how to fix_ external hdd suddenly became raw

8/10/2019 How to Fix_ External HDD Suddenly Became RAW

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/how-to-fix-external-hdd-suddenly-became-raw 1/68

Unknown Kadath

How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became R!

Posted on May 1st, 2013 by James Litten

How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became R!

D"S#$"%ER: These examples use techniques that I actually employ in the real world to deal with real problems. They

might be wrong or dangerous. They might be ine f f icient. I f you tr y them yoursel f , it might cause damage or irreparable loss. I

take no responsibility f or anything you do based on my examples or the in f ormation that I provide here.

A common and bef uddling problem with com puters is the sudden and seemingly ine plicable disappearance of

an eternal hard dri!e that has been f unctioning properly" #t can be a breathta$ing eperience to suddenly be toldthat your data, of ten irreplaceable pictures and documents, might be gone f ore!er"

As with many similar situations in lif e the appropriate response is %&on't panic(" )hen approached sensibly and

caref ully, the situation can be resol!ed and the data sa!ed more times than not" *ere we will loo$ at the causes,

f ies and pre!entati!e measures f or instances in!ol!ing eternal dri!es being used with )indows +P and

)indows ista-."

Error %essa&es

/ommon error messages associated with the sudden inability to access an eternal hard dis$ dri!e"

)indows +P )indows .

D' ('T F'R%T THE DR")E

)hen attem pting to access the dri!e in )indows you may see a message as$ing you to f ormat the dri!e D'

('T F'R%T THE DR")E



You need to format the disk in drive before you can use it.

Do you want to format it?

Another error that you may see when trying to access the dri!e in )indows f rom a program or the command line

is

This volume does not contain a recognized file system. Please make sure that

all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not

corrupted.

Attempting to run ch$ds$ in an attem pt to repair the problem will gi!e an error also

chkdsk can not be run on the drive

The type of the file system is !".

#$%D&% is not available for !" drives.

he &is$ Management window shows the partition as either A) or without a f ilesystem type"

Properties of the dri!e show that both used and f ree spaces are 0 byte in sie f or the raw

dri!e



)indows +P )indows .

!hat does R! *artition mean

A A) f ilesystem simply means that it is a f ilesystem that is not recognied by )indows" heref ore all thea!ailable f ilesystem dri!ers are unable to mount the f ilesystem as a dri!e" his of ten happens when the records

determining the f ilesystem ty pe or location on the dis$ are damaged or corru pted, usually the partition table or

the boot sector"

4ince )indows sees no f ilesystem in the partition, it prom pts you to f ormat it in order to create a f ilesystem on it

&5 65 75 MA #"

!hy does it ha**en and how to avoid ithe most common cause of eternal hard dri!es suddenly becoming A) dri!es is if they are disconnected

f rom a com puter without using the %4af ely emo!e *ardware( option" his can happen in many ways such as a

power f ailure, un plugging the dri!e f rom the 849 port or f rom its A/ adapter, a problem with the computer that

causes it to temporarily disconnect the 849 hubs and many more circumstances can lead to this occurring"

Always use %4af ely remo!e hardware( to disconnect the dri!e" Lef t clic$ the icon on the tas$bar, select the

de!ice f rom the menu, and wait f or the conf irmation message"

How do you + ix it

7or this eample, # chose the most hea!ily damaged dis$ with this issue that # could f ind in my collection of

damaged dis$s" #t has both of the most common problems" he partition table is corrupted and the boot sector

of the main partition is also scram bled" he pictures of error messages abo!e all came f rom this dri!e" he

pictures of the repair process below are f rom the actual repair of this dri!e" 4ome images are f rom a !irtual

machine :sim ply to ma$e it easier to get the screenshots; and some are f rom an actual des$top" his is a real

repair not a manuf actured eam ple"

Be+ ore *roceedin& ,eyond this *oint- you need to ,e aware o+ the risks involved. #f the problem with the

dri!e is not sim ply a logical error but is a manif estation of physical damage then the more you use it and try to

repair, the worse the damage may become" o minimie the ris$s, the dri!e can be ta$en to a prof essional who i

e perienced in this type of repair" he dri!e should not be ma$ing strange clic$ing or beeping noises" hat means

that there is def initely physical damage and it should be sent to a f acility with the proper tools and en!ironment to

repair-reco!er it since trying to repair it as described in this post can ma$e that situation worse" #f you wish to

continue on your own there are three im portant rules to remember"

/. /om puter problems are !ariable" <ou may !ery well come u p with a dif f erent situation than # outline below"



Ma$e sure that you stop and thin$ things through caref ully when the process becomes dif f erent than # describe"

0. <ou D' ('T !(T T' !R"TE (1TH"(2 T' THE R! DR")E ecept f or the repaired M9

and repaired 9oot 4ector if necessary" Any other writing can o!erwrite data on the dri!e that you would want to

$eep"

3. his repair does not apply to solid=state dri!es :44&;" hey are !ery dif f erent than normal dri!es and can

erase im portant data on a A) partition >ust by connecting power to them"

Do you want to recover anythin& extra im*ortant + irst4

This ste* is o*tional and does not always work. ED"T /500506/3

#t can put your mind at ease and ma$e the process less stressf ul if you can successf ully and ?uic$ly ma$e copies

of the most im portant f iles on the dri!e" Af ter ma$ing sure that these f iles are saf ely copied to another dri!e, you

can continue with repairing the dri!e with a much more relaed demeanor and thus be less li$ely to ma$e a

mista$e"5f ten you can access the data on the missing dri!e by booting with a Linu Li!e/&" he hard dis$ dri!e being

used in this eam ple is too damaged to do this but there is another article with instructions here that uses a dri!e

that while not !isible in )indows was accessible with a Linu Li!e/&"

Re*air *artition ta,le and ,oot sector

#n order to repair the most common problems that cause an eternal dis$ to suddenly become A) we will use

a PartedMagic Linu boot /& and one of the tools included on it called est&is$" 9oth of these items are f ree

and # urge you to donate to them if you are helped by their use and ha!e the ability to ma$e a donation"

his method allows us to wor$ on the dri!e without attem pting to mount it and gi!es us more direct access to it

than trying to f i it in )indows"

7irst ma$e a bootable /& or 849 stic$ of PartedMagic" #nstructions can be f ound here"

9oot the computer that has the bad dri!e connected to it with the PartedMagic /&-849 that you made" A menu

will pop up, please select

1. De f ault Setti ng s ( Runs f r om RAM )



)hen it f inishes booting you will notice that it loo$s $ind of li$e a )indows des$top" he button in the lower lef t

wor$s li$e the 4A button in )indows +P and allows you to select and run !arious programs or shutdown

the computer" o ma$e things easy, #'ll >ust ref er to this as the 4A button"

/lic$ on the erminal button down near the 4A button :#t has a picture ofa monitor on it; and ty petestdisk

and press enter"

est&is$ is a console application so you ha!e to use your $eyboard to interact with it instead of your mouse"

/hoose (o $o& and hit enter



Ma$e sure that your eternal dis$ is highlighted

/hoose 7roceed and hit enter

4elect "ntel and hit enter :there is a slight chance that the partition is @7# P if the dri!e is 29 or greater in

sie and at the bottom of this screen it says that Hint: EF" 27T was detected" #f that is the case, select @7#

P instead and try that";



4elect nalyse and hit enter

he partition data loo$s incorrect :an e planation of why is beyond the scope of this article;

4elect 8uick Search and hit enter



4ay B1B if it as$s if the dis$ was made in ista-)in. :e!en if it was made in +P say Byes';

6ow the Cuic$ 4earch will run



)hen the Cuic$ 4earch com pletes, we see one partition :if you only see the option to /56#68@ at the

bottom of the screen press @6@ one time to continue to the screen that you need to be at;"



Lets loo$ at the data on that partition press

7

and you should see a list of f iles-f olders in the partition"



*mmm his loo$s li$e a bunch of diagnostic tools but not our missing data" )e'll need to loo$ f urther" Press

8

to go bac$ a screen and then press

enter

o get to this screen, select DEE7ER SER#H and press enter"



6aturally, the &eeper 4earch ta$es longer than the Cuic$ 4earch



)hen the &eeper 4earch com pletes we now see two partitions" he one we saw af ter the ?uic$ search and

another one"

4elect the new partition and press

7

to see the f iles-f olders and now we see the data we want to ma$e !isible again"



Press

8

to go bac$ a screen and then press enter to get to this screen"

4elect !R"TE and press enter in order to write our new partition table to the dri!e"

D' ('T !R"TE (E! 7RT"T"'( TB$E "F 1'U D"D ('T SEE 1'UR F"$ES5F'$DERS

hat means the proper partition table was not f ound and you will ha!e to try a dif f erent techni?ue to reco!er youdata"



Press 1 to conf irm that you want to write the new partition table"

As # mentioned at the start of this repair, this dis$ also has corruption in the boot sector of the partition that we

are trying to ma$e !isible again" )hen this is the case est&is$ will stop at this point and as$ you to f i it bef ore

it f inishes writing the new partition table" #f the bac$up boot sector is good :as in this case; simply choose

B#K U7 BS and press enter" #n the e!ent that the bac$u p boot sector is also bad then choose @98#L& 94"



Press < to conf irm the boot sector repair

hen choose 8U"T and press enter



egardless of whether a boot sector repair is re?uired or not, you will end up at this screen where all you can do

is press enter" hen hit 8 until you are out of est&is$"

6ow remo!e the PartedMagic /& and shutdown the com puter STRT9SHUTD'!( and then try booting it

into )indows to see if the dri!e is now !isible"

*ere are the results f or the dri!e used in this eam ple



Back u* im*ortant + iles and run chkdsk

6ow you should ma$e bac$ups of all important f iles on the dri!e in case it goes bad again and then run ch$ds$

to f i any other f ilesystem errors that may still eist"

Af ter bac$ing up im portant f iles, right=clic$ the dis$ in )indows @plorer and choose 7R'7ERT"ES" o to

the T''$S tab and clic$ #HE#K ('!" /hec$ both options and clic$ STRT"

*opef ully, this sol!es your problem" Please f eel f ree to contact me through the contact f orm or comments if you

ha!e any ?uestions or suggestions f or this post"

agsD data reco!ery, undelete f iles, undelete"reco!er lost f iles, windows f ile reco!ery, windows repair

his entry was posted on )ednesday, May 1st, 2013 at .DEF pm and is f iled under &ata eco!ery, )indows

7ile eco!ery, windows repair " <ou can f ollow any responses to this entry through the 44 2"0 f eed" <ou can

s$ip to the end and lea!e a response" Pinging is currently not allowed"

063 Res*onses to How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became R!;

Luc y < =anuary /3th- 06/3 at >:6? *m

)or$edG han$ you so muchG

J P < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at @:03 am



# f ollowed e!ery step until the reboot but # still can't access the dis$" he f ile system is still A)" My eternal

dis$ dri!e is E009 4eagate 7ree Agent o 7le &ri!e" # hope you can help me with this"

ad mi n < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at @:30 am

*i JP

*ere is a similar situation that # wor$ed on with a 19 eternal o7lehttpD--www"bleepingcom puter"com-f orums-topicHI10HI"html

4ee if what we tried there hel ps you"

James

J P < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at A:6@ am

han$s, JamesG #'ll loo$ at the lin$ you'!e posted and #'ll let you $now if it wor$s f or me" May be, it didnt wor$

because # >ust downloaded the est&is$ K"1H tool f rom the web and run it in )indows instead of booting it with

PartedMagic"

J H < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at @:6 *m

James, a similar situation with a 1 4im ple4a!e M&1000h on my *P Pa!ilion d!=. laptop"

At the step where the deeper search is being conducted, the window displays the f ollowing message as the

deeper search continues :currently at KH com plete;D

/hec$7AD /an't read 7A boot sector"

#n!alid boot sector"

5 & 7A1K N32m 1EIH. 2E3 E3 2.1F1E F HI 1II0KI20HH

7A 1KN32m 1EIH. 2E3 E3 2.1F1E F HI 1II0KI20HH

My issue is that ). sees this dri!e, but cannot read it because it thin$s it is in A) f ormat" estdis$ shows it as

still being 674, but with this 7A1K issue popping u p during deeper search"

# belie!e all the f iles are still on the dri!e so the goal is to repair without a f ull erase and ref ormat of the

4im ple4a!e dri!e"

han$s in ad!ance f or your help,

>h

ad mi n < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at A:6A *m

*i J*

#t would be !ery dif f icult to help you repair a problem li$e that in the comments of a blog post"

<ou can try posting the problem in the Binternal hardware' subf orum at bleepingcomputer"com



# do many repairs there and either myself or someone else would probably be able to help you"

James

J H < =anuary /@th- 06/3 at A:/A *m

)ill do O than$sG

Di aneNemea < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:0C am

# am currently running the B?uic$ search' but it is !ery slow"

%&is$ -de!-sdd O 1000 9 - F31 i9 O /*4 FE3IKF KH 32

Analye cylinder 30E-FE3IKID 00

ead error at 30E-2-1 :lbsK20K0I;(

#t continues to go up, but #

can't tell if it is wor$ing normally" 4hould # >ust go to bed and see what happens in the AMQ

han$s,

&6

Di aneNemea < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at >:@3 *m

he Bdeeper search' f ound nothing on the dri!e" # ha!e now the option to" A" Add partition" L" Load bac$up"

