EXT HDD issue after scan disk, now prompts to format??

BBedding said:

Yep, came back instantly I just had to assign a drive letter to it.

I restarted and run seatools but the scan could not complete due to errors.

So I restarted again and windows launched into checkdisk and fixed heaps of errors. It has now loaded windows and I am currently copying all of my data off of the drive.

Disk is dying

Kaktussoft said:

.......I hope seatools didn't actually write on the paritition. Was the 1 disk one large partition containing all space? So not lost but has become smaller and RAW?

Not to worry. Seatools merely rewrites the partition table in a way it thinks is right.

In the only instance that I had come across - Reference 2 in my post #27 in this thread - it was showing full 128GB as the only partition and Seatools correctly discarded it and regained - rewrote - the partition as 1TB.

In a way the OP's problem was unique. The partition table was corrupted in some peculiar way that it showed the 1TB partition embedded inside the 128GB partition. So Seatools had assumed that there were two partitions one 128GB and the rest the other partition and rewrote the partition table accordingly. :)

When the OP reported that 95% of the files he recovered with MiniTools Partition Recovery were corrupt - post #28, I knew that the damage has already been done - as far as file integrity is concerned - when he ran Disk check in the first instance, when Windows goaded him to do so.

Yep, one of the cardinal rules when a HDD does not show up in Windows is not to run Check Disk in an instinct. What happens in such a case when the partition table is corrupted and Windows does not know the filesystem, Check Disk makes a valiant attempt to correct but finding it impossible leaves the whole thing in a disarray. Result: files that have been left in the lurch halfway through the correction process leaving them corrupt. In reality it was the attempted correction process on a good file that corrupted these.

I will be surprised and it will be a miracle - and miracles do happen once in a while - if the OP reports that all the files recovered now are fine but sure any corruption is not due to Seatools.

I would also not run into a hasty conclusion that the HDD is a writeoff. The partition table corruption could have occurred due to a momentary glitch.

Once the OP has backed up all the files and has nothing more to do with the external drive let him give it a complete scrub with Windows Executable (works without installation): HDD Low Level Format Tool ver.4.25 and then do a regular format. Run SeaTools on it and if it finds nothing wrong, he is good to go with that drive.

BBedding said:

On an upside all my data appears to be fine :)

And when it comes to a failing hard drive, that is about as good as it gets!