Failing to copy files with Testdisk (HDD Recovery)

[XthHaseo]

I was asked to recover some important files for a family member from an HDD that is supposedly unallocated according to windows disk management which isn't true because it was a boot drive. Obviously something is wrong, maybe a damaged partition, sectors, or maybe a damaged main board. So my coworker let me use his flash drive so that I can boot into Linux and use Testdisk 7.1. This is my first time using it but I've familiarized myself with it a bit so far and when I attempt to copy files from this HDD, it fails to copy any files even though I can see the files. Is there any other way to obtain those files? It's a 500GB Toshiba laptop drive MQ01ABD050.

[dom1310df]

I might be wrong, but is it possible that you can see the file metadata, which is intact, but the files themselves are completely f***ed?

[Elfuego]

Is it a seagate?

[XthHaseo]

I might be wrong, but is it possible that you can see the file metadata, which is intact, but the files themselves are completely f***ed?

I guess that's a possibility, my coworker was telling me that I could use photorec to do a raw extraction of the data, though if I do that it will be very unorganized with no names for any of the files and what not. He's very familiar with it and works on things like this for a living but unfortunately he isn't here to help me in person. If the files themselves are damaged I wonder why I can go through all the directories on the HDD and see all the files.. When I analyze the partitions it gives me Warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 512 and sometimes another warning having to do with bytes per cylinder/head mismatching. I was told that I can switch cylinders or something of that nature? I don't know how to do something like that as I'm pretty new to Testdisk and I haven't used Linux in about 5 years though so I'm kind of stuck..

[XthHaseo]

Is it a seagate?

No, it's a Toshiba drive that came from a Toshiba laptop.

[Elfuego]

No, it's a Toshiba drive that came from a Toshiba laptop.

 

Ah missed that;

 

You could try Acronis/Recuva (Deep Surface Scan)

[XthHaseo]

Ah missed that;

 

You could try Acronis/Recuva (Deep Surface Scan)

Thanks I'll try that ASAP and get back to you.

[XthHaseo]

Ah missed that;

 

You could try Acronis/Recuva (Deep Surface Scan)

I looked into those 2 programs a little and I just decided to do photorec since it was already installed here on my friend's flash drive. The files are currently being copied and I'll post whether or not they're readable when it's done. Thank you though. I didn't really want to do this method, but I'm starting to get slightly frustrated..