@nter to continue" dri!e"

Ra < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:6C *m

)here do i f ind the PartedMagic Linu boot /& and est&is$ /& Q Please help , its urgent

Ra < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:0 *m

han$s i f igured out"

Di aneNemea < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:3> *m

%6o partition f ound or selected f or reco!ery (

# am copying o!er my f iles, then ref ormatQ

Di aneNemea < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:3 *m

4o, to be clear, # can mount the dri!e and see and copy the contents, but the testdis$ data reco!ery tool f ound

no partitions with either the ?uic$ scan or the deeper scan"



ad mi n < =anuary /?th- 06/3 at C:@6 *m

*i &iane6emea

#t is too dif f icult to assist with a repair in the blog comments but f rom what you'!e posted so f ar, it sounds li$e

there may be some physical damage li$e bad sectors since you got a read error and the problem may be too

serious to f i with this techni?ue"

<ou could try reco!ering the data"

Photo ec is f ree and included in PartedMagic but will not gi!e you f ilenames or directory structure"

estorer 8ltimate has a f ree demo to see if it will wor$ but you must pay to reco!er the data" *owe!er, it of ten

gets the f ilenames and directory structure"

ED"T:Just saw your comment on being able to mount it so you can reco!er it by copying the f iles f rom the

mounted dri!e"

la!oo < =anuary 00nd- 06/3 at @:0A *m

#'!e encountered two issues while attem pting to reco!er the data f or bac$up bef ore # re=partition the *&&

which $eeps prom pting %need to f ormat("

:1; At the stage where # could !iew the f older in the bad *&&,when trying to right=clic$ copy, nothing pops u p

f or me to select copy"

hat is, nothing happens when # right clic$ the mouse"

4earched the top menus and couldn't f ind any copy f unction either ecept f or a copy plug=ins, which # doubt is

the right mo!e"

:2; /an't seem to read one of the eternal dri!es which # am trying to reco!er data f rom"

#'!e sent you an e=mail with screenshots f or better !isualiation of my issues"*oping you ha!e the time to help with this"

reatly appreciatedG

la!oo < =anuary 00nd- 06/3 at @:3/ *m

4ome additional inf ormation D=

@+ *&& ma$e D )&20@A+ 2"0 9 :4AA-KHM9 /ache;

Laptop D Asus 8+21@

han$s"

ad mi n < =anuary 00nd- 06/3 at @:A? *m

he step that you are stuc$ on is optional and # guess # should ma$e that more clear in the blog post" hat step

does not wor$ f or people about half of the time"

4orry f or the conf usion"

James



mec"i < =anuary 0Ath- 06/3 at @:@/ *m

*i, # ran analye and it said 2 primary f at32 and all eros

# did ?uic$ and deeper scans both with no results" # did see a in!alid f at boot sector message

af ter all attempts it f inally displayed %6o partition f ound or selected f or reco!ery

ad mi n < =anuary 0Ath- 06/3 at A:6@ *m

*i Mechi

hat means this techni?ue may not be f or your situation"

#t is !ery dif f icult to troubleshoot these issues in a blog comment thread" <ou should contact a prof essional data

reco!ery com pany"

#f you do not want to do that, myself and others of ten answer ?uestions about these types of problems at the bleepingcomputer"com f orum and there are other f orums"

James

mec"i < =anuary 0?th- 06/3 at @:6> am

James, than$s f or the reply, # will surely praise you f or your responsi!eness" # got tied up and could not get bac$

until now af ter # f irst chec$ed my email" # will try the bleepingcom puter site abo!e the net day or so"

# ha!e to say, # was discouraged a little when # did not see f iles trying analye but # $now it all depends on what

is wrong as to the f i"

he plus is # did see some of your entries on the other site and can tell you are dedicated, # R65) we will get

there" :at least your sof tware did see the dri!eG that's progress f rom what #'!e tried;

H ad "ira" < =anuary 0>th- 06/3 at /6:@0 am

9ef ore # clic$ the ?uic$ search, it shows the partition and below it say no partition is rebootable" )hat does that

meansQ # really need your helpG

#er r y < =anuary 0Cth- 06/3 at /0:03 am

unning into problems similar to both *adhirah and mechi, ha!ing run e!erything :?uic$ search, deeper search,

rebuild 94; in both def ault:not changing anything 7ile ty peD7A1KS32; and 674 # still get bad boot sectors, no

partitions f ound, and no partition rebootable" A f ew times #'!e gotten %/an't 7ind /luster 4ie(

# can though initially see two separate 7A 1K partitions though they're under the unbootable category"

ad mi n < =anuary 0Cth- 06/3 at /0:3? am



*i erry

hat means this techni?ue may not be f or your situation"

#t is !ery dif f icult to troubleshoot these issues in a blog comment thread since # need to establish a high le!el of

situational awareness in order to gi!e saf e and proper ad!ice"

<ou should contact a prof essional data reco!ery company"

#f you do not want to do that, myself and others of ten answer ?uestions about these types of problems at the

bleepingcomputer"com f orum and there are other f orums" #t is much easier to gather data about your setu p and

situation that way than to try and do it here"

#er r y < =anuary 0Cth- 06/3 at /:33 am

Actually, problem resol!ed" # thought something was f ishy when # saw 2 dis$s that were pretty much identical

:my 44&s; # thought one was my old *&& that had f ailed and was pretty much >ust trying to reco!er f iles that

weren't there" Luc$ily my *&& decided to $ic$ in long enough f or me to grab FE of the f iles # was trying toreco!er" #n the process of doing all this though, # f ound out how to f i my 44& that wasn't initialied, so than$sG

Awesome guide by the wayG

#er r y < =anuary 0Cth- 06/3 at /:3> am

)hen trying to load u p Parted Magic, it hit my 4ata2 that hadn't been wor$ing and $ept ramming a wall o!er

and o!er f or about 10 min" #t was the f ailing dri!e" <ou might mention this in your guide if you can edit it, up to

you though" 7rustrating that # spent half a day trying to f i a problem # didn't really ha!e" Learned a neat tric$ in

the process though, than$s to youG

#im < =anuary 0th- 06/3 at @:AC *m

*i, #'m interested in using your method, # f ollowed the instructions precisely and recie!ed the f ollowingD

Mounting PMA#/2012122E"4C74 mountD wrong f s type, bad option, bad superbloc$ on -de!-loop1

Missing codepage or helper program, or other error

#n some cases usef ul inf o is f ound in syslog O try dmesg D tail or so

Mounting --s?f sdis$-PMA#/2012122E"4C74 f ailed

pmagic does not boot, where did # go wrong and how do # get it to boot successf ulyQ Please help

M i c"elle < =anuary 36th- 06/3 at :/> *m

*ello, # ha!e a )& Myboo$ 1tb eternal hard dri!e that has wor$ed f ine f or o!er a year until this past 4aturday

we plugged it in to access our $arao$e music and windows . as$ed to f ormat the dis$ as shown abo!e # told my

husband not to f ormat but in all the conf usion # thin$ he might ha!e""# did a reco!ery scan to see if the data and

f iles where still on the eternal hard dri!e and they are now how do # reco!er the data of f my eternal hard dri!e

)e ha!e o!er 200000 $arao$e songs that we use with our $arao$e sof tware please help""# can not af f ord all the



data reco!ery sof tware programs that are out there and # $now there is a way # can do it myself with some help"

ad mi n < Fe,ruary 0nd- 06/3 at A:/> *m

*i im

hat may be a badly burned /&-&&, try another and let me $now if you still ha!e this issue"

James

ad mi n < Fe,ruary 0nd- 06/3 at A:/C *m

*i Michelle

)hat step did you get to abo!e bef ore ha!ing dif f icultyQ

James

M eli ssa < Fe,ruary 0nd- 06/3 at //:AB *m

# didn't f ind 2 partition af ter the deeper search, and my f ile f ormat was in 674" )hat should # do to reco!er

my f iles thenQ

ad mi n < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at /0:A/ am

*i Melissa

#'m not sure that # understand but if it f ound >ust one partition did you loo$ in it by pressing P li$e it says in the

eampleQ )hen you loo$ in the partition it f ound, do you see the f iles-f olders thereQ

5f ten eternal dri!es only ha!e one partition" Let me $now if #'m misunderstanding the ?uestion

James

M eli ssa < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at /:0? am

# didn't ha!e the 7AA32 li$e you ha!e shown af ter the ?uic$ search, instead # ha!e *P74=674" @!en so, #

did deeper search with *P74=674" hough, there in only one partition" # did press the P to see if there is f ile inthere af ter deeper search, and there are f iles T f olders in there" Af ter that, # try to ) #@ new partition, but it

didn't went into the 955 94 page, it went straight into indicating that %reboot is re?uired f or change to

wor$(" # guess e!erything didin't really went the way you indicated, so # am not sure what did went wrong"

# hope this is clear enough f or you to f igure out what ha!e went wrong

M eli ssa < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at /:0> am

9), af ter i reboot it, # still cannot read the f iles



ad mi n < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at /:@A am

han$s Melissa, that is clearer"

<our dis$ should loo$ dif f erent f rom the eample in this post" #t was >ust used to illustrate the techni?ue"

# certainly understand that it can be conf using" # do this all the time but most people ne!er need to do anything

li$e this

At this point, you should try the section abo!e called %Do you want to recover anythin& extra im*ortant

+irst4%" #t in!ol!es seeing if the f iles are !isible in PartedMagic's 7ile Manager" 5f ten when you can see the f iles

in est&is$ li$e you did but can't see them when you boot into )indows, they are !isible in Linu

:PartedMagic's 7ile Manager;"

*ere is a lin$ to the instructions

httpD--f iit"litten"com-linuf ilecopy"html

<ou can then copy the f iles to someplace else"

#f it does not wor$, then we'll need to arrange a better place to discuss this as it becomes too com plicated to do

in the comments of the blog post"James

M eli ssa < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at 0:36 am

# am trying to use the other method 9ut # was not able to mount my bad de!ice #s there any way to do itQ

ad mi n < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at 3:06 am

Melissa

6ow it gets too com plicated f or wor$ing in the blog comments" 4ince you can see the f iles-f olders in est&is$,

you can chec$ out these instructions that # posted f or someone else"

httpD--www"bleepingcomputer"com-f orums-topicHI00HH"html-page!iewf indpost p2F3HHH0

#f that does not help, you can start a new post there and either myself or someone else will try to help you

f urther"

James

M eli ssa < Fe,ruary 3rd- 06/3 at @:6/ *m

han$ you so muchG it wor$ed perf ectlyG # owe you my lif e

# do ha!e a couple ?uestions # post on the wall"

httpD--www"bleepingcomputer"com-f orums-topicHI3FII"html

$ elle < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at A:6> am



ood day 4ir,

# tried reco!ering my f iles through the parted magic f ile manager, # was copying a f older to another dri!e but

half way through, # suddenly encountered a copying error" )hen # went bac$ to the f older to try to copy the f iles

again, the f older which holds the f iles # was trying to bac$up are already em pty and # could not see e!en the

other f olders which # did not copy" # tried copying another f ile and encountered the same problem" /an you

guide me on this oneQ Are my f iles already lost or >ust that # could not !iew them in parted magic anymoreQ

9y the way my bad dri!e is a 1 b seagate storage

ne%& < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at /:/C *m

&ear James Litten, f irstly you are helping many people with your post, heartly congrats" # also ha!e the same

problem of my *& :4eagate 19 eternal; being con!erted to A) f ormat" And # ha!e FE0b of personnal

data "

# f ollowed the abo!e post of your, but af ter # enter %Analyse(:Picture K;, # am not able to see any partitions listed

as in Picture . abo!e" #nstead # got a message %PartitionD ead error("

/an you please help me in proceeding"

han$s in ad!ance"

/heers,

6ewb"

ne%& < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at @:6B *m

&ear James, # would li$e to say "" your post httpD--www"bleepingcom puter"com-f orums-topicHI10HI"html camehelpf ul f or me"" # will inf orm you once # com plete my FE0 9 of &ata :hopef ully;"

/heers,

newb"

ad mi n < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at @:06 *m

*i #elle

*ow f ar in the tutorial ha!e you gottenQ *a!e you tried loo$ing at the dri!e with est&is$ yetQ

James

ad mi n < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at @:00 *m

*i 6ewb

Let me $now if you run into any dif f iculty"



