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#71
OK, now we shall make an attempt to recover the faulty drive itself and see where we stand.
Go upto the screen you showed in Post #62.
Instead of List move to [MFT Repair] and press Enter
If it says MFT and MFT mirror matches perfectly, then quit TestDisk. We have nothing else to do with it.
Do the following:
Run check disk from command prompt.
Open Command prompt. Start > All programs > Accessories > Right click on Command Prompt and run as administrator
Type
CHKDSK K: /f /v /r /x Press enter. Note: Replace K: with the actual drive letter of the faulty external drive. Note the space before each /.
Allow check disk to complete. Reboot your computer. (Don't forget to unlock your WD external drive.)
See whether you can access the drive now and the files in good shape.
If you get any other message other than "MFT and MFT mirror matches perfectly" please post the screenshot and quit Test Disk. Again we will have nothing else to do with TestDisk. TestDisk cannot usually repair MFT.
In such a case the author of Test Disk himself recommends using the commercial software GetDataback or Zero Assumption Recovery.
In our dealings, we have found Getdataback works admirably and the OPs had had successful recovery.
You can download the demo version of Getdataback simple here https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm Run it and see whether it shows all your folders/files. You can also preview the files and satisfy your data is there and seen.. If everything is OK you have to buy the license to copy those data. GetDataback does not write anything to your drive. So you need not worry about trying it.
As far as Zero Assumption Recovery is concerned the module to recover Digital media data like jpgs is free.
If you do not want to buy any software, then you can try PhotoRec in TestDisk. Again PhotoRec does not write anything to your drive. So you can try it without any worries. The only limitation is that it can recover only file formats here File Formats Recovered By PhotoRec - CGSecurity
Further you will only get a bunch of renamed files without the folder structure whereas GetDataback if successful can recover all data with the original structure as it was there.
Now I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Last edited by jumanji; 19 Jul 2015 at 05:06.