- 1). Reboot your computer if it's the hard drive that appears to have been lost, in case it is simply a connection issue. Safely remove the drive if it's an external hard drive that appears to be lost. Click "Safely Remove Hardware" in the task bar, click the hard drive name, then unplug the drive and plug it back into the computer.
- 2). Try the disk in another computer if the lost disk is a CD or other type of external disk to see if another computer can open the disk. If the disk does open in another computer, the disk drive may be the issue and not the disk.
- 3). Download a disk-recovery or file-recovery program if the computer still fails to recognize any of the files on the external disk, external drive or hard drive. Free recovery programs reviewed and listed on the PCWorld website include PC Inspector File Recovery, Restoration and VirtualLab Data Recovery. Install the program to the computer.
- 4). Run the disk-recovery or file-recovery program on the computer. In general, run a disk-recovery program by selecting the disk that you want to try to recover from the list of disks and drives that come up, then click the button labeled "Recover" or "Scan and Recover" to try to recover the lost disk.
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