James

$ elle < Fe,ruary Ath- 06/3 at /6:A@ *m

*i # ha!en't tried the test dis$ yet )ill let you $now about it af ter

Neeta < Fe,ruary ?th- 06/3 at 3:36 *m

*ello James,

# ha!e a problem here" <our tutorial suggests %9oot the computer that has the bad dri!e connected to it with the

PartedMagic /&-849 that you made"(

)hat can # do, as # do not ha!e access to that com puter anymore to which my eternal hard dri!e was

connectedQ

/an # use it with my laptopQ

Please help me here"

han$s in ad!ance,

6eeta

' i ai (ala i < Fe,ruary ?th- 06/3 at ?:/> *m

&ear Mr"Litten,

# f ollowed all the steps caref ully" My eternal hard dri!e has only one partition but # did a deeper search

anyways" 5nce it got completed # was not able to f ind any f iles in the partition" 4hould # go ahead and ) #@

the partition to the dri!eQ )ould it reco!er the f iles or not being able to see any of the f iles in the partition mean

that the data is already lostQ #f this method wouldn't wor$, could please suggest another method to reco!er all

my dataQ han$s in ad!ance"

eally appreciate what you do here"

i >ai

$ elle < Fe,ruary ?th- 06/3 at ?:0C *m

*ey James, # tried the testdis$ steps howe!er # was not able to the f iles in the af f ected f olders, # posted more

details about my problem in the f orum, here's the lin$

httpD--www"bleepingcomputer"com-f orums-topicHIH3E1"html

hopef ully you can help me out"

han$sG

ad mi n < Fe,ruary >th- 06/3 at 0:/@ am



*i 6eeta

<es, you can use your laptop" *ere is an eam ple where # used a laptop f or a !ery dif f icult reco!ery

httpD--htmlE"litten"com-windows=f ile=reco!ery=series=part=H=reco!er=f iles=f rom=a=bad=hard=dri!e-

James

ad mi n < Fe,ruary >th- 06/3 at 0:/> am

*i i >ai

6o, you should not choose ) #@ unless you see your f iles" #f you did it anyway, it won't do much damage" At

this point you should try a paid option li$e et&ata9ac$ or estorer 8ltimate or Uero Assum ption eco!ery"

here are others out there too" hese products ha!e a demo" #f they can f ind your f iles, they will then as$ you to

pay f or the f ull !ersion :usually less than V100 84;"

*ope this helps

James

Da!e < Fe,ruary /6th- 06/3 at 3:AA *m

reat writeup" 6ow if you had one f or 44& dri!es that now show as A) with 0 space that would be greatly

appreciated"

) y < Fe,ruary //th- 06/3 at /0:3> am

*iG # am !ery interested on how to f i the eternal hard dri!e but # belie!ed that # cannot do it"

My scenario was, # ha!e my )& @lements 1023 E00 9 eternal hard dri!e f or a year now" #t wor$ed

perf ectly f ine then when # tried using it yesterday, it is successf ully installed in my computer but it cannot be

shown in %My /om puter(" #t is shown in &is$ Management as &is$ 1 6ot #nitialied, 8n$nown 20HI 9

8nallocated" # am af raid that my f iles are lost" *ow can # f i thisQ

# $now that this is not the right thread but as # searched f or the whole day and # don't e!en ha!e a sleep >ust to

f ind the solution f or this" # hope you can help me" # ha!e my whole lif e on it" My wor$ and e!erything" # really

appreciate it"

And # e!en tried to reco!er f iles using reco!ery system sof tware but it cannot e!en be detected the eternal dri!e

so it is useless"

Amand a < Fe,ruary //th- 06/3 at @:00 *m

James,

#'!e been f ollowing the steps but !ery early in the process it's thrown me an error that #'m not sure how to

proceed with" #n analye it ga!e me a bad relati!e sector error, which # f ound odd as it is f resh f rom the

manuf acture" # s$i pped ahead a bit and started using the deeper search" hat has thrown me an error of #n!alid



674 or @+7A boot, which ma$es sense gi!en the trouble #'m ha!ing f ormating the blan$ dri!e" 9ut of course

#'!e no clue how to proceed" Any help appreciated"

han$s

Amanda

ad mi n < Fe,ruary //th- 06/3 at /6:/6 *m

*i /y

#t seems odd that your E009 dri!e would appear in &is$ Management as a 29 :20HI9; dri!e" Are you

sure that you are seeing it in &is$ Management or do you ha!e another 29 dri!e attached that you might be

seeingQ

James

ad mi n < Fe,ruary //th- 06/3 at /6:/0 *m

*i Amanda

# don't understand what you are trying to do" #f it is a new blan$ dri!e, this techni?ue should not help you

reco!er anything"

James

ne%& < Fe,ruary /3th- 06/3 at ?:@A *m

&ear James,

# am in need of your help ,

# will eplain you the dif f iculties # am f acing"

1; #n PartionMagic O # continue f rom last time, # was able to tranf er f ew 9's of data :E0-FE0;" 6et day # was

not able to M586 my FE09 hard dis$ at all" )hen # clic$ on M586 option, it will be disabled f or f ew

seconds then turns to mount option while other dri!e can be mounted at the same time" :# tried with all 849

ports a!ailable 3W;

2; hen # tried in )indows."

a;well my hard dis$:FE09;is detected and # am only able to see the f olders, if # try to enter them :errorD he

re?uest could not be perf ormed beco of an #-5 error";with heading:Location is not a!ailable;"

b; And f ortunetly if # see :try to copy;f iles:eam ple D W"mp3-W"mpH; :which are not in any f older; # recie!e XAn

unepected error is $eeping you f rom copying f ile" @ 5 0I00.0HE&D he re?uest could not #-5 de!ice

error;"

Please try to hel p me out , in the mean while # will be trying to etract my data hopef ully # will not lose any of



them

han$s in ad!ance James"

/heers"

ad mi n < Fe,ruary /@th- 06/3 at 0:@3 am

*i 6ewb

<ou may want to loo$ at the 4MA data f or that dri!e and see if there is some signs of damage being

detected" #n PartedMagic double=clic$ the &#4R *@AL* icon on the des$top and then select the dri!e" *ere

is an post about reading the results

httpD--htmlE"litten"com-accessing=and=assessing=a=hard=dri!es=s=m=a=r=t=data-

James

H ei n* < Fe,ruary /Ath- 06/3 at /:36 *m

*i JamesG

7irst of all # applaud you f or the hel p you ha!e gi!en people here and in your f orumsG Af ter reading nearly e!ery

reply in this thread # can already see that you'!e helped a lot of people"

# ha!e a 9uf f alo *&=P/83 1 b eternal hard dri!e" # ha!e tried to access it using the techni?ues written here

and # am stuc$ at the part where # ha!e to %)rite partition structure to dis$(" )hen i press %)rite( it tells me to

%reboot f or the change to ta$e ef f ect(" # chec$ed my dis$'s boot sector reco!ery and it saysD

&is$ -de!-sdb O 1000 9 - F31 i9 O /*4 121K01 2EE K3

Partition 4tart @nd 4ie in sectors

E L *P74 O 674 0 1 2 121K00 2EH K3 1FE3E20001 X@ A=*@#6UY

9oot sector

4tatusD 5R

9ac$up boot sector

4tatusD 5R

4ectors are identical"

A !alid 674 9oot sector must be present in order to access

any data e!en if the partition is not bootable"

At this point, #'m not ?uite sure what to do net" # can see my f iles, but i do not currently ha!e an etra 1b hard

dis$ to store them in, and also i can't mount my hard dis$"

han$s f or your helpGD;



ad mi n < Fe,ruary /Ath- 06/3 at >:06 *m

*i *ein

han$s f or the $ind words"

#f writing the new partition table still does not ma$e the dri!e !isible in )indows then it is li$ely a physical

problem or f ilesystem problem that is not addressed by this techni?ue"

<ou should copy the important f iles f rom it to another dri!e using the screen where you can see the f iles"#f you don't ha!e enough f ree space on other dri!es right now, copy the most important f iles that you do ha!e

space f or and then disconnect the dri!e and put it aside until you ha!e space to get the rest of the f iles"

James

H ei n* < Fe,ruary /?th- 06/3 at /:6@ am

Alright, # guess that's the only way then" han$s f or the hel p JamesGD;

ad mi n < Fe,ruary /?th- 06/3 at /:3A am

*i *ein

# )ish # had a better answer but it is based on my e perience" #'!e had this techni?ue wor$ f or me f iing client's

hard dri!es many times :maybe e!en more than 100 times, # lost count long ago;" )hen it wor$s, it >ust wor$s"

)hen it does not wor$ then something unusual is happening and you need to f ocus on the >ob being a %data

reco!ery( >ob instead of a %data repair( >ob" #n that case, you need a separate location to sa!e the reco!ered

data"

#f you get another dri!e or f ree space on another dri!e or f lash dri!e that you want to copy some or all of the

data to, let me $now if you ha!e any dif f iculties"

James

alan < Fe,ruary /?th- 06/3 at /:AC am

James

# wanted to than$ you and saw the comment you posted when # started typing mine"

<ou said %)hen it wor$s, it >ust wor$s"( and that is what happened now to my raw 4eagate 29 eternal dri!ethat had all my !ideos on it" @!erything was the same ecept # had 1 partition instead of two" @!erything is

wor$ing now"

han$s

ne%& < Fe,ruary /?th- 06/3 at /6:/> *m

&ear James,

# loo$ed at 4"M"A" " &ata, # am getting an error saying %/annot retrie!e 4MA &AA" &e!ice open f ailed



or de!ice did not return an #&@6#7< &@#/@ structure("

now how to proceed"

*opes are getting low to etract data f rom my hard dis$

han$s again

/heers"

ad mi n < Fe,ruary />th- 06/3 at /0:AC am

*i 6ewb

here are a f ew things you can try to get it to read the 4MA data" 5ne of these is probably what you ha!e

already done"

1" 9oot into PartedMagic with the dri!e attached" ry &is$ *ealth"

2" Attach the dri!e A7@ booting into PartedMagic and wait f or the dri!e to be detected" ry &is$ *ealth"

3" 8se the )indows !ersion of 4mart/ontrol :&is$ *ealth;" ry booting into )indows both with the dri!e

attached and attaching af ter booting"

httpD--gsmartcontrol"berlios"de-home-inde"ph p-en-&ownloads

*ope this helps

James

r%i n < Fe,ruary 06th- 06/3 at >:66 am

*i >ames,

i ha!e a dif f erent situation in this case, but same problem, my laptop dri!e became A) af ter i copy data f rom

ubuntu to windows,

i used 2 54:windows and ubuntu; in one dri!e, when i used u buntu as my 54, i wanted to copy data f rom

ubuntu partition to windows partition:it's because my windows os can't detect ubuntu partition;, then i open

terminal, wrote command line to see what partition are deteced in u buntu 54, windows partition detected as

4&A"",

so, with that inf ormation, i run Bcp' command to copy data to windows partition, af terthat, i switch my os towindows,

but when i open the partition which is copied data f rom ubuntu, my partition became raw

did i can f ollow your steps to f i my problemQQ

i really need your hel p >ames, i'!e saw you commented on e!ery comment, i applaud f or that, there are many

people helped, and sorry f or my bad english"

ad mi n < Fe,ruary 06th- 06/3 at A:6? *m



*i win

# need a lot more inf ormation to diagnose your situation" hat can't be done in the comment thread of a blog

post"

9ased on what you describe, maybe you could loo$ at the boot sector of the partition containing the )indows

data partition and see if there is a problem there"

un est&is$ and get to the screen that lists your dis$s"

Ma$e sure that your data dis$ is highlighted

/hoose 7roceed and hit enter #t should automatically ha!e "ntel or EF" 27T selected :if not, select "ntel; hit enter

4elect dvanced and hit enter

Ma$e sure that the problematic partition is highlighted and

4elect Boot and hit enter

4ee if it says the boot sector and bac$up boot sector are 'K and identical"

hat's about all # can do here" *ope it helps"

James

ne%& < Fe,ruary 06th- 06/3 at C:33 *m

&ear James,

# tried 4martcontrol in windows. as gi!en in 3rd option in your pre!ious post, but the result was same result

was seen %/annot retrei!e 4MA &ata("

Please let me $now,if there are any other ris$y steps which can be tried out GG

4orry to trouble you f or prolonged period"

han$s f or your etended and etra suggestions"

/heers"

Dr S ' i a y + umar < Fe,ruary 0/st- 06/3 at C:0/ am

4ir, i had a similar complaint with my hard disc with two partition" # ga!e my *& f or data reco!ery where the

prof essional f ormatted it and has reco!ered a partition which was not actually A), but couldnt access the

other partition which was A) and says that its cluster is def ecti!e, and it $eeps as$ing f or f ormatting"# want to $now if i can reco!er data f rom it and what my options are Q # need that partition which is !ery

im portant to me" Rindly ad!ice"

ange < Fe,ruary 0/st- 06/3 at C:0/ am

*i, i thin$ i ha!e a similar problem but its shown dif f erently on my laptop :when it f irst switches on it goes to a

blac$ screen with「 errorD f ilesystem not f ound grub rescueD」 do i still go through with those steps QG

than$s



ange

r%i n < Fe,ruary 0?th- 06/3 at B:@? am

*i >ames, than$s f or your reply, i'!e do a deeper search, but my partition detected as %in!alid 674 or @+7A

boot(, what does it meanQQ

Ste!e , r anci s < %arch 3rd- 06/3 at 0:@? *m

han$s f or posting this"

Af ter a power su pply interruption to my laptop, +P and 8buntu would no longer recognise an etended 674

partition containing all my precious data f iles" #nitial attem pts to reco!er >ust led to error messages reporting bad

sectors"

# used the abo!e method to retrie!e them" han$s f or bloggingG

# should point out that two things were $ey f or meD1" #n answer to the ?uestion %4hould est&is$ search f or partition created under ista or laterQ(, # had to

answer %<(" #f # answered % 6(, est&is$ would f ind the lost partition but that partition would not appear when

rebooting into +P"

2" # had to use the +P /&= 5M to run eco!ery /onsole and then run the commandD ch$ds$ eD -r

he ch$ds$ process too$ 1H hoursG At the end of it though, # rebooted and +P recognised the partition and the

f iles on it"

6eedless to say, # immediately did a bac$ up of the data f iles"

Sta g * < %arch 3rd- 06/3 at @:A? *m

)ell all went well af ter deep scan" # seen all my f iles that were on there, so that is good, but when f ollowing the

instructions to bac$ out of that menu screen by pressing %C( then hit enter so i can select %write( it comes up

with a message saying no partition is a!ailable, and my only option is to ?uit, # do not ha!e the %write( option li$e

in the picture you ha!e" Am # missing somethingQ

ad mi n < %arch 3rd- 06/3 at A:0B *m

*i 4tag

here may be too much damage to the f ile system f or this techni?ue" #f you go bac$ to the screen that you got

af ter &eeper 4earch and saw your f iles-f olders listed, there are instructions at the bottom of that screen that tell

you how to copy the f iles-f olders that you select to another dri!e"

*ere is an eample of how to use that screen to copy f iles to a dif f erent location :in PartedMagic, you'll need to

mount a dis$ to copy f iles to" Many pref er to run est&is$ in )indows f or this";

<ou will need enough f ree space on another dri!e to hold the f iles that you wish to reco!er"



#'m assuming that you are running est&is$ in )indows" #f not, the instructions are basically the same but you

will need to mount a dri!e"

<ou should see some basic directions at the bottom of the screen in est&is$ about how to copy the f iles to

another location"

4ome simple na!igation instructions"

o see the contents of a f older, highlight it and press the right arrow $ey on the $eyboard"

o go bac$ up a directory highlight the line that has two dots

..

