Goodbye 2TB of Data?

1ddqd

I have a mule drive that I use to store all my music/video/pictures. Recently, I had to retire my file server and so my only copy of this data resides on this drive.

Yeah. You can see what's coming.

Today I plug it in to add some data to it and it only detects the drive. My Computer doesn't show any free/used space listed. I've seen enough drives do this that I know there's a problem, but it's been a long time since I had to diagnose it. Here's the important info:



I should still be able to read the data off the disk, right? I haven't attempted to format or write any data in case it still exists, but it seems like MBR issue where the PC can't interpret what's on the drive.

Dedian

Partition table, not MBR (MBR is for booting ). Have you loaded up something like a gparted liveCD to see what it sees (or just attach it to a linux box if you have one...) I'm sure there's equivalents to gparted on the Windows side (other thank disk management), but I haven't had to use them and they're probably not free Good idea about not formatting or writing to it!

General_Win

Recuva is the hard drive recovery tool I use. If the drive just hiccuped the data could still be there, if it is, this software will find it for you.

http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download

Seeks

Seconding recuva.

1ddqd

If I recover the data from the drive, will it reconstitute it on the same drive, or will I have to write to another physical drive/media?

General_Win

You must recover it to a different drive. But that goes for most recovery tools.

1ddqd

General_Win wrote: »

You must recover it to a different drive. But that goes for most recovery tools.

Crap - I don't have another drive (or series of drives) with that amount of data lol

I guess if it detects data, I'll shell out the greenbacks for a new drive until this one can be replaced :x

Seeks

It may really be worth running a linux live cd and seeing if you can mount the drive from there.

Probably won't help a lot, but that's actually how I got into linux (seriously) myself... linux worked with a fucked up HDD where windows didn't, for whatever goddamn reason.

desdinova

Yeah the linux ntfs drivers are a lot more tolerant of filesystem damage. I would try mounting the drive read-only before doing anything. If the partition table is fucked and it won't mount, run testdisk to rebuild it.
If that doesn't work you're probably looking at file carving, which takes a long time, won't get you directory structure or filenames and will likely fail partway through if the drive is dying.

Stormwatcher

I got a similar issue... What/where is testdisk? is it a Linux tool?
I have an Ubuntu 9.10 cd, how would I use it? I know next to nothing about linux.

Noquar

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Testdisk also has a windows version.

Stormwatcher

Ok, thanks. I tried it, I did what's explained here, the program can see the partition and the folders within without trouble, so I told it to write the partition data.

But when I reboot, nothing happens. Windows still can't see it.

Recuva can see a bajillion files in the E: partition, but a lot of them are very old stuff I deleted long ago... sorting the right stuff would take a while.

what else can I do?

Seeks

One quick thing to try is popping in that Ubuntu CD and rebooting, then attempting to mount the hard drive in question. I'm assuming you've got another drive to put the data onto though, like a portable HDD or something.

Stormwatcher

I do
sounds like a good idea

EDIT>> I`m in Ubuntu now, live cd, and what do you know... It can read the damn disk just fine. I`m copying the files over to another HDD and then later I`ll reformat and copy back in windows.
Could it be some sort of software problem in Win7? I mean, Ubuntu mounted the drive without hitch (automatically, i didn`t even have to mount it myself), CHKDSK in Windows fixed it without issue, the Testdisk app also saw it fine...

Maybe I`ll try reinstalling the mobo drivers. Weird.

desdinova

I see this happen a lot. Sometimes it's NTFS eating itself, sometimes it's drive failure.

GrimReaper

Getdataback.

It's the best data recovery software, if the hard drive is still readable (as in it physically works) then you should be able to recover your files easily. Use the free version to see whether it would be able to recover files, downside is you'll need to buy it if you want to recover the files.

But, it is the best recovery software on the market.

Undead Scottsman

I had this happen with an external HD. I had thought I had properly removed the drive from one pc when I transfered it to another; but apparently I didn't and it corrupted the drive exactly like how it's shown above.

So far, I either can only find programs like recurva that would allow me to get the files, but they're all not labled and unsorted; or there is one program, DiskGetor, that finds all the files, properly labeled and in teh right folders: but the fucking program won't let me transfer the files to a new drive without spending $69 first. I'm gonna try the Ubunto thing now.

Stormwatcher

I just copied the folders to other HDDs within Ubuntu, who was able to see the damaged partition without any hitches.
Then I rebooted back to win7, formatted and copied the stuff back. It was just a a download and random old stuff partition, luckily, so I could boot and reboot without fucking with the OS or the important documents.

Undead Scottsman

The Ubunto livecd is working like a charm. Got an hour and 15 minutes left until it's done and I can start copying the files back.

-Loki-

Kind of related question - I dug out my old 80gb drive to use for things like backing up itunes. I hadn't really done anything with it, just plugged it in to see if it still worked. I accidentally switched it off before I 'ejected' it, and now one of the partitions doesn't work. Whenever I switch it on to try and format it, it just spends 30 minutes 'reading' it then nothing pops up. Is there a tool I can use to easily reformat the entire thing?

Seeks

Google for "gparted" and download the livecd. There are other things you can use, but for windows, the only things that immediately jump to mind are Partition Magic (paid program) or fdisk. Fdisk seems complicated though.

I should mention that I'm not too up on Windows software.

Apothe0sis

Is there a way to get a liveCD version of ubuntu working from a memory stick for this purpose? I would like to do this from my netbook.

Improvolone

unetbootin should put it on a flash drive with no problems.

Apothe0sis

Doing this from not-Ubuntu (i.e. Debian or windows) - possible?

Improvolone

Yes, download unetbootin.

Apothe0sis

A prince. This is what you are.

Improvolone

What a horrible totp; no context.

Apothe0sis

I take that back...

A knave.

OtakuD00D

Siiiigh. My hard drive doesn't even show up on My Computer anymore. I'm worried that it might've completely died. It's a 500gb secondary drive.

Is there any way to get it working again short of rechecking its connections and fiddling with it?

1ddqd

OtakuD00D wrote: »

Siiiigh. My hard drive doesn't even show up on My Computer anymore. I'm worried that it might've completely died. It's a 500gb secondary drive.

Is there any way to get it working again short of rechecking its connections and fiddling with it?

Literally, every post above yours will confirm if it "works" but the real test would be something like Seagate SeaTools or Western Digital's Diagnostics (Live-something I think)