External HDD showing full but it is impossible

CKWD · 14 Jul 2015

Then it that case I would agree with Nedly's suggestion. Usually, creating a disk image is not for every single drive you want to recover from or repair. It depends on the damage and error state of the drive. If it has too many bad sectors, or other physical or mechanical damage, making it work through an imaging process could leave you without a single copy of the drive. Since WD DLG has reported your drive healthy, than you could make an image of it, to try and recover from.

If you are not keen on using professional data recovery help, which could be the most promising option here, then all you can do is try other software for data recovery at home. If one of them works, great! If not, try to recover the file system.

Otherwise, for Ubuntu/Linux you need a flash drive at least 4GB, downloaded .exe copy of the OS, making the flash drive bootable with a program, then installing that OS onto it. Then you just plug it in, go to BIOS load from the flash drive that one time and that's it. :)

CK_WD

7leagueboot · 14 Jul 2015

Nedly, I agree with everything you have said here. I used Recover My Files years ago on a physically damaged drive. It recovered plenty of data but many photos were damaged beyond repair. WD's site recommends several services amongst which I found OnTrack. They offer a service to recover your data or you can opt to buy their software. As most of the lost data belongs to my company I could put the purchase through that so, what do you think about their Easy Recovery Professional software?

I have purchased a new Samsung 2.0 TB drive so theoretically, I could clone one drive to the other but, I don't see how any imaging software could read RAW content.

7leagueboot · 14 Jul 2015

CKWD said:

Otherwise, for Ubuntu/Linux you need a flash drive at least 4GB, downloaded .exe copy of the OS, making the flash drive bootable with a program, then installing that OS onto it. Then you just plug it in, go to BIOS load from the flash drive that one time and that's it. :)

I'm very sorry if I sound stupid but I do not understand why I would need to boot into Windows or Linux from a flash drive. What advantage would that give me seeing as I have no trouble booting into Windows now? If it is to boot into Linux, why would I do that?

Again, please accept my apologies for my lack of IT knowledge. I have never used Linux so have no idea how it works or why one would want it?

CKWD · 14 Jul 2015

That's perfectly fine, don't worry about it, that's why we gather here to help you/each other.

The idea behind booting into Linux/Ubuntu is that Linux reads and treats file systems and drives differently than Windows does. Simply put, the RAW format could occur from a corrupted file on the disk or a corruption in part of the file system that is for instance needed in Windows, but not so much in Linux, thus Linux may have a better chance in opening and reading the damaged drive correctly. Of course, there is no guarantee that it could work, but doesn't hurt to try. :)

About why to create a system image, the point is that if you have a drive that has both file system damage as well as minor physical damage, you may make matters worse while trying to troubleshoot and/or repair. Taking an image of the drive prior to attempting to fix it will allow you to always have that original drive almost intact after the occurrence of the issue.

I am also glad to hear you researched through the Data recovery options on the WD website. :)

CK_WD

Nedly · 14 Jul 2015

7leagueboot said:

I used Recover My Files years ago on a physically damaged drive. It recovered plenty of data but many photos were damaged beyond repair.

When I was studying harddrive mechatronics I read that in last case scenarios you can freeze the drive and the cold temps can make the data more readable. This is more for failing sectors though, and it has to be really frozen with a speedy recovery.

It is not hard to make a disk image of a RAW disk, technically there are apps that can do it in Windows as well - kinda like how the recovery software will access it.

In most cases it is needed to boot a live system when the infected system contains the main operating system. If the case is external, then there is always a chance that software could help you clone the disk using Windows.

If not, it is free and easy to download a live Linux distro to perform work on the disk image. You do not 'have' to clone it from one disk to another, rather you could have an image file you could work with. With that image file you could use any number of tools you want to try on it. If you have two copies of that image, go nuts! - because if you mess up the image, o well, you have another && the original drive!

Some systems like Kali Linux come with recovery tools. The system is for offensive security so you have to be careful with what you do with the apps, but it comes with free apps like Recoverjpeg, and Scalpal, which will recover files (these apps can be installed in other distros). These two sites have information on Scalpal: https://www.howtoforge.com/recover-d...s-with-scalpel Recovering Deleted Files with Scalpel » Linux Magazine

Apps like Scalpal will require work in the terminal because there is no GUI for it but there is a lot of instructions on the net on how to use this. RecoverJpeg is the easiest, all you have to do is be in the directory you want the files placed and the command would look something like this: recoverjpeg /dev/sda1 ... The recoverjpeg is the call for the app, and it is to be pointed at /dev/ (devices directory in Linux) and sda1 would be the first partition of the sda drive. Recoverjpeg will only recovery images though, Scalpal will allow you to set parameters like filetypes..

Nedly · 14 Jul 2015

7leagueboot said:

what do you think about their Easy Recovery Professional software?

I have not used easy recovery myself, but if it will perform raw disk recovery, partition recovery, and filesystem recovery, it is most likely sufficient. I used Recover My Files Pro back when I used Windows, and once I used it I never tried anything else - when I used it. Now I would pull up a terminal in Linux and use apps like Scalpal to do it.

7leagueboot · 14 Jul 2015

So are you guys giving a thumbs down to OnTrack's Easy Recovery Professional? I ask because many of the things you have spoken about are Chinese to me. I'm looking for the simplest wizard driven solution possible. I don't even know where to start when it comes to making an image of the bad WD drive?

7leagueboot · 14 Jul 2015

Whoops, we cross-posted there Nedly. Well I do not have time to deal with this today but tomorrow I think I will buy OnTrack's product. In the meantime, I will research how to make an image of the RAW file system drive.

Nedly · 14 Jul 2015

I am trying to find some good imaging apps to post up for you..

jumanji · 14 Jul 2015

7leagueboot said:

Whoops, we cross-posted there Nedly. Well I do not have time to deal with this today but tomorrow I think I will buy OnTrack's product. In the meantime, I will research how to make an image of the RAW file system drive.

I have to intervene.

As I said in an earlier post your Western Digital Passport external drive is hardware encrypted. The hardware encryption chip as well as the decryption key is in the Interface electronics inside the enclosure. The hardware chips encrypts the data and writes the encrypted data into the HDD. If the Interface card inside fails - which I presume is in your case - there is absolutely no way to get your data back since the decrypt key is also in the interface card.

Even if the HDD inside is by itself good, you take it out and try, any data recovery software can get you only the encrypted data which will be absolutely useless for you.

The only people who can decrypt and recover your data is the Western Digital patronised Data Recovery agencies to whom only WD has made available the decryption key.

So don't waste your time and money buying a data recovery software.

Note: You have run WD DatalifeGuard Diagnostics. I always ask the Ops to note down the time taken to run the extended Test. If the program really starts scanning sector by sector it will take hours for a 2TB drive. If on the other hand it just finishes off in a split second and gives a Pass then it really did not run. It scanned 0 bytes and gives you a pass result..Your external drive is really bad. In most cases it is the inside electronics that fails and when it happens, you are locked out.