#t should be the second entry in the list"

# li$e to do a test f irst and try to copy >ust one f ile or f older to see if it wor$s"

4elect a f ile or f older that you'd li$e to try copying by highlighting it"

Press the colon $ey on your $eyboard to select it

:

and then press u pper case / to copy the selected f ile or f older SH"FT#

6ow it wants to $now where to copy the f ile to"

#t will automatically def ault to sa!ing them in the directory where est&is$ is being run f rom"

*ighlight the second line which is .. :two dots; and press the right arrow $ey and it will ta$e you u p a le!el"

<ou can $eep selecting the .. line and e!entually you'll get to the top of the hierarchy which will list all of the

connected dis$s"

7rom there you can na!igate to the location that you wish to copy the reco!ered f iles to" :#f you ha!e any

dif f iculty na!igating, let us $now";

)hen you are inside the f older that you want to copy reco!ered f iles to, choose the top line which is one dot

.hen press

SH"FT#

and it should copy the f ile there"

Lea!e e!erything open and loo$ in the )indows @plorer to !erif y that the f ile was copied" #f it is there, go bac$

to the est&is$ window and select more f iles and f olders that you want to copy" )hen you choose to copy them

it will automatically put them in the location that you already selected"

James

S yl!i a < %arch @th- 06/3 at ?:/0 am

*i James, Made the bootable /& but because my )in. is part of corporation property, it would not boot of f

the /& O something about interacti!e logon f ailing" # guess that means the logon 8# does not wor$ with Linu"

*ome laptop is )in I" # am still na!igating that so not sure how to apply this" All # want to do is to remo!e two

f olders of f iles f rom the 19 )& My Passport that was in the middle of writing an eport f ile f rom Lightroom

when it crashed" # thin$ it has to do with the f act that the 849 2 cable net to the dis$ was always a little loose"

/an you help pleaseQ han$s



ad mi n < %arch @th- 06/3 at C:60 *m

*i 4yl!ia

<ou may be able to use the )indows !ersion of est&is$ which can be f ound here

httpD--www"cgsecurity"org-wi$i-est&is$&ownload

James

sulai man < %arch Ath- 06/3 at /6:/> am

)or$edG han$ you so muchG

- sman J a!ed < %arch ?th- 06/3 at /0:36 am

*i AdminD

i ha!e a similar problem hope you $now the best solution"

i ha!e a portable usb harddis$ KH0 gb samsung model no stKH0lm000" when i connect it using usb cable

computer does not respond to the plug and play so i ha!e to open once my com puter and ref resh to show the

dri!es" af ter a clic$ sound f rom harddis$ it shows two dri!es " one which is 2HFgb which i would li$e to reco!er

must, in my computer it only shows the dri!e icon &D and it donot allow to open or to right clic$ it goes on hang i

i try to open same in dis$ managment it does not show the usb dri!e "i used mini tool partition wiard to >ust see

whats on my usb it shows the dri!e with details as bad hard dis$ and shows no logical or !olume dri!es" wt

should i do suggest me"

i ha!e tried changing the usb bo and cable but nothing happening" should i consider this techni?ue you shared in

this post Q

egards

Joe < %arch >th- 06/3 at /0:06 *m

Please, @A& *#4 GG

Just disconnected my oshiba *&& 3E0 9 while wor$ing, af ter that #'!e tried to reconnect it again but here is

the resultsD

1= at the f irst try my laptop is not responding when connect the *&&"

2= at the second try the laptop show usb icon and *&& dis$ without storage and unable to open it"

3= at the third try, it as$ed me to f ormatting it li$e at the abo!e pic" #'!e f ormatted it and got only 1"E 9GGG :

please what should i doQQ af ter you mentioned %)hen attempting to access the dri!e in )indows you may see a

message as$ing you to f ormat the dri!e &5 65 75MA *@ & #@(

Please your ad!ice A4AP G

han$s in ad!ance"

Ste!e < %arch Cth- 06/3 at //:3C *m



*i

Just a ?uestion about the ?uic$ search part, i ha!e a 3tb seagate dri!e which i am trying to f ollow this procedure

f or and the ?uic$ search part has been running f or nearly 2H hours and on the analyse cylinder line it is showing

2.." #s this normal or should i gi!e up the ghost and try again"

ad mi n < %arch th- 06/3 at /:3> am

*i 4te!e

here are a lot of dif f iculties that occur when trying to use this techni?ue on dri!es larger than 2"29 li$e your

39 dri!e" hey either wor$ without a hitch or get weird li$e yours is doing" he reason f or this is of ten because

of the way these dri!es are designed to be accessible by com puters that normally can not access dri!es larger

than 2"29"

<ou may want to loo$ into paid solutions that of f er a f ree trial that will scan and then tell you what it can reco!er

hen you purchase a $ey to unloc$ the reco!ery portion of the sof tware :usually less than V10084;"

James

S yl!i a < %arch th- 06/3 at >:/ am

*i James

han$ you f or your suggestion" ried )indows ersion of the est&is$ and it won't run O says cygwin1"dll

missing" # am not sure that # want to go that f ar with the )indows" 4o bac$ to Linu # went, and # only had to go

as f ar as Cuic$ 4earch to see all my f olders" ried to write partition table to it then O it says to reboot" PMagic

said nothing about the boot sector or any errors therein" 4o # reboot" &id not wor$" epeated the process

se!eral times O nothing, )indows still won't read the eternal dis$" 4o # tried to copy the f older that # wanted to

sa!e f rom the disc but the destination appears a tat dodgy" #t writes but # am ne!er able to f ind it again in

)indows although # wrote it on to des$top" 4o not sure what is happening" ried to copy using the route of the

mouted de!ices but cannot see the f iles of the bad eternal dis$" 4o # ga!e u p" Any other ideasQ *elp

appreciated" han$s

4yl!ia

en ami n J r. or os /e < %arch //th- 06/3 at 3:A/ am

5MG han$s to the authorG # thought # cannot reco!er my !ery im portant f iles anymoreG han$ you !ery much

Rod ne y a /ti st < %arch //th- 06/3 at 3:A@ am

han$s f or the lin$""sa!ed my data ""than$ you once again

A a y < %arch /0th- 06/3 at C:/> am

*i James,

# burnt a bootable /&" estarted com puter with /& in the tray with bad eternal dri!e connected" Parted Magic



started and # selected % uns f rom AM( #t started well but af ter % oot's Password is partedmagic( it is stuc$ed

at %/reating -etc-f stab(

#t ne!er reached to similar to des$top screen"

Please help"

Ste f an < %arch /3th- 06/3 at 3:@ am

# used my usb at a pu blic com puter and 2 hours later # used it at a home com puter" )hen # used it at a homecomputer, # tried accessing the usb" he usb has only 1 f ile on it when # tried to use the usb at home" #t had a the

name of the f ile was a blac$ rectangle with a white circle instead the rectangle a character capital , not a normal

$eyboard and a capital &" he f ile was H000$b, when # tried to open the f ile, the error was the specif ied path

cannot be f ound, please try again" )hen # chec$ed properties, it showed that 13"1gb was used with a remaining

1"I0g b" )ill # be able to use this method to reco!er my f ilesQ My f iles are !arious types such as ecel, pdf ,

word" # would be happy to send screen shots if you would be able to assist me" he dri!e is a 1Kgb lear"

ad mi n < %arch /3th- 06/3 at @:3 *m

*i A >ay

#t may be a bad /& that needs to be burned again or it could be that this !ersion of PartedMagic is not

compatible with your com puter" <ou can try the other options in the startup screen li$e %Li!e with def ault setting

32Z

James

ad mi n < %arch /3th- 06/3 at @:@@ *m

*i 4tef an

his techni?ue is more ef f ecti!e f or hard dri!es than it is f or f lash dri!es" 7lash dri!es ha!e a controller in them

that emulates a hard dri!e with the data stored on memory chips instead of being read f rom platters" <our

problem sounds more li$e an issue with the controller than corruption of the f ilesystem"

James

r%i n < %arch />th- 06/3 at @:36 *m

*i >ames, than$s f or your reply, i'!e do a deeper search, but my partition detected as %in!alid 674 or @+7A

boot(, what does it meanQQ

ad mi n < %arch />th- 06/3 at @:A> *m

*i win

#t sounds li$e there is f ile system damage that this techni?ue does not address" <ou should try the f ollowing :in

order of saf est to most dangerous;



1" *ire a prof essional reco!ery ser!ice"

2" ry a paid reco!ery program" Many ha!e a f ree trial that will determine if the wor$ or not bef ore you pay"

3" 8se Photo ec which is included with est&is$ but does not reco!er the f ilenames or directory structure"

James

al&ireo < %arch />th- 06/3 at :03 *m

han$ you, JamesG <our article helped meG han$s a lotG

en < %arch 06th- 06/3 at 3:3> am

*i James"

#'!e got a 2tb )& eternal *&& and #'m currently doing a deeper scan, but it is etremely slow, its been

scanning f or around HI hours and its only managed to do F is this normalQ

ad mi n < %arch 06th- 06/3 at @:03 am

*i 9en

hat's only 1I9 so it sounds li$e there is probably a hardware problemwith the hard dri!e"

# wrote a post about chec$ing a dri!e's 4"M"A" "" data" #t may help you determine if there is a hardware issue"


#f there is a hardware issue, you should use a prof essional reco!ery ser!ice or at the least ma$e an image of the

dri!e :29 is a huge image and could ta$e a wee$ to ma$e with 68 ddrescue in order to reco!er all the good

data and attem pt to get the bad areas of the dri!e"; and then attempt data reco!ery f rom the image"

James

en < %arch 06th- 06/3 at A:@A am

# am unable to enable 4MA

# get the error message %/annot enable 4MA Mandatory 4MA command f ailed"

4eems li$e the dri!e isn't able to be f ied"

#'ll probably end up ta$ing it into my local com puter store to see if there's any possibility to reco!er some, if anyof the data and buy a new *&&"

han$s James f or the blog though, it was !ery inf ormati!e"

0ac < %arch 06th- 06/3 at >:/> am

&ear James,

ecently, #'m eperience power interru ption during copying my f ile into hard dri!e" Af ter power restored and



restarts my P/, one of my hard dri!e partition has become A) and is not accessible" #'!e f ound this tutorial

while googling around data f or data reco!ery"

# f ollowed e!ery abo!e step until #'!e reached C8#/R 4@A /* af ter A6AL<4@" 8nf ortunately, there is no

dri!e listed during C8#/R 4@A /*"

eally need your assistance to reco!er my data as it is !ery im portant"

Samad u A&d ul < %arch 00nd- 06/3 at 3:6? *m

Please my problem is am ha!ing a H0 b hard dri!e partitioned into two ,i try deleting the partition and ma$e a

new one but the dis$ cant f ormat and it will return to it old partition with the same space used and still ha!e the

f iles on it"please help me f ormat the dri!e and ma$e new installation on it"

han$ you

Ar t uro < %arch 00nd- 06/3 at A:/ *m

*i James

han$s f or your wor$ here, it's a really nice how=to" #'!e f ollowed these steps but it didn't wor$ f or me" # am

able to see the f iles in my dis$ >ust with the Cuic$ search, and when writing the new partition table, there is no

message other than the conf irmation :no problem with the boot sector or other; and the writing is instantaneous

