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Raw ext. HDD, need some advice

DanKepke
By DanKepke
in Storage Devices
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Hello people,

my external HDD decided to go Raw on me and now I'm in the recovery phase.

Details:

Seagate Barracuda 3000GB 7200rpm NTFS

I used easeus recovery wizard trial and it found all my data on the now RAW ext. drive. The software is not free and really expensive so i gave TestDisc a shot.

What's my miseries? It takes sooooo long... 5h over night and only 6% in the process I'm not sure to be able to restore my exthdd to it's old glory. I know I should use safe remove but good god we all just turn off the power sometimes.

Some advice or good news wouldn't hurt!

I will look in here after my shifter~

greetings, me

ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

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Posted

Hello people,

my external HDD decided to go Raw on me and now I'm in the recovery phase.

Details:

Seagate Barracuda 3000GB 7200rpm NTFS

I used easeus recovery wizard trial and it found all my data on the now RAW ext. drive. The software is not free and really expensive so i gave TestDisc a shot.

What's my miseries? It takes sooooo long... 5h over night and only 6% in the process I'm not sure to be able to restore my exthdd to it's old glory. I know I should use safe remove but good god we all just turn off the power sometimes.

Some advice or good news wouldn't hurt!

I will look in here after my shifter~

greetings, me

 

Hey Dan@Dan,
 
If the problem appeared due to unsafe ejecting, try plugging the drive ona different computer and see if you can get to the files there. Also you might want to give Linux Live CD a shot. Those options won't harm the data inside the drive. I would, however, proceed with caution if you try a more hostile program as the chances of recovering the data decrease. I would turn to a data recovery company for the best chance of getting the data back. Do have in mind that they can be costly. 
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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So, i got my file back, but now i face another issue with the HDD. It's is an 3TB HDD but now i can only get 746GB out of it. I tried deleting the volume without success.

 

 

Is there an error message or is it grayed out? It would be helpful if you post a screenshot of disk management of how the drive appears there and what options are available to you.
 
If you don't need the data on it, you could try performing a "write zeros" to it and completely wipe the drive clean. This should fix any problems with formats or corrupted files. 
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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if it lost your data once..it might do it again

 

But it lost the data because i didn't do the safe removing, why should it lose it's shit randomly?

 

Run testdisk to restore any lost partition. recover data; reformat; mark bad clusters; use as normal; keep another back up

 

Let's wait a moment with testdisk, it needs really long for anything (i think?).

 

 

Is there an error message or is it grayed out? It would be helpful if you post a screenshot of disk management of how the drive appears there and what options are available to you.
 
If you don't need the data on it, you could try performing a "write zeros" to it and completely wipe the drive clean. This should fix any problems with formats or corrupted files. 
 
Captain_WD.

 

d8ctjgsx.png

 

I allready got everything from the drive and formatet it, but it only shows/has 746.39GB~ 

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Usually something like this happens if you take the drive out of the enclosure and use it direct in the PC. Inside the external enclosure the controller emulates 4KiB sectors, when connected directly Windows sees 512B sectors and this is a problem as only 32-bits are available to address them so the value wraps around.

 

3TB. 3000453415936 / 512 = 5860260578 sectors

 

5860260578 - 2^32 = 1565293282 sectors after wrapping around 32-bits

 

1565293282 * 512 = 746.39GiB

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~snip~

 

Have you removed the drive from its enclosure and plugged it in directly to the motherboard? What @Django pointed out is correct.
I would try the enclosure again and if nothing works, I would call you manufacturer for some guidance and possible firmware updates.
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Let's wait a moment with testdisk, it needs really long for anything (i think?).

Usually it is not that long. But if the drive is in pretty bad shape where the boot sector and master/backup partition table data is also not readable even after multiple retries it might take long. But 5 mins in you testdisk will give you that indication. Cancelling Testdisk, midway does not cause harm either.

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It wasn't in a enclosure but in a dock. I tried two other enclosures from lacie and core to see if my dock was bad but they didn't read at all.

The Hdd was never used internally, USB dock exklusive.

I will try test disk again but I need to know what settings first.

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It wasn't in a enclosure but in a dock. I tried two other enclosures from lacie and core to see if my dock was bad but they didn't read at all.

The Hdd was never used internally, USB dock exklusive.

I will try test disk again but I need to know what settings first.

 

 

I would suggest using the diagnostic tool provided by your manufacturer as it knows best the firmware. It should check the drive's S.M.A.R.T. status and give you a pretty good idea of what the drive's condition is as well as it would run a check for any bad sectors that might have appeared. 
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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I used the SeaTool fo Windows but the Software says everything is ok~

 

Usually something like this happens if you take the drive out of the enclosure and use it direct in the PC. Inside the external enclosure the controller emulates 4KiB sectors, when connected directly Windows sees 512B sectors and this is a problem as only 32-bits are available to address them so the value wraps around.

 

3TB. 3000453415936 / 512 = 5860260578 sectors

 

5860260578 - 2^32 = 1565293282 sectors after wrapping around 32-bits

 

1565293282 * 512 = 746.39GiB

 

How can i fix that? 

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I used the SeaTool fo Windows but the Software says everything is ok~

 

 

How can i fix that? 

 

 

If the diagnostic tool reports the drive a healthy, it should be healthy. I would contact your manufacturer's support and ask them for some advice after explaining your problem. They should know if there is a specific problem with the drive or the problem is within your system. :)
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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What disk size was it reporting when raw, did it only report the smaller size after the repair?

 

If you run the following under admin cmd what does it show

 

fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo physicaldrive4

 

 it say that sectorinfo is not a valid thing.

 

 

 

If the diagnostic tool reports the drive a healthy, it should be healthy. I would contact your manufacturer's support and ask them for some advice after explaining your problem. They should know if there is a specific problem with the drive or the problem is within your system. :)
 
Captain_WD.

 

 

I will contact seagate :)

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I managed to get it "back". What Django said sparked the idea to delete the volume (set it to 0) and try one of my other docks and bäm, there it was. The CnMemory dock set it right. It's interesting to see that when i swap the dock again to the icy box the volume drops to 764.39GB. I think this may be a problem if i want to buy a multi HDD enclusore (FANTEC QB-35US3-6G 4X3.5).

 

My thanks to all the guys helping me with my stupidity!  :wub:

 

If anyone knows a multi HDD enclusore for plug-n-use without raid or whiping my date, im here!

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