3 TB Hard-Drive: Filesystem Unknown (RAW) after bad disconnection

jumanji said:

Now and then I will go missing. That is inevitable. We shall go slow. There is absolutely no need to hurry up things.

Couldn't agree more! (Same goes for me here anyway, given we're on totally different timezones...) Can't tell you how much I appreciate your patience with solving my problem!

I'm gonna post in a short while the screenshot you asked for of the 4 TB (via another external enclosure) in Partition Wizard. (Indeed the 4 TB is totally empty right now)
Although, since you mention it, I'm starting to think over the possibility of finding a desktop computer around (a neighbour's for instance) to connect both the 3 TB and 4 TB drives. Not sure I can find one immediately, but that may be worth a try...
Another alternative I'm thinking about is this: I have a total of 3 external enclosures for 3,5" drives + 2 more for 2,5" drives, and yet one more for everything (ie. it accepts both 2,5" and 3,5" SATA, as well as old ATA/IDE). That last polyvalent one started failing recently (couple of months ago) so I was thinking to replace it soon.
Do you believe it would be a good solution in the present situation to buy a recent external enclosure?
(If so, I'm of course open to your advised suggestions about what choice to make in the matter to ensure maximum safety and reliability, especially with my >2 TB drives)

As Jumanji requested, I'm now posting a screen capture of Partition Wizard with both my faulty 3 TB and my 4 TB connected each via external enclosure. As predicted, old enclosures can't seem to manage over 2 TB well and the one I have left for the 4 TB only makes 2 TB appear under Partition Wizard, damn! (Disk2 - Z:NEW2)
Of course same thing under Disk Management (Disque 1 - Z:NEW2). Now that settles it, as I definitely need to buy a new external enclosure to manage these correctly! If there are some particular specifications I should be looking for while making my choice, please be so kind as to tell me which ones...

CKWD said:

In that case I would suggest you still finding a friend or colleague to give you access to his/her desktop to test the drive internally. You need to know if the drive could be successfully recognized in internal SATA connection. :)

I can do that, although the only slight problem is that it might be like over a week or even two at least before that can actually be done.

[QUOTE]Sometimes huge USB hubs could have that problem by the more USB devices being connected to them at the same time. Sometimes, it is a real risk, not always. That is why back ups are always advised. :/[QUOTE]Hehe, I would backup if I could, trust me! I would use some kind of RAID system, only I'm not rich enough to invest into enough to backup all my storage (like I said, I have now close to 15 TB of collected data -- mostly video and audio rushes, but not only) and I just can't double that space to have backup of everything...
What disppoints me about that hub I purchased is that the failure (sudden disconnection) of my enclosure happened while only that (self-powered) enclosure + another 2,5" enclosure (USB-powered that one) were connected to it (remember that the hub itself was self-powered with a 5V 2A power supply) and it happened like a couple hours into me using them! It doesn't make much sense to me -- but I won't do the mistake of using it ever again (fortunately, it's a very recent Amazon order, ie. I can still send it back for refund).

Yes, I would always believe that in such cases booting into Ubuntu/Linux Live CD could be helpful, as they have much simpler system and paths, in comparison to Windows. I advise it at this point.

Try all the tests you've been suggested here and post back! :)

Duly noted then! I'm gonna try and connect the drive under Ubuntu Linux and see how it goes. I'll report back here later of course!

Good luck!

Thank you, I'll sure need some.

[EDIT]Just read Jumanji's last post after posting this, so I'm gonna edit it back later again to reply to him[/EDIT]

Alright, after an attempt to connect the drive under Linux (Ubuntu LiveCD), I'm sorry to report that the drive doesn't show up at all on the desktop as it should...

So my immediate alternatives are now:
- Proceed with the Partition copy using Partition Wizard (even though my 4 TB destination drive will only be recognised as a 2 TB)
- Wait until I could order a brand new external enclosure supporting over 2 TB drives (in which case, sorry to repeat, I'd love your advice on what specific kind of enclosure I should look for, otherwise I'll pretty much buy based on convenience instead of performance and reliability, which should be priorities!)
- Wait even more (couple of weeks is my guess) until I can internally plug both drives in someone's desktop PC case to proceed with the Partition copy.

I'm kinda ok with any of these, if you advise me one is the better for whatever reason. So once again, awaiting instructions... (^_-)

jumanji said:

I may not be competent to tell you which is the best third party enclosure or dock since I had never looked into that direction. I don't even have a 3TB drive much less an enclosure.

