External Hdd Failure - File System Raw

[naboo]

Hi,

My friend has a WD external 300GB hard drive that has failed, showing no free space, no data. It spins, installs drivers on new computers, is completely normal except for this.

The data is very valuable and I'm having a go at extracting it, but all the software I come across is free only for the first 1GB maximum. I downloaded one from http://www.easeus.com/resource/raw-usb-drive-recovery.htm which suggested there is 198GB of data and showed the file names - photos, music and lots of work stuff.

Is there any software that has unlimited free data recovery? The hard drive can be replaced if necessary, just need to extract this.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

If this cant get the data then probably nothing can: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

You will need another partition/drive of at least the same size to backup to.

[naboo]

Tried that one, didn't work. The one I linked to above, from easeus, could read the directory. I've also just found one at reclaime.com that can also read the directory and preview the files, they're there, but it also wants me to pay to extract them.

Need a free one!

edit: I tell a lie, the one you linked to I didn't proceed with as I may **** something up. Going to have a go now though.

Edited March 5, 2013 by naboo

[naboo]

No, not going ahead with the TestDisk. It wants me to write a new file system, cannot figure out if it should be NTFS or FAT32 and not convinced the data won't be lost. Will hand back with the advice of going to someone who does this for a living and to buy a new HD.

[JetsetBkk]

In Phuket we have Phuket Data Wizards.

However, if you want to try doing it yourself, you could try using Acronis True Image backup software. It has the facility to backup files and folders from a source drive to a destination drive. I have used it in the past to extract data that Windows reported not present on a disk to another disk. I presume that when it searches for files and folders, it ignores some of what Windows tells it.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

No, not going ahead with the TestDisk. It wants me to write a new file system, cannot figure out if it should be NTFS or FAT32 and not convinced the data won't be lost. Will hand back with the advice of going to someone who does this for a living and to buy a new HD.

If you read the help file it will tell you how to use it. It will require some effort.

Like I said, if that bit of software cant do it then probably nothing can.

[Dork]

I agree with BPB, Testdisk will work and despite being free is a well respected utility. It is just the partition tables that have been corrupted and Testdisk will scan the disk and rebuild those without writing anything. Then when you can see the missing directory structure as it used to be, you can choose to write the partition table. At that stage it does write something to the disk but only a tiny amount and will be instant so the data is accessible immediately. That's it, you're done. No manual recovery of files necessary.

1 - Run Testdisk

2 - Create

3 - Select the drive you're recovering and "proceed"

4 - Choose "Intel"

5 - Analyse

6 - Quick Search

7 - You will see 1 or more partitions, by selecting a partition and pressing "P", you will see the contents of that partition which you can navigate through and therefore confirm that it is the partition containing the missing data.

8 - Enter

9 - Select "Write" and Enter

10 - Hit "Y" for Yes

Because Testdisk is command line, it may look a little more daunting than others. I've used both Easeus and Reclaime. I trust Reclaime too but it can only recover to another disk rather than repair the present one. You could argue that is less risky but Testdisk would still be my first choice.

Suppose I should add the usual "at you own risk" stuff but I guess you know that.

[Gregory Morozov]

Most often the filesystem manifests itself as RAW when its a NTFS partition damaged in a certain way. I have yet to see a user-level utility that can fix some of the NTFS defects that can cause this (sometimes they can be fixed manually in the hex editor). If you want to do it yourself you need to use a tool that will NOT try to fix it but extract the data to another drive instead.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

I have yet to see a user-level utility that can fix some of the NTFS defects that can cause this (sometimes they can be fixed manually in the hex editor). If you want to do it yourself you need to use a tool that will NOT try to fix it but extract the data to another drive instead.

Maybe you haven't seen TestDisk?

It will fix the partition if it can and will copy the data to another partition if it cant. It beats all other similar utilities hands-down as far as I'm concerned.

[lomatopo]

I had a recent, similar experience. The data was backed up but I did want to re-use the drive (W-D/USB 3.0/500 GB). I tired every free and paid solution possible including all the Unix and Herren's tools, W-D tools, TestDisk, HDD Regen, et al. I spent a few weeks working on this, on/off. Nothing worked. The drive was under warranty, three years I think, and I had the original receipt. I went to the W-D service center in Panthip; they replaced the drive in less than 5 minutes. There were dozens of people doing the same thing, and this center is fillied to the ceiling with replacement drives.

[Gregory Morozov]

I have yet to see a user-level utility that can fix some of the NTFS defects that can cause this (sometimes they can be fixed manually in the hex editor). If you want to do it yourself you need to use a tool that will NOT try to fix it but extract the data to another drive instead.

Maybe you haven't seen TestDisk?

It will fix the partition if it can and will copy the data to another partition if it cant. It beats all other similar utilities hands-down as far as I'm concerned.

I did. Testdisk is not checking any NTFS metadata except $MFT and boot record. Edited March 6, 2013 by Gregory Morozov

[WhizBang]

 

Most often the filesystem manifests itself as RAW when its a NTFS partition damaged in a certain way. I have yet to see a user-level utility that can fix some of the NTFS defects that can cause this (sometimes they can be fixed manually in the hex editor). If you want to do it yourself you need to use a tool that will NOT try to fix it but extract the data to another drive instead.

TestDisk will 'FIX' the NTFS partition. That is what it does. But it is a command line utility, so you do have to pay attention to what you are doing.

It works.

[Gregory Morozov]

 

Most often the filesystem manifests itself as RAW when its a NTFS partition damaged in a certain way. I have yet to see a user-level utility that can fix some of the NTFS defects that can cause this (sometimes they can be fixed manually in the hex editor). If you want to do it yourself you need to use a tool that will NOT try to fix it but extract the data to another drive instead.

TestDisk will 'FIX' the NTFS partition. That is what it does. But it is a command line utility, so you do have to pay attention to what you are doing.

It works.

It will not if $Journal metadata is screwed, which often is the cause of NTFS partitions shown as RAW.

Download TestDisk source, look at ntfs_fix.c, you will see it can only fix absolutely trivial NTFS issues.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Gregory Morozov

[NHJ]

open a command prompt in administrator mode and type "chkdsk driveletter /r" it'll fix the partition for you but usually this happens when the disk has bad blocks, be sure to look at eventvwr (hit windows + R key and type eventvwr) and in the system section to see if windows does report bad blocks, if this is the case you might wanna stop the scan and send the drive to a professional recovery data company as you might damage the drive beyond recovery.

[naboo]

thanks for the advice all. Data extracted thanks to a PM with some unmentionable support.

[lomatopo]

thanks for the advice all. Data extracted thanks to a PM with some unmentionable support.

Can you copy/paste the PM details and send it to me? Thanks.