Not sure where to go from here.
Also...
I have about 144gb left on this c drive.
I have another external with space but i cant find the power lead to it. If my c drive runs out of space when recovering data, i could disconnect the seagate and take out the power lead and use it for other external that works.
Moving data from cdrive to other external that works... this will leave space on c drive so i can continue recovering more data from seagate when it lets me.
DO NOT WRITE. Close Test Disk. Wait for further instructions that will follow in about half-an-hour. if you want you may retire now and see the instructions tomorrow morning. Heavens will not be lost.:)
Ok thanks...i feel like there is some hope with your support. Data is still on the seagate to so its not to bad :)
OK, in the final analysis, based on the screenshots you provided in post#9 and in quick succession #10, I have to hyphothesise that your 3TB HDD was indeed an MBR drive which used Advanced formatting - a trick played by both Seagate and Western Digital with a modified firmware to play that trick.
That is the reason why Test Disk could not find the GPT Partition Table either in its primary location ( Sector 2) or in its alternate location (n-32 sector, where n is the last sector of the drive) - your screenshot in post#9, the last one in it.
TestDisk did find a partition at sector 2048 (your screenshot in post#10) and that further confirms that it is an MBR disk.
That's just theory. Now what?
I have got to go out now. And will resume when I am back at my desk.
Ok thats fine. I will check later here ... enjoy your outing :)
You mentioned my seagate external is MBR drive which is correct.
If you look at post#6 ... i did a prtscn of disk management and the properties box. It says partition style : Master Boot Record (MBR)
Yep, I did see it being shown as MBR but overlooked it as an aberration because I was so confident that your 3TB drive must be a GPT drive as most are until it was shattered by TestDisk
You wouldn't find any advanced formatted 3TB MBR drives any longer. This was introduced long back to make the large capacity drives >2TB compatible with Windows XP being used at that time.
Resuming from where I left in my last post, I recall that you said that periodically or at times the disk was disappearing. I asked you to try with a different cable. It is not the cable now.
Your HDD's sector 0, which holds the MBR code and the partition table has gone faulty. ( if you want to know why read my post here Logical Drives disappear - how does this happen?)
In one sentence sector 0 - the all important heart of the drive holding the MBR Code and partition table -has lost its magnetism and is just hovering around the signal detection threshold level - reads sometimes, fails to read most of the time. Remember TestDisk gave a write error when you ran it the first time and then "mistakenly ???" selected Intel and "overshot" the instructions given and gave a Write Command.
Now go ahead and run TestDisk, select [Intel] Intel/PC partition and when you come to the screen where it says Structure OK ..... blah blah, halt halt halt. If you read it carefully it says 'P- list files" and that is what you will do. It is capital P. So select the partition and press Shift+P and all the files will be listed.
Barring unforeseen gaps in my knowledge base, I hope you will be seeing all the files.
Straightaway select and copy those files to another external drive. How to: My external hard drive suddenly became unllocated:
Note: I do not recommend copying to your System drive. Another OP did it and ruined it. We do not know what exactly happened - it could have been a user error - but since then we always recommend another External drive and not into System drive. So defer using the faulty drive in anyway till you find adequate space in an external drive and if necessary you buy a new one.
We know now that the sector 0 is bad, but we do not know whether the malice of bad sectors is spreading. We have already taxed it much and no more till you find adequate space in an external drive.
I selected intel, and then enter on analyze... but this is what i see. I do not see p list files
Do you feel we are running out of options to recover data?
Another question jumanji, what is a good external to buy for storage purpose? To prevent going through this situation again. Will also make few backups on other drives.
No, Not yet.:)
Press enter when Quick Search is highlighted and hopefully it will take you to the next screen which says "Structure OK blah blah ....."
At this screen press Shift + P and that should show your files.
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