External HDD suddenly requires formatting, read as RAW instead of ntfs

jumanji · 24 Oct 2013

I have now seen atleast one July 2013 post wherein it states "that as soon as you wrote data beyond the 2TiB mark, it would have wrapped around to sector 0 and trashed your file system" That was for more than 2TB HDDs on incompatible docks. It is also recommended to "Buy a dock that advertises 4TB drive support and you should be good to go. Amazon.com: 4tb usb dock " You may check on the specs for your dock since it may be the cause for your woes.

This however is not a resolution for your problem but I thought it is better you know it and others who want to go in for Docks know it.

There are many things which is still a mystery to me. What is that 128 MB partition that seems to start from LBA34.( LBA 0-33 is generally occupied by the GPT and partitions start from LBA34) What is the three 3.1MB boot partitions? In your last screenshot it is four. They all appear to be within the 2TB.

Anyway we shall go ahead with data recovery with PhotoRec and see what is in store. Keep me posted if you have any doubts and wait for the go ahead (between 0700hrs to 2300 hrs my time)

I only wish I have the same 4 TB Seagate drive to put it in to my Desktop. I can then copy the GPT sectors(LBAs) both at the beginning and end of the drive that could then be written on your drive to restore it. Ok, that is going to be a costly affair. I just checked the price here Rs.13000/- plus. OOps, more than what I can bite!

jimbo45 · 24 Oct 2013

Hi there
For disk sizes > 2TB you must set the disk as a GPT disk otherwise you can't read beyond 2TB -- note you can't BOOT this if your computer doesn't have UEFI enabled in BIOS (that's not the same as PROTECTED BOOT -- often mis-understanding here - you CAN have UEFI WITHOUT protected boot).

However if that isn't the problem have you tried unplugging the HDD and plugging it into ANOTHER computer or a different USB port.

If it still gives a problem then somehow your HDD as become corrupted and you'll have to re-initialize it again - hopefully you've taken backup.

Cheers
jimbo

jumanji · 24 Oct 2013

Hi jimbo45,

The OP bought a 4TB Seagate 3.5" drive. Obviously it would have been formatted as a GPT drive by Seagate. He had been using it on a dock connected to his laptop for sometime atleast before it turned RAW. If you have any ideas on how to recover the data from it he will be most happy and me too.:)

jumanji · 25 Oct 2013

I cleared one of my Seagate 750GB GoFlex external HDD of all data and then converted it into a GPT disk with Windows Disk Management.

Examining it with Partition Wizard, I do find an 128MB GPT (Reserved Partition). So far, all my efforts and tricks on hand to make this drive RAW to replicate the OP's HDD condition have not succeeded.

Any inputs on how to turn it RAW is most welcome.( I can then attempt data Recovery from that RAW drive.)

External HDD suddenly requires formatting, read as RAW instead of ntfs-26-10-2013-08-47-00.jpg

Golden · 25 Oct 2013

I think a CLEAN from DISKPART will turn it RAW?

jumanji · 26 Oct 2013

Thanks Golden. That was the one that I didn't try. I do it with HDD LLF Format Tool - Perform quick wipe (just remove partitions and MBR) which is the equivalent of it.

Not to leave it anyway I tried Disk Part Clean command. It only turned the HDD unallocated. But I want it RAW as in OP's Screenshot in post #8 G drive RAW.

EDIT:Now referring to the PW screenshot in post #44 where the GPT was in tact, I performed Wipe Disk of the 128 MB partition. PW went through the motions of writing zeroes to the 128 MB partition and announced successful completion but I found that nothing happened to the HDD and it was accessible as before with no changes. I am stumped.

ICIT2LOL · 26 Oct 2013

I might be way off course here Jumanji but I suppose you didn't try the Partition Wizard wipe it's a bit quicker I find than CLEAN ALL then format it with it as well?

Is that what you are trying to do??

jumanji · 26 Oct 2013

@ICit2, It is not my intention to wipe the GPT Data partition at all. I do not want to overwrite it with zeros for I have precious data on it :) which I want to recover. ( To recoup, I want to create a RAW drive as it happened in the case of the OP and try to recover the data from that GPT drive that had turned RAW)

Now regarding the 128MB reserved partition, I found out that it is not part of the GPT at all but is an MS requirement to have it on the GPT drive to store any data.For example when one converts from a basic drive to Dynamic drive some data generated needs to be stored for later reversal of the process from dynamic to basic.GPT does not allow any data to be stored in hidden sectors.So Microsoft has created a reserved space of that 128MB. It is actually called MSR, (Microsoft Reserved). When one creates a GPT drive with Windows Disk Management it effectively hides this 128MB partition and a user does not have access to it. To begin with there is no data in it and that is why even after wiping it with PW the GPT drive continued to work as if nothing has happened. I wiped it hoping that it would turn my drive to RAW.

Now I am back to the problem. How to make my GPT drive containing valuable data RAW (as in OP's case) and then retrieve/recover the data?

Slartybart · 26 Oct 2013

Jumanji,
You'll have to experiment using Diskpart setid, gpt attributes, or create partition msr
DiskPart Command-Line Options

I normally try to fix things, not break them - but I understand you are trying to recreate conditions so a fix can be found.

Bill

jumanji · 26 Oct 2013

If I am to answer your post its going to be a long one so I won't go the long way.:)

In short Diskpart - no no ( Anyway I had a look at it.)

I am not breaking anything. Ya, I am wearing out my HDD but you know it can fail anytime even when sparsely used. So what are we counting?:)