:loo$s li$e nothing happened;" #n anycase, when # boot with )indows the hard dis$ can't be used :)indow as$

f or f ormating it;"

han$s againG

Arturo

ad mi n < %arch 00nd- 06/3 at //:/6 *m

*i Arturo

*a!e you tried connecting the dri!e to other com puters running )indowsQ #fyou can and it shows u p o$ay on

those, bac$up any im portant f iles on it and then run ch$ds$ on it" Af ter that it will probably be o$ay on the

original com puter"

#f this does not wor$, see the comment # made to 4tag on this page about how to copy f iles f rom the dri!e using

est&is$ since you can see the f iles-f olders on the !olume in est&is$"

*ope this helps

James

Alan Long < %arch 03rd- 06/3 at C:6A *m

*i, #'!e >ust spent a long af ternoon :I hours; and f ollowed all of the guidance to the letter only now not ha!ing



one f aulty partition but two unreadable partitions f rom a hdd # remo!ed f rom a 4ony A#5 P/ +203 which

was running windows +P pro edition" *a!ing rebooted the laptop it was connected both dri!es are shown in

Bmy computer' as Be' and Bf ' but both now come bac$ with Bdri!e re?uires f ormatting'" the dri!e is a Mastore

120 b ata #&@ dri!e" #n est &is$ # can't get any f ile-f olders to show in either !olume" he system has wor$ed

well f or the past 1H years and was closed down as it always has but when booted it would not load windows"

he reason why #'!e spent so much time on it is because the system did wor$ well and due to the mechanical

f itting of the dri!es # can't f it and 4AA dri!e as replacement and there is a distinct lac$ of #&@ dri!es a!ailable

now" Any clues to help Q

Ri tc"ie (log f ried Pet t auer < %arch 03rd- 06/3 at /6:3B *m

*i James, f irst of allD than$ you f or this ecellent guideG

8nf ortunately, # f ound myself in the situation described here two days ago when a power outage shut down my

media pc" he 2 connected 29 849 dri!es became unreadable # didn't f ormat or change anything but instead

f ollowed your instructions"

#'m com pletely aware of the com pleity of such problems and how it's im possible to answer specif ic ?uestion !ia blog comment O and # $now that #'ll probably ha!e to hand o!er this case to the prof essionals :one dis$

contained my music collection, and #'!e been a music >ournalist and &J f or 1E years O no f ull bac$u p, st00pid

me; but >ust one ?uestion bef ore # do thatD

# f ollowed your instructions O the ?uic$ search immediately f ound the right partition, but when # press %P(,

estdis$ tells me % 6o f ile f ound, f ilesystem may be damaged( # tried the deeper search, same result" he

partition :there was only one on the dis$; shows u p with the correct name, yet there seems to be another

problem"

/an you please >ust tell me if # should stop at this point, or do you $now of any other tool # could try that might be able to f i f ilesystem problemsQ :#t's 674;"

Ri tc"ie (log f ried Pet t auer < %arch 03rd- 06/3 at /6:@/ *m

P4D #'m ref erring toD

&5 65 )#@ A 6@) PA ##56 A9L@ #7 <58 &#& 65 4@@ <58

7#L@4-75L&@4 hat means the proper partition table was not f ound and you will ha!e to try a

dif f erent techni?ue to reco!er your data"

# tried to google, but this led me nowhere

Any help-lin$s highly appreciatedG

ad mi n < %arch 03rd- 06/3 at /6:A@ *m

*i itchie

#f the are all music f iles, Photo ec ma wor$ f or ou" #t won't reco!er f ilenames or director structure so ou'l



ha!e to go through and rename all of the results" <ou can also try some of the paid solutions that ha!e a f ree trial

to see if they wor$"

Photo ec is included with est&is$"

*ere is some inf o about it

httpD--www"cgsecurity"org-wi$i-Photoec4tep9y 4tep

James

L22 ) H AN < %arch 0@th- 06/3 at A:AB am

#'m trying to calm down but #'m f rea$ing out hereG

# ha!e a H9 seagate *& and # had f illed up about 3"E 9 of it with data :!ideos,mo!ies, music etc;" # was

trying to ma$e a copy of it:to another H9 dri!e; but some f iles were not going through:f inder would >ust f reee;

so # was trying to copy f ile by f ile which was tedious but # really needed to bac$ u p my dri!eG

# ran into an error where some of the f iles were not copying o!er because of some %"ds( issue so i goggled how

to f i it and the solutions listed didnt wor$ f or me" # decided # would try copying f rom my windows . bootcam p54 and then it prom pted me to pic$ P or M9 and i thin$ i clic$ed P" af ter i clic$ed it both the dri!es

showed u p as unallocated space" # f rea$ed out immediatly and went bac$ to my Mountain Lion 54 and noticed

that it wasnt reading it anymore"

#'m in desperate help to f igure this out as # ha!e really importatnt inf ormation in that dri!e" #t's 2 am and im

googling and ran into this thread but # dont thin$ this will f i my issue" #'m scared to e!en try anything because it

seems li$e there is an easy f i f or this"

PL@A4@ A6<95&< *@LP M@""

Nas"%an Doa3an < %arch 0@th- 06/3 at B:63 am

*i , # am f ollowing your steps now

Lui s M c Leod < %arch 0@th- 06/3 at A:@? *m

*i James

<our instructions are really good, than$s in ad!ance f or your good wor$"

# hope you can help me, # can't f igure out my problem" # ha!e a 39 )& eternal hard dri!e that suddenly as$s

to f ormat it in order to use it, #'m under windows I"

# ha!e done all steps and # can see my all f iles af ter ?uic$ search, and when it as$s to write partition table, says

%write error("

9oot and M7 are o$"

/ould be that est&is$ doesn't wor$ with 39 hard dri!esQ

here's other way to reco!er my partition table without transf ering to another *&Q 9ecause # ha!e used almost

I0 of my *&"



han$s

Ste /" < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at ?:0@ am

*ello James,

han$s f or the ecellent tutorial" *owe!er, # ha!e run into a problem"

My )& 19 eternal hard dri!e stopped being recognised in )indows and when # chec$ed there was no f ile

system" 8sing your tutorial, # f ound 1 674 partition and af ter the deep search # pressed P to see the f iles -

f olders"

he problem is that only about 3E f olders - f iles are listed when there should be about K0" # now do not $now

how to proceed" #s this due to restrictions in /hec$&is$Q #s it possible to reco!er those f olders af ter writing a

new partition tableQ 4hould # try using other sof twareQ

/ould you please help meQ

Many many many than$s in ad!ance"

Ste /" < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at ?:0> am

4orry, # meant est&is$ instead of /hec$&is$"

Alaa < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at >:30 am

*ey James" # ha!e a H9 849 f lash dri!e that is being read as A) in )indows" # don't want the f iles on it, #

>ust want it to be f unctional again" # installed est&is$ on my 8buntu machine and went through the steps youmentioned abo!e" Af ter the ?uic$ search, est&is$ f ound the 7A32 partition :and it showed all my f iles when #

listed them too;" 4o # clic$ed enter and chose %write( to write the partition table" #t didn't mention anything about

the boot sector and went straight to %reboot f or change to ta$e ef f ect(" # hit enter and didn't reboot, but instead #

went into the menu item %Ad!anced( under Analye" here's an option that says %9oot( :boot sector reco!ery;"

#n there, it showsD

%&is$ -de!-sdb

H0EF M9 - 3I.1 Mi9

/*4 1023 12E K2

Partition 4tart @nd 4ie in sectors

7A32 0 1 1 1021 12H K2 .F20H3I X65 6AM@Y

9oot sector

)arningD #ncorrect number of heads-cylinder 2EE :7A; G 12E :*&;

)arningD #ncorrect number of sectors per trac$ K3 :7A; G K2 :*&;

5R(

here's the %rebuild 94( option here" # tried it, but it f roe the console" 4o, does this ma$e any sense to youQ #s

there an other wa ou $now to f i m 849Q



mi a < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at 0:66 *m

*i James,

# tried to f ollow your tutorial to f i my raw dri!e :4eagate 7reeAgent o E009; but the message %PartitionD

ead error( af ter i hit %Analyse(

and i ha!e no idea what to do" # did still f ollowed through with the %?uic$ search( and e!erything but it >ust

continue to %ead error at -0-1 :lba;(

and i lef t it run till 100 f or hours :because i don't $now what else i could do;yet it did nothing

please help and ad!ise, than$ you

egards,

Mia

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at 0:/@ *m

*i Luis

#f you are running est&is$ in )indows, it may not ha!e the proper permissions to write a new partition error

and that would gi!e you an error li$e that"

James

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at 0:/@ *m

*i 4teph

/ould there be more than one partition on that dri!eQ #f so, maybe your f iles are in another partition that has not

been detected"

James

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at 0:/A *m

*i Alaa

#n 8buntu, can you use Parted to remo!e any partitions on the f lash dri!e, add a new one and f ormat itQ

James

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at 0:/? *m

*i Mia

hat sounds li$e some damage to the dri!e li$e bad sectors" <ou should try the f ollowing :in order of saf est to

most dangerous;




2" Ma$e an image of the dri!e using 68 ddrescue and try reco!ering the data f rom the image"


H" 8se Photo ec which is included with est&is$ but does not reco!er the f ilenames or directory structure"

James

Ste /" < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at C:0? *m

*ello James,

han$s f or your swif t response"

# did not partition the dri!e, and it had only 1 partition when # bought it" he partition sie is F319, which is

normal" 4o # thin$ it is unli$ely that the f iles are in another partition"

#'m thin$ing that one option is to write the new partition table and then use sof tware li$e ecu!a to reco!er the

missing f iles" 9ut #'m not sure if this is a good option, and #'m not sure why est&is$ won't show - can't f ind theother f olders"

4teph

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at C:3 *m

*i 4teph

#'!e ne!er seen that happen bef ore"

)riting a new partition table is not real dangerous as it is >ust a small bit of he data in the f irst sector of thedri!e" #t can always be changed again if needed and it does not change the actual data on the dis$"

&id something happen to the hard dri!e when it stopped wor$ing that may ha!e deleted the missing f iles-f olders"

7or eam ple, were you copying or mo!ing them shortly bef ore it stopped wor$ingQ

James

ad mi n < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at :/0 *m

4teph

# want to add that when you run est&is$ and get to the screen where you select C8#/R 4@A /* there is an

option net to it called 9A/R8P" #f you choose that it will sa!e a f ile called 9A/R8P"L5 to the directory

that est&is$ is in" 9ac$up"log will contain a copy of the partition table prior to any changes" :mount a dri!e and

copy bac$up"log to that when you are done if you are doing this in PartedMagic or it will be deleted when you

shutdown;

James



Ste /" < %arch 0Ath- 06/3 at :0 *m

*i James

# wasn't mo!ing data when the dri!e stopped wor$ing" #t probably stopped wor$ing because # f orgot to use the

4af ely emo!e *ardware option"

#'m going to ma$e use the bac$u p"log, write a new partition table and then see what happens"

han$s f or your help,

4teph

4 i lson < %arch 0?th- 06/3 at /0:@0 am

James,

)hat if # ha!e a dri!e that # ha!e no desire to reco!er it's contents and >ust want to wipe it so # can utilie it as a

portable dri!e" #s there a way to >ust wi pe the dri!e and ref ormated so # can use itQ 7<#, # ha!e *iren's 9oot/& but am new to the dis$ and # am wondering if there is some ty pe of sof tware # could >ust use to wipe and

ref ormat the dri!e" han$s in ad!ance"

Alaa < %arch 0?th- 06/3 at >:A@ am

*ey James, Parted sees an unallocated space" #f # try to create a new partition, it says no partition table f ound"

#f # try to create a new partition table, it shows a %#nput-output error during write on -de!-sdb( error af ter se!eral

minutes"

# thin$ the 849 stic$ has bad sectors, but #'m not sure how to f ind that out" # searched the internet and ran intothe command %f sc$(" )hen run, it gi!es an error % bad magic number in super=bloc$ while trying to open

-de!-sdb(" # also ran into %badbloc$s( which chec$s f or bad sectors" )hen # ran %badbloc$s =!n -de!-sdb(, it

ga!e an error %input-output error during write( and started listing numbers f rom 0 to K3 in the output and f roe

there" # don't $now what this output is su pposed to mean" &oes this mean there are bad sectorsQ #t's weird

because, in testdis$, # could see my f iles af ter analying and # actually successf ully copied a f ile out of the 849

stic$"

Alaa < %arch 0?th- 06/3 at C:/0 am

9y the way, # also wanted to point out somethingD there are two states my 849 dri!e can be in" )hen # f irst plug

it in, it's read as %unallocated( in Parted, and %f dis$ =l( says %-de!-sdb doesn't contain a !alid partition(" 9ut

when # run testdis$, analye, and write partition table, Parted sees a f at32 partition, and f dis$ showsD

&e!ice 9oot 4tart @nd 9loc$s #d 4ystem

-de!-sdb1 W K2 .F20HFF 3FK021F b )FE 7A32

9ut when # try toD

m$dir -media-alaa-f lash



mount -de!-sdb1 -media-alaa-f lash

#t says %mountD special de!ice -de!-sdb1 does not eist(" )hen # try to mount sdb instead, it says %mountD

-de!-sdb already mounted or -media-alaa-f lash busy(" )hen # try umount -media-alaa-f lash, it says it's not

mounted, haha"

