Hey@blade38, sorry you're dealing with this.

Quick take, the most likely cause is file system corruption after the drive was connected to both the PC and the PS5, rather than a hardware failure. Since the drive still powers on and spins up, I'd first check how it appears in Disk Management and look at its S.M.A.R.T. health status before attempting any formatting or other repairs. If Windows offers to format or initialize the drive, don't accept.

When you first connected the drive to the new PC, did Windows show any specific errors or warnings? Or did the real trouble only start after you unplugged it from the PC and connected it back to the PS5?

Not a big console expert, but as far as I know, the games themselves can be stored on the external HDD, while game saves are normally stored on the PS5's internal storage (and may also be synced to the cloud with PlayStation Plus). They should be fine.

@blade38 I totally understand not wanting to reinstall too many games, but getting a new drive is the easiest solution. I don’t think I would use recovery software for this, really. Even if it’s a little bit cheaper. Game recordings are another thing that's maybe worth it if they are really important. If that’s the case, I highly suggest a video here - https://youtu.be/uhWmNUgIJTw?si=i7jQ0akCsppXi089

Welcome, @blade38!  This doesn't immediately sound like a dead drive. If the disk still spins up and is occasionally detected by Windows, there's a decent chance you're dealing with file system or enclosure-related issues rather than a complete hardware failure

First, check how the drive appears in Disk Management. If it shows the correct 2 TB capacity, that's an encouraging sign. I'd also check its SMART health information using a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo or Disk Drill. If the SMART attributes look healthy, the next step would be to scan the drive with data recovery software and see whether the PS5 external storage partition is still visible.

I also wouldn't dismiss the enclosure itself. Avolusion drives are typically standard hard drives inside a USB enclosure, and I've seen cases where the USB bridge board caused detection issues while the actual hard drive remained perfectly readable. The bridge board can fail independently of the drive, causing Windows to detect the device inconsistently or throw access errors even though the HDD itself is healthy. If the drive spins normally and doesn't click or make unusual noises, the enclosure electronics are worth considering as a possible cause.

As for the games, reinstalling them is obviously inconvenient, but I would focus on diagnosing the drive before worrying about that. If recovery software can still see the data, you may be able to recover files or at least determine whether the problem is logical corruption rather than physical failure.

Can you tell us exactly how the drive appears in Disk Management (Healthy, RAW, Unallocated, Not Initialized, etc.)? That detail will narrow things down quite a bit.

And also, the PC > PS5 sequence is actually a pretty common way for this type of issue to appear. If Windows detects inconsistencies in the file system, it may flag the partition as needing repair even if you don't manually run CHKDSK. After that, the PS5 may no longer recognize the drive as valid extended storage because it expects the file system metadata to be exactly as it was when the drive was set up on the console.

@datanerd Windows actually did show some kind of message when I first connected the drive. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something about the drive needing attention or not being accessible. I didn't format it or anything like that, though.

The weird part is that the drive was still working on the PS5 right before I connected it to the PC. After I unplugged it and connected it back to the console, that's when the problems started.

I checked Disk Management after reading your comment. The drive still shows the correct 2 TB capacity, so at least it looks like Windows can see the hardware.

@em_on_pc Yeah, you’re probably right. I’m worried that data recovery software won’t find all the game files, so I guess I'll just reinstall it. Not looking forward to this, tbh. But I still want the recordings back, it’s for my YouTube channel. Is this possible?

@gareth_w That’s a big relief, thanks!

@datarecoverexpert @datanerd The health status is good

That's actually encouraging, @blade38.

If the drive reports the correct 2 TB capacity and the SMART health status is good, then this doesn't look like a typical hardware failure. At this point, I'd be much more suspicious of file system corruption or damaged partition information. I think, you have a great chance to recover your files. If you need any guidance we have a guide for recovering files from a hard drive - https://help.7datarecovery.com/hard-drive-data-recovery/ 

Also we tested a lot of different recovery tools, you can look up reviews or list like: https://ratings.7datarecovery.com/best-recovery-apps/

Feel free to tag me or @Moderator if any help is needed!

@blade38

If you want to recover video recordings, I highly recommend Disk Drill. Not every tool works well with videos, unfortunately. Disk Drill is among the very few ones that can handle such recoveries. Helped me a ton of times.

Welcome to the forum, @blade38.

I agree with the advice you've received so far. The fact that the drive reports its full 2 TB capacity and has a good SMART status is a very good sign. It suggests that the problem is more likely related to the file system or partition structure than to a serious hardware failure.

One thing I'd add: if the drive starts disconnecting unexpectedly, becomes very slow, makes unusual noises, or behaves inconsistently during scans, consider creating a disk image before doing extensive recovery work. An image is essentially a sector-by-sector copy of the drive that allows you to work with the copy instead of the original disk. This reduces the risk of further complications if the drive's condition worsens.

Someone has mentioned Disk Drill, which is a good option because it can create disk images and scan them afterward.

If you get your recordings back, there are a few things you can try afterward before giving up on the drive completely.

I'd start with Windows Error Checking or CHKDSK. If the issue is just file system corruption, either of those may be able to repair the partition enough for the drive to become usable again.

Another thing worth trying is deleting the existing partitions and letting the PS5 format the drive from scratch. I've seen external drives become unreadable after being connected to different devices, only to work perfectly fine after a clean format.

You can also check whether there's a firmware update available for the enclosure, though that's less common.

Just don't run any repair tools until you've recovered the recordings. Repair operations can modify the file system, so it's better to get your important files off the drive first and troubleshoot afterward.

After you've recovered the recordings, I'd be curious to see whether the PS5 can reinitialize the drive on its own. Once the drive is wiped clean, consoles can sometimes deal with storage issues surprisingly well. If the drive works normally after a fresh format and reinstall, I'd probably keep using it but monitor it for a while.

@blade38

Since you're mainly interested in the recordings, don't be afraid to try more than one recovery tool. Video files can be tricky, especially if the file system is damaged. Disk Drill is a solid place to start, but I've also had good experiences with R-Studio on drives that looked inaccessible in Windows. Sometimes the difference comes down to which tool recognizes the partition structure better.

Just wanted to come back and thank everyone for the help.

In the end, I decided to focus on the gameplay recordings and forget about the games. Reinstalling them is a hassle, but it seemed easier than trying to recover everything from the drive.

I gave Disk Drill a try and managed to get back the videos I actually cared about for my YouTube channel. That was really the main thing I didn't want to lose, so I was pretty relieved when I saw the recordings show up in the scan results.

Once I had the videos safely copied to another drive, I formatted the Avolusion drive and set it up again on the PS5. So far, everything seems fine. The console recognizes it normally, games install without any issues, and I haven't seen any of the errors that started this whole mess.

I'm still going to keep an eye on it, though. The drive reports good health, but since this happened out of nowhere, I don't completely trust it yet. If it starts acting up again, I'll probably replace it rather than wait for a bigger problem.

Thanks again to everyone who replied.