Solved Freecom 1tb lost date needs formatting, recovery help

[Zanty]

I recently plugged in my hdd into a media player, it worked for a couple of times and then there was an error.

I plugged it into my laptop and it said
'you need to format the disc before you can use it'
and
'the volume does not contain a recognised filesystem'

I really don't wanna format it if at all possible
In disk management its showing as a healthy 931gb drive, in RAW format.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Zanty, welcome to Seven Forums!


Don't format it yet though RAW doesn't look good.

In Windows disk management does it have a drive letter?

 

[Zanty]

ok thanks, I came very close!
Its showing up as (I) showing up as healthy in disk management

 

[Zanty]

Anyone?

 

[Zanty]

Really hoping for some advice with this please

 

[Golden]

Hi,

931GB suggests this is a 1TB drive with no data on it.......do you know how much data you had on it?

Please post a screen capture image of your Disk management window, so we can look at this.

1. Click Start rb:
2. Right-click on My Computer
3. Click Manage
4. Click Disk Management



Maximize the screen, then take a screen capture image and post it here in your next reply.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Zanty]

Hi Golden, thanks,
I had roughly 655gb data on it, mostly backups of my existing bluray collection so I could use with my boxee, which i'm guessing i'll have to start over with lol

 

[Zanty]

Anyone

 

[Golden]

Hi,

The problem is the RAW format - I have no idea how to get around that, apart from formatting, but that means you lose the data.

Let me see if someone else can help - hold on. I've requested more help, but I did find this:

http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/fr.../how-to-recover-data-from-raw-hard-drive.html
http://www.powerdatarecovery.com/download.html

Its a utility from the makers of Partition Wizard (who are well known and recommended here) but I have never used this tool before. Have a look at that and see if its something you would like to try.

Regards,
Golden

 

[Zanty]

Ok many thanks
Will check it out

 

[Zanty]

Ran that program
It actually did recover files but no mkv ones at all.
It's almost like it skipped them and found files from a previous windows installation (before I owned it), which I found odd, it's like my files never existed.
So I'm guessing there's no hope of getting them back, unless anyone can suggest something else to try?
Thanks

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Mmm. I'm all out of ideas I'm afraid Zanty. Are you able to look at the HDD in Windows now, or does it still show offline?

Regards,
Golden

 

[jumanji]

Hi Zanty,

Minitools or Easeus, the free versions have a limitation. These can recover only 1 GB of data.

Do have a look at my post here . Hope it helps.

 

[Zanty]

jumanji, thanks so much for you post!
I am happily recovering ALL of my lost data so another drive with this program
it's gonna take some time, but currently is about 1/3 of the way through recovering my data,
so i'm gonna go ahead and mark this as SOLVED
thanks for all your help guys, really really appreciate it

 

[jumanji]

Glad you got into recovery mode. After recovery, please do report whether the recovered files are in good shape and what % of files remained uncorrupted and useful. I am also interested in knowing whether you used PhotoRec or TestDisk and how easy or difficult the software is in your assessment. A matter of fact feedback will help us help others appropriately. Thanks.

 

[Golden]

Nice one Jumanji - you should turn PhotoRec into a tutorial for easier access.

 

[Zanty]

Glad you got into recovery mode. After recovery, please do report whether the recovered files are in good shape and what % of files remained uncorrupted and useful. I am also interested in knowing whether you used PhotoRec or TestDisk and how easy or difficult the software is in your assessment. A matter of fact feedback will help us help others appropriately. Thanks.

It wasn't so much getting into recovery mode, just getting the right program to allow detailed RAW recovery.
I used the easeus program and, am very glad I did. It really was worth it.
I would say I safely recovered about 80% of the data - which is not a bad thing considering it was a 1tb drive.
The date recovered was a mixture of pictures and large mkv files, which were recovered. The images had lost their file names, however my mkv files hadn't, which was good, and, do far these all look undismayed.
With regards to the 20% unrecovered data - I say this, but it was recovered - it was all unusable. I had a mixture of program's and PDF files which (although intact in terms of directory name and structure), were totally corrupted and useless when I checked them, just to give you the complete picture.
I used complete recovery which took about 18hours to scan thr 1tb hdd, and then around 11hours to recover the data.
It's worth noting I've used a lot of data recovery of late, and, easeus, was simple, well set out, and, the program made it easy to choose between data to be recovered.

 

[jumanji]

Did you buy the EaseUs Data Recovery Wizard? It is clearly mentioned that the free version can only recover 1GB of data.

From your feedback, I also understand that you did not try PhotoRec or TestDisk. Am I right?