Joe < %arch 0>th- 06/3 at /0:6C am

*i James,

# f ollowed all the instructions caref ully and successf ully"

9ut, # f ace a problemD

Af ter # choose the option %&eaf ult settings 32 :un f rom AM;(, the screen becomes permantly blac$, and the

/&= 5M-&& e>ects af ter f ew seconds"

)hat shall # doQ

Joe,

Al 5J our gensen < %arch 0Cth- 06/3 at //:60 *m

*ello James

i ha!e a problem, i f ollow all the steps to create my usb pen boot, but when the noteboo$ reboots, it doesn[t

open the partion"menu, i still goes to windows normally, i ha!e altered my bios, but nothing happens, and i try

e!erything

please i need help to get in that menu

than$ you !ery much, nice >ob by the way

ad mi n < %arch 0th- 06/3 at /0:0 am

*i Joe

hat sounds li$e it is loading PartedMagic but the !ideo dri!ers aren't wor$ing"

Af ter successf ully loading it e >ects the /& so that sounds correct"

#nstead of %&eaf ult settings 32 : un f rom AM;( try selecting %E" Alternate raphical 4er!er 32Z

James

ad mi n < %arch 0th- 06/3 at /0:30 am

*i Al

<ou'll ha!e to chec$ with the manual f or your computer" &if f erent computers can do that dif f erently, especially if

you are running something that uses secureboot li$e )indows I"

James



Al 5J our gensen < %arch 0th- 06/3 at /:/C am

*i James

can you be more specif ic, if you can be $ind and eplain to me how do i do that, my noteboo$ is an asus mE0!

i apreciated your help please than$you

Joe < %arch 36th- 06/3 at :30 am

*i again James,

# tried to select %E" Alternate raphical 4er!er 32Z, and # reci!e the same result li$e # reci!ed at %&eaf ult settings

32 : un f rom AM;( O Permantly blac$ screen, and /&= 5M e >ects"

Joe

Jason < *ril /st- 06/3 at ?:6C am

*i James

han$s f or pro!iding such a helpf ul ser!ice to the worldG

# ha!e a raw *&& problem as you mention in your post abo!e" # ha!e tried the reboot f rom a 7A32=f ormatted

849 f lash dri!e option using 86etbootin and Parted Magic, all as described abo!e"" Af ter changing the 9#54

boot priority and rebooting, all # get is a blac$ screen with a little blin$ing cursor in the top lef t of this screen"" #

thought it may ta$e a while f or the tool to load but there has been no dif f erence in the past 1E mins Any ideasQ

Also, apologies f or my ignorance, but what is the ad!antage of running est&is$ !ia Parted Magic as opposed to

running est&is$ on its own f rom my host :)in.; en!ironmentQ #s it because Parted Magic is running Linu in

AM af ter booting f rom 849 and theref ore might !ery well gi!e you a greater chance of seeing your missing f ile

systemQQ han$s a lot f or your response when you get the time to write""

Dana < *ril /st- 06/3 at //:6? *m

*i James,

# am !ery im pressed and gratef ul f or the generosity you pro!ide" <our time and wisdom are !ery !aluable and #deeply appreciate you gi!ing so f reely of yourself " han$ you"

# ha!e run into something # am wondering if you wouldn't mind guiding me on"

)hen # did the ?uic$ search nothing came u p under partions" # then continued to the deeper search and there

was then one partition listed" # did see my f iles-f olders" # chose write" he boot sector was also bad, so # chose

rebuild bs" #t's at this point where my screen is dif f erent f rom your instructions" #nstead of as$ing to conf irm

writing to the partition table, it goes to a screen that lists the partition, then it says



/luster 2, &irectory - f oundQ

Answer <:es;, 6:o;, C:uit or A:bort interacti!e mode;, 6 or A if not sure"

9elow that is listed 3 options # can highlight with my arrow $eys"

drwr=r= 0 0 0 K=Mar2013 00D22 ecycled

drwr=r= 0 0 0 22=7eb=2012 1FD2. My &ocuments

drwr=r= 0 0 0 12=Jan=2013 12D02 My Music

# do not $now which line to select and # also do not $now what answer to chooseQ

/an you please help meQ # am sorry to bother you and again # am !ery gratef ul f or your article and etra time"

his truly is incredible"

han$ you !ery much,

&ana

ad mi n < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at 0:0B *m

*i Jason

he main dif f erence is that )indows will try to read the f ile systems on the dri!e automatically and Linu does

not" he )indows !ersion is usually o$ay to use if there is no physical damage to the dri!e li$e bad sectors"

James

ad mi n < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at 0:3@ *m

*i &ana

#t sounds li$e you might be in B@ pert mode'

# would need a lot more inf o to be able to tell you how to answer that ?uestion" <ou can try posting in the f orum

at 9leeping /om puter :# answer ?uestions there sometimes; or at /security :est&is$'s f orum;"

James

Joe < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at 3:0? *m

6o responde f or me JamesQG D\

ad mi n < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at @:// *m

*i Joe

# did respond but it did not post because # accidentally used a word that my spam f ilter does not li$e but can be

used in a normal message" #t's tric$y because this blog gets well o!er a thousand spam comments e!eryday



)hat # said was

%ry using est&is$ f or )indows or try another Linu Li!e/& and use its pac$age manager to install est&is$ i

it is not included" # usually only encounter this error with !ery old com puters but it could happen to a newer one i

it has other issues or is an unusual or rare conf iguration"(

James

J' S < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at @:0@ *m

)ill this process wor$ f or a micro sd cardQ:7or my 9lac$berry phone;

ad mi n < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at @:A3 *m

*i J4

he problem with micro 4& cards is that the issue is of ten with the controller chip and in that case it can be

necessary to send it to someone with the e?uipment to remo!e the memory chips and place them in a de!ice that

can read them"#n any case, if you decide to attem pt anything on your own, you should concentrate on reco!ering data and not

worry about repairing it f or f uture use" 4ometimes est&is$, Photo ec and other reco!ery sof tware can get the

data of f of it and # ha!e e!en seen cards become accessible when placed in another de!ice li$e a camera and

then plugging that de!ice into the com puter instead of directly connecting the card to the com puter" Just ma$e

sure that it is not a de!ice that will attem pt to automatically f ormat the card if it does not see a f ile system :some

cameras do;"

James

Dana < *ril 3rd- 06/3 at C:3A *m

*i James,

As f ar as # $now, # am not in Be pert mode'" # f ollowed your instructions eactly and what # stated in my original

post is where # ended u p" he items in my documents and my music are both things # would li$e to ha!e

reco!ered O i don't $now if that helps"

# replied here and will also put posts in those f orums as well"

han$ you !ery !ery much f or your timeG # really appreciate your help"

&ana

e"r u* < *ril >th- 06/3 at 0:3@ *m

# got to the bit where # burn to disc f rom #nf ra ecorder, but it aborted at about 2I" #t did say )arningD he

&MA speed test has been s$piepd , while it was burning" 9ut then A write error occurred" Please see program

log f or more details



ronald < *ril Cth- 06/3 at 3:@6 am

# ha!e the same problem but i ha!e f ormatted the dri!e already"" can this solution still be applicableQ

ad mi n < *ril Cth- 06/3 at @:3> am

*i onald

#t depends on the type of f ormat that was done" A B7ull' f ormat can ma$e the data unreco!erable but a BCuic$'f ormat typically only changes a small amount of the old data"

James

Nat"an + orneli s < *ril Bth- 06/3 at B:0@ am

&oes anyone $now if this procedure will wor$ with a eternal *& that is primarily used with a MacQ he *& in

?uestion is f rom my wif e's Mac, but # would perf orm the procedure abo!e with my P/" &oes anyone ha!e any

e perience with thatQ

han$s,

6athan

deste < *ril Bth- 06/3 at /0:@@ *m

reat tutorial, reallyGG # do not e!er hear about the testdis$ utility bef ore now" #t wor$s f ine and has let me sa!e

my customer dataG han$ you a lotG

Jo"n ) 6 Pr i ce < *ril Bth- 06/3 at //:30 *m

James

# >ust recei!ed and hoo$ed u p a )& My Passport 29" # only want 1 partition which uses all a!ailable dri!e

space f or mo!ie storage" #'!e had the 6@) dri!e in my possession f or about E hours"

5nce recognied # opened com puter management-dis$ management and saw 1 large 674 partition and 30m b

of unallocated space" 8sing e plorer # copy and pasted all sof tware that came with the dri!e to my P/ hard

dri!e" # then returned to dis$ management and # did an epand !olume and recei!ed an error and # apologie #did not ta$e note of the error" 4o # deleted the partitions and tried to create a new single partition" )hen # do

this it loc$s u p dis$ management and the only option is to f orce the program to close" #f # reboot )indows :.

8ltimate KHbit; and open dis$ management again it shows the dri!e as uninitialied" # can initialie the dri!e and it

then shows u p with 1 large raw partition howe!er trying to create a partition leads to the same problem" 8sing

)& dri!e utilities it passes the smart test and the ?uic$ dri!e test, # ha!e not run the com plete dri!e test" At the

moment # ha!e downloaded and installed )& Lif eguard &iagnostics and am now do a f ull erase as there is no

data on the dri!e" his procedure will not f inish f or another 13 hours"

My ?uestions are if at the end of f ull erase # still f ace the same issues should # pursue returning this dri!e to )&Q



5r do you belie!e the procedure you ha!e described abo!e will sol!e my problemQ

ad mi n < *ril th- 06/3 at //:@@ *m

*i 6athan

here is a !ersion of est&is$ f or 54 +

httpD--www"cgsecurity"org-wi$i-est&is$&ownload

hat might be your best bet"

James

ad mi n < *ril th- 06/3 at //:@C *m

*i John

#f you still ha!e the problem af ter the f ull erase, # thin$ that you should return it" here are problems that can

occur which do not show u p in the )& dri!e utilities 4MA or the Cuic$ test"

James

Jo"n 6 Pr i ce < *ril /6th- 06/3 at /0:0@ am

James

han$ you f or the ?uic$ response" # reread my post and want to clear u p something # said" # did the epand

!olume f rom the 674 partition in an attem pt to reclaim the unallocated space" Also once initialied the dri!e

shows up as a 1IK3"029 A) *ealthy Primary partition" #t cannot be f ormatted and if # delete it and attempt

to recreate a new partition that's when dis$ management loc$s up"

Jo"n 6 Pr i ce < *ril /6th- 06/3 at /0:@> *m

James

# ha!e f inished the f ull erase" )hen # go into dis$ management #'m re?uested to initialie the )& in either M9

or P" Pre!iously # ha!e >ust done this using the def ault setting M9 " 4hould # use P insteadQ # read P is

essentially f or dri!es greater than 2"29 but #'d li$e a little more clarity bef ore doing anything" # only want to use

this dri!e as storage f or mo!ies in MP@H, A# and MR f ile f ormats"

Jo"n 6 Pr i ce < *ril /6th- 06/3 at @:0@ *m

James

# am posting this f or the sa$e of others who may f ace the same issues # did with the My Passport series dri!e"

o $eep a long story short in the end af ter the f ull erase # f ound myself in eactly the same position" #

downloaded a 3rd party dis$ partition manager :@ase84 Partition Master; which allowed me to create the



1IK29 674 partition" Although told to do so it did not assign the dri!e letter during the create partition-f orma

process howe!er once the partition was created )indows dis$ manage recognied the partition and allowed me

to assign a dri!e letter so the dri!e could be seen in e plorer and my com puter" 5b!iously )indows dis$

manager lac$s the capability to deal with these dri!es" # am in the process of transf erring my f irst set of H3H9 o

mo!ies to the new dri!eD=]

Ni "i l < *ril //th- 06/3 at 0:/> am

# am f acing a dif f erent problem" #n my eternal hdd same amnount of space is occu pied, but i am unable to !iew

the f oldersQ Please help"

7 oug y0 < *ril /@th- 06/3 at C:03 am

&ear Admin,

# ha!e a problem with my hardis$, i cant enter my mac54, and it shows a blin$ing f older in a ?uestion mar$"

#'!e tried using est&is$, and it seems my *& capacity changed to W2"29 :non=partitioned;, and when i usedXAnalyseY, in testdis$"log, it shows

%rying alternate P

search part:;

&is$ -de!-rdis$1 O 21FF 9 - 20H. i9 O H2FHFK.2FE sectors

f ile pread:.,1K,buf f er,3H:3H-0-1;; read errD esource busy

""

(

)ould you help me f or f ind the solution, han$ you"

Sam < *ril /@th- 06/3 at >:6@ *m

*i

han$s f or such a clearly written and helpf ul articleG

# ha!e tried using testdis$, and indeed # %see( the f olders on the dis$" he problem is that when # try to rebuild

the boot sector or e!en copy the bac$up o!er it, it gi!es me a )rite error D /an't o!erwrite 7A32 boot sector"

)hat could be the solution hereQ

Ale8 < *ril /?th- 06/3 at >:@> am

# ha!e tried your steps and other programs but ha!e a *& that will not show u p anywhere, i belie!e its lots its

M9 and other ideas i can chec$ outQ

han$s"



