WD EXTERNAL HARD DISK 1TB suddenly "unallocated" and "not initialized"

nooruddin76 · 10 Jun 2014

if there were any partition table information on ur drive partition wizard would have cached it so if it didn't find any partition table means windows can't be stored. Hence the word 'dead' in that context, but data can be there.

jumanji · 10 Jun 2014

@Jon Snow,

OK, you seem to have done quite a bit of search and research on Read only drives.:)

It is quite possible that you might have hit on this article. If not read it. It should enable you to decide which drive you may want to buy. https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6121 .( Though mostly apple imac users face this read only problem, it applies in your case.)

In the worst case scenario, you may want to buy the exact same model as your present problem drive to be able to replace the Sata interface-built into-HDD controller card, if your drive falls into that category. It has been at the back of my mind that the Sata Interface could have failed but I did not want to rush to say that till you decided not to go in for WD drives.:)

As far as the capacity requirement is concerned since you have only 800GB of data the same 1TB drive should be sufficient (the same capacity as your problem drive) even if we want to clone it.

jumanji · 10 Jun 2014

nooruddin76 said:

if there were any partition table information on ur drive partition wizard would have cached it so if it didn't find any partition table means windows can't be stored. Hence the word 'dead' in that context, but data can be there.

Corrupt should perhaps be the right word and not dead.:) If VBR is corrupt, Partition Wizard cannot find the beginning of that partition and hence cannot rewrite the partition table into the first sector.

Slartybart · 10 Jun 2014

Partition Wizard (PW) and Disk Management (DM) report things slightly different. This is the way each was designed.

PW reports the drive as read only and unallocated
DM reports the drive as uninitialized and unallocated.

These are quite different things, but probably stem from the same problem.

You could check with diskpart - Be very careful with diskpart.

If jumanji agrees that it would be useful, give him the chance to read my post BEFORE you do anything. As I said before, I'm deferring to him on this thread. I'm only offering things that I think might be helpful in diagnosing the issue.

I do not want to detract from the Photorec path already suggested.

Open an Elevated Command Prompt

Tip

Standard keyboard shortcuts for Copy (Ctrl-C) and Paste (Ctrl-V) shortcuts do not work in Command Prompt.

Enabling the Quick Edit Mode in Command Prompt makes Copy and Paste operations easier.
See step 4 in Command Prompt - Copy to Clipboard to enable it.

Copy in Command Prompt: hightlight the text you want to copy, then press ENTER.
Paste in Command Prompt: right click with your mouse.

Type the following commands:
diskpart
lis dis
sel dis 1
det dis
exit

Post a screen shot of the Command Prompt window and then exit Command Prompt
See: Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

One step at a time, jumanji put the focus on Photrec and has a number of options if that fails to recover your data.

Bill
.

Jon Snow · 10 Jun 2014

Here it is Slartybart

Jon Snow · 10 Jun 2014

Side Note. I tried on Windows 7, it didnt work (the "det dis") , the CMD suddenly stopped working. This, i tried on Windows 8.

Slartybart · 10 Jun 2014

Thanks Jon,

The diskpart details show that the readonly flag is indeed set.

The Location Path: UNAVAILABLE is normal and no cause for concern.

I'll wait for jumanji to determine if he wants to pursue the read only flag or get back to Photorec.

There are many possible paths and jumanji is one of the best members to help with data recovery issues. It's difficult and time consuming, so that's why I don't want you to do anything other than one path at a time. The diskpart was a reporting exercise, so no harm...no foul.

edit: That's odd - det dis it doesn't work on Win7, but it's ok on Win8
On your Win7 machine, please follow this tutorial: Windows Genuine and Activation Issue Posting Instructions

I'm on the sidelines again.

Jon Snow · 10 Jun 2014

yeah i read the photorec reviews, it's indeed managed to recover files, but the files will be all over the place without proper names and the scanning will take more than 2 days. I think if there's other way, we can try perhaps and Photorec will be our last option. will that be possible? Yeah I know, Mr. Jumanji is really helpful. Glad that he saw this thread :)

Slartybart · 10 Jun 2014

Any recovery will take a long time and the results are never guaranteed.

I'm fairly certain that jumanji wants to use Photrec as the FIRST option.
I'll let him speak for himself, though.

Give jumanji the chance to help you the way he knows best.

Jon Snow · 10 Jun 2014

Alright Im counting on you guys :)