You may check this post by speedlever in eight forums Solved Win 8.1 x64 and raw file system on external USB drive - Page 3

You may also make a fresh and specific enquiry in this very forum on which would be the best enclosure in a new thread which may perhaps bring in those who have a knowledge on it.

Alright! Thank you for the advice! I'm gonna check the thread you gave and prolly will post another request about external enclosures soon here!

Now, I had to take care of some adminstrative issue last evening and this morning (which explains my replying kinda late), but I'm now free to proceed with the partition copy attempt. I'll report back once it's done!

Back with not so good news (albeit not too bad either I hope): Partition Copy failed with Partition Wizard.
Basically, Wizard tells me it cannot copy the partition due to insufficient size on destination!!? (Refer to the attached screenshot for detailed error)
Let me stress right away that I did everything by the book I believe:
- Following your instructions, I erased the existing partitions on destination 4 TB drive, so it appeared unallocated, 2048 GB free.
- I copied the O:2047,87 GB partition as source (and not the whole disk as it may also be possible?)
- I tried using both copy WITH resize and then WITHOUT, to no avail each time...

Now, might I have better luck with the alternative process using TestDisk?
Or if (hopefully!) the origin of the fail is due to either/both external enclosures, should I wait until I can grab one (or two?) recent and more reliable and efficient one(s)?
Or should I even wait until I have access to a desktop computer in order to plug both source and destination disks internally?
And final question, if in your opinion it may be that the reason for the Partition copy failing is NOT due to unreliable external enclosures, what else may it be?


NB: Waiting for your answers to these few questions, I'm gonna post next some more precise screenshots+explanations about both 3 TB and 4 TB drives, the external enclosures I use here and how they handle and format/manage these >2 TB drives

Here are first a few answers to previous questions of yours:

jumanji said:

Is your 4TB drive in factory-formatted condition?

Nope, it wasn't (or didn't appear) formatted when I received it (not in NTFS anyway).

If you formatted it, please give details of the machine on which you formatted it and how you formatted it.

To format it, I used my (very recently stopped functioning though) "Multi" enclosure (as in multi-plug support, since it supports 2,5" ATA/IDE + 3,5" ATA/IDE + SATA). Specifically it is this model.
(Paid it much less than the Amazon price though! ^^)

Once formatted, I ended up with 2 disks (upon detection by Windows) which you can see in the attached screenshots as Y:NEW1 and Z:NEW2 under PW and WDM.

I have seen the same pictures for your 3TB drives in post#1 (WDM) and post#3 (PW) and now it is the same for the 4TB drive.
Windows Disk Management shows both your 3TB and 4TB drives as one 3 TB drive and another 800GB drive.
Partition Wizard shows both your 3TB and 4TB drives as one GPT 2TB drive and one MBR 800 GB drive.

I'll try to explicit and clarify things as much as I can here:
I recently used 3 different enclosures: the "Multi/Advance" I mentioned above, another we shall call "Single/Advance", and a last one (which is the worst of the bunch since I recovered it from an external Bufallo bulk enclosure+drive I had to crack open) we therefore shall call "Single/Bufallo".

When I plug the 3 TB via either the "Multi/Advance" or the "Single/Advance" I got the same result: it is recognized as comprised of 2 disks: one of 2 TB capacity and a second one of 800 GB.
When I plug that 3 TB using the "Single/Bufallo", only the first 2 TB disk is detected, it's like the second 800 GB doesn't exist (obviously because that specific enclosure was made to support 2 TB drives at most).

Same scenario with the 4 TB (only the capacity of the second disk changes): via either the "Multi/Advance" or the "Single/Advance", it is recognized as comprised of 2 disks: one of 2 TB capacity and a second one of 1,64 TB.
Once again, using the "Single/Bufallo", only the first 2 TB disk is detected, it's like the second 1,64 TB doesn't exist.


Now, I really can't say whether my >2 TB drives are truly made of 2 separate disks internally (the way they are detected by Windows), or if that is a fake/biased detection due to bad or partial support of capacity over 2 TB by my two Advance enclosures... ? Probably someone on this forum might know whether Green Western Digital >2 TB drives are made of a single disk or of one of 2 TB + another to achieve the remaining needed capacity for the drive. (And what of Western Digital 6 TB capacity drives then? Two 2 TB disks + one more for the rest? Starting to sound a bit much but for all I know...)