"assan < *ril />th- 06/3 at ?:3? am

hi, i also ha!e a problem of usb stic$ as i insert into usb port it says dis$ needs to be f ormatted or your dis$ is

corrupted but i tried many times no f ormation ta$es place and it shows the raw f ile system to the dri!e but my

other dri!es shows the ntf s f iles system, i tries lots of methods to f i this but not wor$ed $indley tell me the best

solution" than$s

on < *ril />th- 06/3 at 0:/> *m

)hat do you mean %4AS4*8&5)6 and then try booting it into )indows to see if the dri!e is now

!isible( Q

%try booting it into windows( # don't understand" #'m # to boot into my windows o-s, then plug in my usb

dri!e:raw; to see if it wor$s at this stepQ

A"mad < *ril />th- 06/3 at C:A@ *m

*i

what should # do #f my f ile did not appear af ter Cuic$ scan and an error on deep scan

Joe < *ril /Cth- 06/3 at //:0@ *m

*i again James

# succeeded running testdis$

Af ter running &eep 4earch

# selected the new partition, and # pressed % p(hen # see the f ollowing message

%6o f ile f ound, f ilesystem seems damged"(

#s there anything else that # can do in order to repair the dri!eQ

<M

$ s"aan < *ril 03rd- 06/3 at >:33 am

*i James

# ha!e a 19 )& eternal *&" <est", my computer suddenly stopped detecting it" #t doesn't show up in BMy

computer' or in &is$ Management" *owe!er, it shows up in &e!ice Manager under Bdis$ dri!es'as )&

passport 0.H0" 8nder properties, the status is Bthis de!ice is wor$ing properly'" #t also shows up under B849

controllers' and in saf ely remo!e hardware" # tried using a dif f erent com puter but same issue" here has been no

physical damage but the *& is emitting a low beeping sound"

# tried using parted magic but testdis$ won't detect the *& either" 4ame issue with other reco!ery sof twares"

Any help on this would be much appreciated"



han$s

#shaan

Lu1e < *ril 0Ath- 06/3 at A:AB *m

*i O than$s so much f or these instructions" # managed to get copies of my f iles, but not restore the f artition or f i

the !olume but thats o$ay"

*owe!er f or some music f iles # can see them partedmagic and chec$ the inf o on them to ensure the actual music

was stored and not >ust f ile name, but when # copy some f iles onto another !olume, the f ile name gets copied but

no content O >ust 0$b"

Any ideas O am # doing something wrongQ

#n any case, than$s again f or this post, as it has sa!ed my most im portant f iles, where none of the commercial

sof tware has helped"

ad mi n < *ril 0Ath- 06/3 at >:/B *m

*i Lu$e

#'!e seen that happen when the f ile system's hidden meta f iles ha!e some damage that has the correct inf o f or the

f ile but points to the wrong location f or the data" 4ometimes # can get them using Photo ec :which is also

included in PartedMagic; but it is of ten a lot of wor$ to sort through all it f inds"

#f you can get ch$ds$ to wor$ on it in )indows :probably won't wor$ but worth a try if you'!e gotten your

im portant stuf f reco!ered; ch$ds$ can correct the errors and point to the correct location f or the data"

*ope this helpsJames

Joe < *ril 0?th- 06/3 at 0:A? *m

*i James

# ha!en't got any responde f rom you

ad mi n < *ril 0?th- 06/3 at 3:0? *m

*i Joe

#t seems apparent that this techni?ue is not applicable to the issue you are ha!ing" # should probably add this to

the top of the post since # answer this ?uestion a lot

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^O

#t sounds li$e there is f ile system damage that this techni?ue does not address" <ou should try the f ollowing :in

order of saf est to most dangerous;






^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^O

As incredible as it may seem, this post helps hundreds of people e!ery wee$ reco!er their dri!es but it also

brings a lot of traf f ic f rom people who this techni?ue does not help" # get many comments, phone calls, tet

messages and emails concerning this post so #'ll loo$ into pro!iding better instructions f or people that f ind it does

not apply to their situation"

James

"ri s < *ril 0Cth- 06/3 at ?:A6 am

*i,

# f ollowed the instructions to ?uic$ search and deep search but it still could not f ind any partitions, can # do

anything or is that itQ

han$s,/hris

ad mi n < *ril 0Cth- 06/3 at 0:/ *m

*i /hris

#t sounds li$e there is damage that this techni?ue does not address" <ou can try the f ollowing :in order of saf est

to most dangerous;


2" ry a paid reco!ery program" Many ha!e a f ree trial that will determine if the wor$ or not bef ore you pay"3" 8se Photo ec which is included with est&is$ but does not reco!er the f ilenames or directory structure"

James

"ri s < *ril 0Cth- 06/3 at 0:3? *m

han$s, >ust one more thing" # can't get my )indows 54 bac$ up and running f rom Parted Magic" # put the

boot order bac$ into its def ault setting but all it says is B6o operating system f ound'" #s there anything else # can

doQ

ad mi n < *ril 0Cth- 06/3 at 3:@ *m

*i /hris

#t is dif f icult f or me to ha!e the situational awareness necessary to answer that here in blog comments" <ou may

try posting in a f orum or ta$ing it to a repair shop" <ou'll need to gi!e them details of what eactly happened as

well as what model com puter it is and which )indows 54"



James

elli e < *ril 36th- 06/3 at 3:/C am

*i, i wonder whether this will wor$ f or my case" My et hdd suddenly shrin$ f rom E009 to 329 af ter i

f ormat the hdd"

Pre!iously i installed the winI reco!ery dri!e in it:i decide to use optical dri!e :&&; instead because i need my

eternal hdd;" # tried to f ormat with 674, e7A, 7A32" but it still only lef t 32 9 space in my et *&&"# planning try to f ormat it with the step you shown abo!e Wpraying that it will wor$

Anyway abo!e inf ormation is really needs time to com pileG always appreciate a person li$e you that share their

$nowledgeG cheersG

ad mi n < *ril 36th- 06/3 at 3:@A am

*i @llie

4ounds li$e you need to repartition the dri!e" #f you need to reco!er data f rom the dri!e that was o!erwritten, dothat f irst by seeing if est&is$ f inds the old partition and can see the f iles in it :at least all but 329 of them that

was o!erwritten;" hen use the commands in the est&is$ screen that lists f iles-f olders to reco!er the f iles to

another dri!e"

James

Ste!e < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at /:0? am

# ha!e multiple eternal hard dri!es" # ha!e two laptops running system . and one des$top running +P" 7or thelast 2 to 3 wee$s, the system . com puters ha!e been intermittently seeing the dri!es as raw or as$ing to

ref ormat" he +P has no problems at all" Any idea what may ha!e happenedQ #'m wondering if the April

uesday updates had anything to do with it"

han$s"

4te!e

ad mi n < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at 0:03 am

*i 4te!e

# of ten see dri!es that are A) in +P but not )in. and !ice !ersa but without a lot more details, # can't say

what your issue may be" #t is probably something to do with the meta f iles that the dri!ers read when they mount

the !olumes since +P and . use slightly dif f erent f ile system dri!ers"

James

7 ana%a < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at @:@> *m



#'!e messed up a 19 4amsung *&1038J *&& in an eternal casing"

# was out of balance, and accidentally pulled the 849 cable of the *&& half out of the 849 soc$et" # pushed it

bac$ in and, af ter the usual 849 tones, 2 popup windows appeared" 5ne with %<ou need to f ormat the dis$"

etc, which # canceled out, and another one to un chec$ dis$" #n that # also chec$ed the top bo to automatically

f i errors"

)ithin 2 minutes it f inished and f lashed a popup that # needed to f ormat the dis$ in dri!e PD

)hich # did not do"

# f ollowed your guide, estdis$ f inds 1 partition with the correct sie and dri!e letter" @tended L9A, dri!e PD,

F319 :should be F31"E9;"

9oth in Cuic$ 4can, and in &eep 4can" 9ut pressing P to display the f iles in the partition gi!es me this error af ter

both scans D %/an't open f ilesystem" 7ilesystem seems damaged"("

:here was always also a ."M9 unallacated bit in f ront of that partition which # ne!er could get rid of f " 9ut # do

not care about that";

# than downloaded the trial of Acti!e Partition eco!ery I" and that managed to locate H0333 f iles in the f irst

3. minutes :which # could loo$ at;" 9ut af ter 12 hours the f ile count was still the same" 4o # paused and sa!ed,

because it can't reco!er without buying a license and the f ile count was way too low" Also Mr" *ardtime is an

unwanted guest at the moment"# also tried @aseus partition reco!ery but that didn't e!en want to scan the dri!e" he button ne!er acti!ated"

# do not ha!e a bac$up because that dri!e had become my bac$up dri!e f or my laptop which only has a 3009

*&&"

At this stage, all # want to $now is if # stand a chance to get my Photoshop and #llustrator f iles, photos, and

mp3_s bac$Q

4ome .009 of data"

7 ana%a < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at @:A/ *m

7orgot to mention that the dri!e is !isible in )indows . &is$ Management and @plorer, as dri!e PD but with

A) f ormat, and the correct sie of F31"E9"

6othing has been written to the dri!e since"

Mounting as read only in Parted Magic f ails"

# suspect that the chec$ dis$ run mentioned in my pre!ious comment did write something" 9ut this is >ust a wild

guess" #'m not a *&& uru-6in >a"

7 ana%a < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at A:/0 *m

# made a mista$e in my y bootable f irst comment, where # mention D

%@tended L9A, dri!e PD, F319 :should be F31"E9;"(

#t should be D

%9ut as Primary 9ootable instead of @tended Logical, dri!e PD, F319 :should be F31"E9;"(

hat's why # thin$ that the chec$ dis$ tun wrote something to the dis$"



Ste!e < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:/6 *m

James,

)hat sort of inf ormation would be helpf ulQ # will try to get it f or you" #'!e been using eternal hard dri!es f or a

lot of years and ha!e amassed at least a doen" # ne!er had a problem li$e this bef ore" 4ystem . is particularly

f ond of not seeing the second 849 dri!e # hoo$ up, though not always" # use a lot of big f iles in a lot of dif f erent

media types" And it's not a matter of the dri!es being inacti!e" # $now how to chec$ f or that" Any help is deeplyappreciated"

4te!e

ad mi n < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:0/ *m

*i <anawa

#t sounds li$e there is damage that this techni?ue does not address" <ou can try the f ollowing :in order of saf est

to most dangerous;1" *ire a prof essional reco!ery ser!ice"



James

ad mi n < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:03 *m

*i 4te!e

#'m af raid that # ha!e to gi!e priority f or analysis of logs and testing to paying clients right now" #f things slow

down, #'ll let you $now"

James

7 ana%a < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:0 *m

# only need to $now if # ha!e to gi!e up or continue with something else"

7 ana%a < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:@/ *m

Missed your reply" )ell Acti!e Partition eco!ery had an estimated remaining 220` hours lef t to go :o!er

8492;, >ust 10 days" #'ll >ust lea!e the dri!e in the sideboard f or now then, and lic$ my wounds"

han$s anyway"

Ste!e < %ay 3rd- 06/3 at ?:@ *m



han$s his is a real puler f or me More than a decade of wor$ are in those dri!es"" #'!e e!en been good

and ha!e a bac$ up dri!e f or e!ery dri!e f or the sa$e of redundency" 9ut when e!erything goes wac$y at once,

it ma$es me somewhat ner!ous"

ad mi n < %ay ?th- 06/3 at 3:30 am

*i 4te!e

# >ust f inished a bunch of >obs" #fyour still ha!ing trouble with this techni?ue, let me $now the manuf acturer,

model of

1" he com puters running win.

