Seagate external

jumanji · 21 Apr 2015

We know it is good drive. So you need not have ticked it. But when you tick it and select the partitions the preview map at the bottom of the window would have turned from unallocated to the original state showing the two partitions.

(In an actual case where the partition data is lost and the drive shows as RAW, we run QuickScan. Out of partitions found - which will say Lost/deleted in the last column - we tick those partitions watching the disk map below. The selections which turn the disk map full without any unallocated space and shows it in original state is the right one and then one can click finish to rewrite the lost partition table into sector 0. The drive will be back to its original accessible state. In your case it will not rewrite the partition table even if you click Finish and Apply since it already exists and the partitions are shown as existing in the Window. :))

The start sectors shown in the Window tally perfectly with the partition Table shown by bootice. Now you can save the following sectors with bootice.

LBA 0 - the protective MBR

LBA 1 - the GPT header

LBA 2 - GPT Partition Table

LBA 6 - the start of the MSR partition

LBA 33024 - The first NTFS Volume/Partition Boot Record

LBA 732566644 - the last sector (n) and the backup of the GPT header (I know for sure that GPTdata will be there here.)

LBA 732566640: n-4=732566644-4=7325666410- this should be a byte by byte copy of GPT Partition table at LBA 2. Just check and confirm. Your drive is a 4096byte sector size. I don't have a more than 2tB drive with this sector size to check this.With less than 2TB GPT drive with 512byte sector size this will be n-32

How to save is given in my reference. So I do not want to repeat.

By default bootice will save it to its folder. Name them as LBA0, LBA1, etc., by LBAnumber.

Confirm that all is saved in that folder.

Also note that when you shift from one program to another like PW/Bootice/Windows Disk Management you may have safely remove the drive and replug it for the other program to release it.

I shall come in again only if you need any clarifications. After saving post a screenshot of the bootice folder showing all the saves.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

I wasn't suppose to tick both boxes. So in the second paragraph:

"In your case it will not rewrite the partition table even if you click Finish and Apply since it already exists and the partitions are shown as existing in the Window"

Is this a bad thing? Should i be worried?

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

Scrnshot

Not sure if "LBA 732566528" is labelled correctly.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

I don't know how to check the sector size. I will browse around and see if i can find out.

jumanji · 21 Apr 2015

(Your post # 202 - Not to worry. Nothing could go wrong. Whatever you do, didn't do or did. You can repeat and see. After seeing the partitions in the Partition window just close the Windows by clicking on X or Cancel buttons.)

You seem to have done right with backing up LBA 0,1, 2, 6 and 33024. These are the primary GPT data as detailed in my previous post.

1. You clicked on the Partition table entry in bootice to go to that sector and saved it, Right? I usually keep a screenshot of these sectors also in the same folder, which I forgot to mention. You may save the screenshots also in the same folder and also upload it here.

2. There is no need to save the Unassigned Space LBA 732566528. You can delete it from the folder.

3. The backup of the GPT Header LBA 1 is kept in the last sector of the drive. Click on the last sector arrow to go to the last sector n. Save this sector. In your case it will be 732566644. Save this sector. Also take a screenshot and save to the folder and upload it.

4.The backup of the GPT Partition Table will be in n-4. In your case it will be 732566640. From the last sector decrement with the decrement arrow and go to that sector and save it.Also a screenshot to the folder as well as upload for me to confirm.One sector up or one down it will all be zeros.

The Sector size and total sectors will be shown at the end.

See the screenshot to carryout above .

Seagate external-2015-04-21_22-23-56.jpg

(This is my laptop sytsem drive. But as long as I do not make changes to the sectors and save the changes to the drive I can play around with bootice to familiarize myself. You may familiarize yourself with your external drive.) With this I close down for the day.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

1. You clicked on the Partition table entry in bootice to go to that sector and saved it, Right?

By this you mean clicking on the partition drop down menu and selecting the different lba sectors and then saving right?

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

3. "In your case it will be 732566644. Save this sector. Also take a screenshot and save to the folder and upload it."

Here i saved the file as 732566644, not sure if correct.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

4.The backup of the GPT Partition Table will be in n-4. In your case it will be 732566640. From the last sector decrement with the decrement arrow and go to that sector and save it.Also a screenshot to the folder as well as upload for me to confirm.One sector up or one down it will all be zeros.

Here im not really sure what im suppose to be doing and what im suppose to take a screen shot of.

In post #207, i did a scrnshot of the .jpeg file inside the bootice folder.
In this post i did a shot of 732566640 showing (don't know what im doing at this stage).

Im feel a little lost.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

Question

Is my new external ready to store data?

I have saved most of the main sectors in bootice, if in future i get a problem like the faulty drive, i can just restore the sectors in bootice and it will cure the issue right? I will also make back ups.

TechSeven · 21 Apr 2015

I am also thinking of doing what DavidE mentioned, making the drive go through some tests and see how it responds.

I don't know any applications from the top of my head apart from seatools.

Which tools/applications can i try and test this new external on?

Thanks