and a Dell. Now neither laptops can read the files on the drive. The indicator light no long blinks blue. I do not want to lose all of the files and folders on this drive. What do you recommend? I took it to Best Buy as this is where I purchased the Toshiba drive and the additional cable. They were no help. How can i get the data off of this drive or who should I take it to to “rebuild” this drive to extract the data? I don’t even care about the drive anymore. I just want all of the data on it.
Hello Lydia Jenkins,
First of all, I would suggest you to check your hard drive in disk management? If it is not appearing in disk management, then most likely, it is physically damaged and you need to take a help from an expert ( visit this https://www.stellarinfo.com/services/data-recovery-capabilities.php for free consultation). If, it is visible in the disk management, then run check disk command to troubleshoot the issues with the hard drive. I
believe after running chkdsk command, your drive will start detecting in windows and you can access your data. Good Luck!!
I have an issue with my Toshiba external hard drive. Suddenly it stopped recognizing in Windows explorer. I am using Windows 7; can you please tell me how I can make my hard drive accessible.
Hello Jayne,
To overcome from this issue, you can try the following fixes:
Plugin the hard drive in another port.
Check your hard drive by inserting it into the another system.
Reassign drive letter to the hard drive by going into disk management.
Hope these fixes works for you!!
Kindly acknowledge.
I’m using Toshiba external hard drive and facing problem to get it detected by the system. I’ve stored over 20 GBs of useful files that I don’t want to lose at any cost.
Is there any way to restore all of my data?
I strongly suspect that USB cable or connective media has been damaged and you’ll need to replace that. On contradictory side, it may also be possible that the hard drive suffers physical damages and can’t survive any longer.
Try connect the drive to another computer or USB ports or after changing the USB/SATA adapter and see if the system can detects it.
Feel free to share your progress!!
Hi: I deleted 300+ GB of pictures (jpg) from my Toshiba portable external hard drive but not seeing any of the free space. The pie chart still shows the drive almost full. I have accessed the drive and unchecked hidden folders , etc. and have emptied the recycle bin on the external drive as well as om my laptop but can’t seem to find a way to see , what should be, almost 400 or 500GB of the newly emptied space. Ihope you can help!
Hello Ted,
Thank you for contacting Stellar Data Recovery.
We would like to inform that issue which you are facing is related to the system or the drive. You may try to reconnect the drive to another system then check the results.
We have Stellar Windows Data Recovery software to recover the lost or deleted data. In case, you wish to recover the lost files then we recommend you to try the demo version from the below mentioned link and check the possibility of recovery:
https://cloud.stellarinfo.com/StellarDataRecoveryProfessional-B.exe
Please get back to us for any further query.