2" the computer running +P and what 4er!ice Pac$ it is up to"

3" the dri!es"

James

Ste!e < %ay Cth- 06/3 at 0:6> *m

*i James" #'m glad # chec$ed bac$ in today" han$s" #'m still ha!ing the issue" *ere is the inf ormation"

1;*P laptopD Pa!ilion d!.=K1K3us

running system . ser!ice pac$ 1

2; Acer Aspire 5ne running 4ystem . ser!ice pac$ 1

3;4ony aio &es$top running +P ser!ice pac$ 3

&ri!es; # ha!e about two doen and of the doen or so # ha!e tried, no dri!e is immune" hey are mostly

)estern &igital 29 and 39 dri!es" Most are 8492, which is what my two laptops ha!e" # ha!e a f ew 849 3

dri!es, which are also )&" My +P uses 849 1

#'m still hoping it's an issue f rom April's upgrades and will !anish af ter May's" *opef ully it's not malware as my

6orton doesn't see anything"

4te!e

Ste!e < %ay Cth- 06/3 at 0:6 *m

P4 7orgot to mention, of the f ew # >ust loo$ed at they are labeled as )9 @t *&& 1021 849 dri!e

ad mi n < %ay Cth- 06/3 at 0:@@ *m

*i 4te!e

# assume that you mean )indows . when you say 4ystem ."



4ounds li$e a problem with the cables or the 849 ports" Maybe the ?uality of the power or A/ power supply if

the dri!es use those :# ha!e a )9 @t *&& 1021 and it does use a power supply;"

4ince it is intermittent and comes-goes on the )indows . laptops but not the +P des$top then the cable

connecting the dri!e sounds li$e the most li$ely cul prit" # dou bt that it is related to the )indows u pdate since it

only happens intermittently and on so many dif f erent dri!es" #f it causes all of those dri!es to go A)

permanently, then the issue may be with all of those dri!es but f or now it sounds li$e a connection or power

su pply problem that is common to all of these dri!es :maybe you are using the same bad cable f or all of them;"

James

Ste!e < %ay Cth- 06/3 at 0:A? *m

<es # did mean )indows ." #'!e been P/ o!er Mac f or the last 20 years, but # guess my early Apple days

still spill out of my su bconscious" W4W

*mmmmm hat's an interesting idea about the power sources and and usb cables" he ones #'!e been using

f or the laptop are centered on around H each" 4eems weird though it would all happen at the same time" # ha!eha!e been using the same one on the +P though" #'m not by all my e?uipment now, but #'ll try pulling out and

trying some pre!iously unused ones tonight" 5ne ?uestionD # used all my )& power su pplies interchangeably"

*a!e there been any dif f erences there # should ha!e aware of Q hey all loo$ pretty much the same to me"

han$s again"

4te!e

Ste!e < %ay Cth- 06/3 at /6:/@ *m

4# D

# am f ore!er in your debt" /ame home a cou ple of hours ago" ried changing out usb cablesD 4ame problem"

ried switching out power su pply cordsD same problem

hen came the Aha momentG # switched out the power stripD 955MG Problem sol!ed" :Rnoc$ on woodG;

han$ you !ery much #t might ha!e ta$en at least another month bef ore # thought to do that"

han$ you"

4te!e

Noo < %ay th- 06/3 at /:36 am

*i,

# f ollowed the instruction and f ound out that both 9oot 4ector and 9ac$u p 9oot 4ector are bad"

# tried % ebuild 94( option but it seems to do nothing af ter a long search f or mf t, it >ust returned to the same



page where there are only 3 options a!ailable :Cuit, ebuild 94, &ump;

/ould you please ad!ise what # should proceedQ

ad mi n < %ay Bth- 06/3 at /:AC am

*i 4te!e

han$s, # am in your debt also now because you were $ind enough to share your solution" # shall remember that

one the net time #'m loo$ing f or a potential single point of f ailure amongst multiple com ponents li$e you had

James

ad mi n < %ay Bth- 06/3 at 0:60 am

*i 6o$o

hat sounds li$e some serious f ile system damage" )ithout $nowing more specif ics # would assume that itoccurred due to either something o!erwriting im portant sectors of the dis$ or hardware damage of those sectors

or the ability to read those sectors"

)hat happened bef ore you stopped seeing the dri!e normallyQ

/an you chec$ the 4MA data f or the dri!e as per my post hereQ


James

#"omas < %ay />th- 06/3 at /6:0? am

# did e!erything your guide said chec$ed that the right f iles are present etc" @!erything went ?uic$ the writing of

the partition table was a matter of under a second" 6ow the dri!e won't e!en show up under )indows :My

/om puter; when bef ore it did but sim ply wasn't readable ="=

ad mi n < %ay />th- 06/3 at 0:0/ *m

*i homas

&o you see the dri!e when you run est&is$Q

&id you run est&is$ in PartedMagic or did you try to do it in )indows insteadQ

&oes the 9#54 see the dri!eQ

James

(i ll . < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at /0:/0 *m

*i,



#s your method applicable to a /& in a read-write && de!ice on )in +PQ he /& contains a bac$up # made

on a dif f erent computer" /h$ds$ says it's A)" )hen # try to copy the "bac f ile /5P< stops mo!ing along

af ter about half the f ile is copied"

han$s

ad mi n < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at 0:@C *m

*i 9ill

<ou might want to loo$ at this f or some ideas

httpD--htmlE"litten"com-how=to=f i=reco!er=data=f rom=a=scratched=or=damaged=cd=or=d!d-

#f you can ma$e an image, you can then run est&is$ against that image" #'m not sure about the f ile system ty pe

f or that so it may be problematic"

*ope this helps

James

anit < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at 3:63 *m

how much time would it approimately ta$e to deep search 1 tb harddis$Q

anit < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at 3:6@ *m

because it has done some 2I0 f iles out of 121EFF in around an hour"

ad mi n < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at 3:0 *m

*i An$it

&epends on the dri!e-f ile system's condition" A terabyte is huge" #'!e had them ta$e anywhere f rom 2 hours to

o!er a wee$"

James

anit < =uly 0Cth- 06/3 at A:A6 *m

it has already been 3 hours and only E percent analysis is done

hoping it wont ta$e too much time

than$s by the way f or this tutorial""was !ery worried until i f ound this""

anit < =uly 0th- 06/3 at A:AC am

est&is$ K"1H=)#P, &ata eco!ery 8tility, 4eptem ber 2012

/hristophe @6#@

httpD--www"cgsecurity"org



&is$ -de!-sdc O 1000 9 - F31 i9 O /*4 121K00 2EE K3

Analyse cylinder 3K2.K-121EFFD 2F

ead error at 3K2.E-H0-EH :lbaEI2.K0HHI;

*P74 O 674 0 32 33 121K00 2H. EE 1FE3E1.EKI

anit < =uly 0th- 06/3 at A:AC am

is read error going to cause any problemQ

anit < =uly 0th- 06/3 at ?:0 am

generator went of f and com puter was shutdown during the process""do i ha!e to worryQ

ad mi n < =uly 0th- 06/3 at 0:@A *m

*i An$ithe answers to all of your ?uestions so f ar are %maybe, maybe not.( #t re?uires a lot more inf ormation than can

be pro!ided in the comments of a blog post since each situation is dif f erent" #f you want to a!ail me of my

ser!ices, you can clic$ the %/56A/ M@( lin$ in the right column and we can ma$e the necessary

arrangements" #t is not f ree :this post is the f ree !ersion, beyond that, # charge money;"

here are other resources f or hel p at this blog in the posts on hard dis$s and data reco!ery" <ou can see some

of my public assistance posts at the f orums on bleepingcom puter"com:my username is James Litten there;"

here is also my Rindle boo$ at Amaon which contains many of these blog posts as well as an e planation of

how hard dri!es and )indow's f ile systems wor$"

James

Stand ard a&riel < u&ust @th- 06/3 at @:00 *m

My eternal hard dri!e became raw" i $now my data is still there cause when i plug it into my hdt! i see all my

f iles" i cant access it and did all the steps abo!e until A6AL<U#6 in @4&#4R" it showed no partitions" i

cant e!en mount it" i >ust need to reco!er my f iles" can you please gi!e me ad!ice about thisQ than$ you"

o& < u&ust ?th- 06/3 at A:0@ *m

My 39 4eagate 7ree Agent o7le &es$ eternal hdd started losing the ability to access f iles af ter the pc

would be on f or H=E hours" )hene!er # would reboot, the f iles would be accessible f or that H=E hour window" #

tried Parted Magic, but when # tried to write the partition table, # would recei!e the f ollowing errorD PartitionD

)rite error

)hen # initially ran the &eeper 4earch under the Analyse option, # recei!ed the f ollowing error when the

scanning was about H3 com pleteD #n!alid 7A boot sector" )hen the deeper search f inished, # recei!ed the

f ollowing D

&is$-de!-sdc O 30009-2.FH9 O /*4 HEK00 2EE K3

he harddis$ :3000 9 - 2.FH 9; seems too smallG :7A1K N32M 2.HEFI 23. 11 3K23EK 21I I



1H0FI310.1

o& < u&ust ?th- 06/3 at A:0? *m

here is the rest of the error af ter deeper searchD

&is$-de!-sdc O 30009-2.FH9 O /*4 HEK00 2EE K3

he harddis$ :3000 9 - 2.FH 9; seems too smallG :7A1K N32M 2.HEFI 23. 11 3K23EK 21I I

1H0FI310.1

ad mi n < u&ust ?th- 06/3 at ?:36 *m

4ince you attem pted to write a new partition table, # assume that you were able to see your f iles and f olders af ter

analying the dri!e :otherwise do not attem pt to write the partition table until you are sure it is a f ied one that

wor$s;"

#n that case, you can try mounting the dri!e and copying the f iles to a new dri!e"

httpD--f iit"litten"com-linuf ilecopy"html

hen you can chec$ the 4MA status of the dri!e that went A)


and if it is healthy, ref ormat it and continue to use it:ma$e sure that your copied f iles are complete and wor$

bef ore f ormatting the old dri!e as it may not be possible to reco!er them again;"

*ope this helps

James

o& < u&ust ?th- 06/3 at >:6 *m

han$s, James" <es, # was able to see the f iles and f olders af ter analying the dri!e" My only problem is that #

don't ha!e another dri!e with enough space to hold 2"3 9 of data" Loo$s li$e # will ha!e to buy a new eternal

dri!e"

ad mi n < u&ust ?th- 06/3 at >:3/ *m

*i 9ob

epair of the dri!e is certainly a possibility but it would ta$e an analysis of the log f ile created by est&is$ todetermine what path to ta$e" 7or eam ple, it might be changing the geometry of the dri!e or perhaps editing the

entries in the partition table that est&is$ wants to create or f inding and sol!ing the issue of writing the new

partition table"

#t becomes com ple and time consuming"

/hec$ out these f orums

httpD--f orum"cgsecurity"org-php993-

here are many here with similar problems with 39 4eagate dri!es" 4ince they are !ery popular dri!es and are

absolutely *8@ there are a lot of issues with them that of ten can be resol!ed but ta$e many hours to f i"



James

9scar i l < u&ust Cth- 06/3 at ?:/> am

*i James, # was wondering if you could help me out with a current situation that # am in" # am stuc$ in this step

%Press < to conf irm that you want to write the new partition table",( the problem here is that when # do press

:<;, it says %PartitionD )rite @rror( and the only option that # ha!e to press is %SX5$Y"( # ha!e been f ollowing

your instructions step by step and # was wondering if # did anything incorrect or if you could help me f igure thisout some other way" han$ youG

ad mi n < u&ust Cth- 06/3 at /:3C *m

*i 5scar

#t re?uires a lot more inf ormation than can be pro!ided in the comments of a blog post since each situation is

dif f erent" #f you want to a!ail me of my ser!ices, you can clic$ the %/56A/ M@( lin$ in the right column and

we can ma$e the necessary arrangements" #t is not f ree :this post is the f ree !ersion, beyond that, # charge

money;"here are other resources f or help at this blog in the posts on hard dis$s and data reco!ery" <ou can see some

of my public assistance posts at the f orums on bleepingcomputer"com :my username is James Litten there;" And

there are the f orums f or est&is$ at httpD--f orum"cgsecurity"org-php993-

James

2n!i sion, orce:2n!i sion , orce:2n!ision, or ce scam ; < u&ust //th- 06/3 at A:6? am

*ello, merely desired to inf orm you, f irstly, really nice post, secondly, @n!ision7orce can be a scamG

$eave a Res*onse

6ame :re?uired; @mail :will not be published;

:re?uired; /omment

Submit Comment

+P )on't 9oot D: epair 4eries Part 1D P54 and M9 #ssues #mpending elease of Magento 2"0 is

4tarting to Af f ect &ecisions

James Litten has been doing computer stuff for o!er 30 years"



A!ailable f or technical re!iews and beta test participation"

!ant Re*air Hel* From %e

/all or email me"

#ontact %e

My company is

/omputer 4olutions 4er!ices LL/

/omputer repair and data reco!ery ser!ices in f reehold, Millstone, Monroe, Jac$son and surrounding

/entral 6ew Jersey" *ome and business ser!ices" *igh ?uality and conf idential handling of your data,

f ocusing on protecting your pri!acy while your com puter is repaired or data reco!ered"

Recent 7osts

J456 7un )ith Mi$e /aro Po$er /harts

M5@ &isplaying /onfigurable Products on 4martphones e/ommerce &oodles

&isplaying /onfigurable Products on 4martphones e/ommerce &oodles

&e!eloper 4er!er 4etup Ma$ing Money )ith )ordPress and )oo/ommerce 4eries Part 1

#mpending elease of Magento 2"0 is 4tarting to Affect &ecisions

*ow o 7iD @ternal &is$ &ri!e 4uddenly 9ecame A)

+P )on't 9oot D: epair 4eries Part 1D P54 and M9 #ssues

+P )on't 9oot D: epair 4eries Part 2D 9ootloader to Logon #ssues

+P )on't 9oot D: epair 4eries Part 3D 9lue 4creen @rrors at +P 9oot

+P )on't 9oot D: epair 4eries Part HD eco!ery /onsole and 5ther ools

8sing *MLE /an!as for Po$er *and Analysis

*ow o 7iD eco!er &ata 7rom a 4cratched or &amaged /& or &&

Accessing and Assessing a *ard &ri!e's 4"M"A""" &ata

&ata eco!ery 7lowchart

)indows B7ile eco!ery' series D Part K eading-@diting he )indows egistry 7rom 5utside of

)indows

)indows B7ile eco!ery' series D Part E Manually eco!er a &eleted 7ile 7rom an 674 7ile

4ystem)indows B7ile eco!ery' series D Part H eco!er 7iles 7rom a 9ad *ard &ri!e

how to fix_ external hdd suddenly became raw

Documents