Windows 7: Anyone famliar with testdisk utility? hard drive problem.

my external harddrive seems to have crapped out on me. I'ts just one data partiotion.I go to computer/manage- disk manager and it takes like 5 minutes to even show the drive. Windows can't access the external harddrive. It was saying I had to format it and was being reported as raw. I'm running test disk utility now- it couldn't see any partitions. I clicked further into deeper search and my read error count is just as high as analyse cylinder count. Does this mean testdisk isn't working? I'm only at %1 now analyze done and this will take many hours to complete.

YES!!! Testdisk is a great opensource HDD repair utility... TestDisk - CGSecurity

It, and many HDD repair utilities can take a long time to run, (the larger the HDD, the longer it will take naturally!) so I'd start it up before you go to bed and let it run... just disable screensavers and sleep mode, etc before you do!

after 16 hrs. using deepcheck on testdisk finally finished at %100 and went back to main page. I guess that means it couldn't find any partitions. I know there is a ton of data on this drive and I didn't do any destructive formatting. Does this indicate a faulty drive? I ran easus data recovery. It took a long time to start up obviously since it was trying to sync with my externnal harddrive. First I tried the full recovery option but the harddrive wouldn't show on the list so I did partition recovery. After 20 minutes of inteligent searching no files of any kind have been detected and the Remaining time is at 26 hrs. and keeps getting higher. The harddrive is only 500 GB. Should I take the 2.5 size hrdrive out of it's enclosure and put it in a spare enclosure I have. Are all portable hardrives able to remove hardrive?

Be patient and let it finish! It may be repairing something now!

You mean let EASUS inteligent searching continue? I'm concerned because it's not locating any files during search like it should I think. Does this match the constant read errors I was getting with Testdisk utily indicating faulty drive? Should I let in search the full 20+ hours even though it's not locating any files?

EASUS is a pretty good product. You sound like you know what you are doing, despite a bit of panic over the recovery time. My own process for recovering a failed drive is something along the lines of"

1. Remove the defective drive from the computer.
2. If you don't have one, get a USB enclosure for it so that you can handle the problem drive externally and eventually shelf it or discard it.
3. Buy a replacement drive and install it before trying to recover the old data.
   Obviously, you need a place to store the recovered files, so the new drive will be the place to store the recovered data. Usually, I can find a 1TB or 1.5TB on sale for less than $90 locally.
4. Temporarily turn off antivirus, indexing, google desktop, or other utilties that search drives automatically, so they don't interfere with the recovery process.
5. Plug in the bad drive via the USB port.
6. Try to use your various recovery tools to examine the drive and pick out whatever files might be recoverable. If you need suggestions, I'll make a list of recommendations.

It's worth giving Partition Wizard a go.

BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.

See what the main PW window shows and try a partition recovery - Quick scan of the HD should do.

It might tell you the drive is bad.

I installed Partition Wizard and under "file system" the program tells me my external drive says (bad disk). Instead of saying NTFS. What does this tell me I should do next?

Get any important data copied off to a safe place.

If Windows and PW can't recognize the filesystem - could be tricky.

It's a long shot - but make a Paragon recovery disc - boot it up - select Normal Mode - select File Transfer Wizard.

Rescue Kit Free Edition | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, hard disk partitioning

It's very easy to use.

If paragon can't help - then try a data recovery app.

There is a free one here that looks like it might do the job.

Free File Recovery Software - Power Data Recovery is an all-in-one free data recovery software that could help you to recover your lost data from hard disk, CD, DVD disk, memory stick, memory card, and flash drive.


http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/fre...partition.html


When you have any vital data safe - then see if Partition Wiz will allow you to attempt a partition recovery.

I've been running mini tool power recovery tool for like 30 hrs. full scan on 500 GB drive it's only half way done and it still hasn't found any files. Opening up this portable seagate expansion drive will void warranty? Too bad cause I'd like to try recovering the data in a seperate enclosure. Anything else I can try? Put hardrive in freezer?