External harddrive fails

[bigseb]

I have a 500Gb external harddrive which is connected to my PC and pretty much on whenever the PC is on. Used it as back-up for all my work data. Today (half an hour ago) I see that it is not visible when I click on My Computer. Noticed that it was off so I turned it back on but got a message that Drive H: must be formatted before it can be used. I can't afford to lose all that data. There must have been 4 years of client file on there and I need them back. Not to mention my own business back-ups.

Please help me restore this harddrive

 

[jumanji]

Please post the screenshot of Disk Management with your external drive plugged in.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

The data should still be there but you may have to work out in a graded manner in trying to recover. The screenshot should be able to give out more information for further advise on the matter.

In the meanwhile, 1. Do not try to format the external drive. 2. Do not run check disk that can possibly corrupt the files in the drive.

 

[bigseb]

Here you go. The drive in question is H:. What concerns me is that it says 100% free I really hope this can be fixed...

 

[Mark Phelps]

If the partition table gets corrupted, Windows will then think the partition is empty -- as you see here.

Based on my experience at doing this successfully, my suggestions are the following:
1) Download and install the trial version of RecoverMyFiles from Runtime Software in MS Windows.
2) Right-click the RecoverMyFiles shortcut and select "Run as Administrator"
3) Select the option to Recover a Drive
4) You will get a list of drive, scroll down to find the one for your USB stick or memory card
5) Select Automatic Driver recovery, press Start button
6) It will run for a while but when done, will show a directory tree in the left pane. Do NOT interrupt it.
7) When done, browse the folders in the directory tree -- and be SURE to check the filesizes of the files you want to recover. If the filesize is zero, the file is trashed and you will NOT be able to recover it.
If the files look OK, you will need to contact Runtime Software to purchase a license for the recovery. You won't have to reinstall the app; instead, they will email you an activation code which you can use to turn on the recovery feature.

According to their website, the "standard" version of the app is $70 USD. They also have a Pro version for $99 dollars, but if you go to the website below, you can compare the features and (at least for me) the extra cost wasn't worth it:
Recover My Files: Purchase GetDatas Recover My Files data recovery software

Your data ... your money ... your choice.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I don't know if this will be of any help but is what I use is a bootable Ubuntu disk and once in the OS the drives can be seen and any data on them - without any passwords etc and then the data retreived and I think this is very similar although I have to say I haven't personally tried Goldens tutorial yet

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ate-live-cd-dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html

 

[jumanji]

Not to worry. Why pay for a licenced software when you can try to get it done with freeware?

For the drive to present itself as RAW there can only be two reasons. Either the partition table or MBR got corrupted. Most likely the former.

You can straight away try the Partition Recovery Wizard in MiniTools Partition Wizard home edition.

Download and install it Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

Then straightaway head to the topic Recovery with Partition Wizard: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB in
http://www.sevenforums.com/software...ive-turned-raw-partition-wizard-testdisk.html

If you want to be extra cautious, then before embarking on Partition Wizard you can create a live Linux pendrive, boot from it and try to copy the files from the external drive in question to another external drive, both of which should be connected when you boot Linux.

Download Lucid Puppy (Ubuntu-Compatible Build) v5.2.8 ISO from http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm

It is light and only 132.6 MB.

Make a Bootable pendrive with Rufus v1.3.2 (442 KB) http://rufus.akeo.ie/ It takes less than 2 minutes to create your bootable live Linux pendrive.

For more guidance on the recovery process directly get into the heading Recovering files from the non-bootable Internal Drive - applicable to recovery from any hard drive - in

[URL="http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.html"]Lucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer[/URL]

You may also use this tutorial by Golden http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/256518-peppermint3-create-live-cd-dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html to create your bootable pendrive with Peppermint Linux
- whichever is easy on you.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Agreed jumanji Goldens tut that was the one I was referring to and my own fix is to make a bootable Ubuntu disk and use the TRY version when it boots to Ubuntu to open up the drives it takes no time at all to make or use.

Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu

 

[jumanji]

Yep, ICit , any live Linux should be OK ( I take quite sometime to compose my posts and as I was almost finishing, I saw your suggestion which is quite valid. An actual "walk-through" may make it easier for the OP. Even with such walk-through, I have known some OPs reluctant to indulge in Linux - the fear of the unknown. The fact is even me was reluctant till I mustered courage and try it and the result was that thread - the Lucid Puppy way. )

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yep, ICit , any live Linux should be OK ( I take quite sometime to compose my posts and as I was almost finishing, I saw your suggestion which is quite valid. An actual "walk-through" may make it easier for the OP. Even with such walk-through, I have known some OPs reluctant to indulge in Linux - the fear of the unknown. The fact is even me was reluctant till I mustered courage and try it and the result was that thread - the Lucid Puppy way. )

Agree jumanji a bit OT but the Linux stuff is really quite useful and I found it quite by accident testing Ubuntu

 

[bigseb]

Actually I tried the Linux route as I have been using Linux on-off for years. While I can open the harddrive and copy over the folders, the folders - when checked in Windows - are empty.

Come to think of it I never checked the contents of the folders in Linux. Will do that now and report back.

 

[jumanji]

Actually I tried the Linux route as I have been using Linux on-off for years. While I can open the harddrive and copy over the folders, the folders - when checked in Windows - are empty......

That is indeed strange. It should hardly matter whether you copy the folders/files into your internal drive or another external drive. Windows should be able to open the folders and read the files. If the folders are empty, I would wonder why!!!!!!

Have you copied all the data and checked all the folders? Are all of them empty?

EDIT: Go to Folder Options in Windows , unhide the files and check. ( off now to bed.)

 

[bigseb]

Not to worry. Why pay for a licenced software when you can try to get it done with freeware?

For the drive to present itself as RAW there can only be two reasons. Either the partition table or MBR got corrupted. Most likely the former.

You can straight away try the Partition Recovery Wizard in MiniTools Partition Wizard home edition.

Download and install it Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

Then straightaway head to the topic Recovery with Partition Wizard: SanDisk Cruzer Blade 16GB in
http://www.sevenforums.com/software...ive-turned-raw-partition-wizard-testdisk.html

If you want to be extra cautious, then before embarking on Partition Wizard you can create a live Linux pendrive, boot from it and try to copy the files from the external drive in question to another external drive, both of which should be connected when you boot Linux.

Download Lucid Puppy (Ubuntu-Compatible Build) v5.2.8 ISO from http://puppylinux.org/main/Download%20Latest%20Release.htm

It is light and only 132.6 MB.

Make a Bootable pendrive with Rufus v1.3.2 (442 KB) http://rufus.akeo.ie/ It takes less than 2 minutes to create your bootable live Linux pendrive.

For more guidance on the recovery process directly get into the heading Recovering files from the non-bootable Internal Drive - applicable to recovery from any hard drive - in

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/198909-lucid-puppy-way-recover-files-non-bootable-computer.htmlLucid Puppy way to recover files from a non-bootable computer

You may also use this tutorial by Golden http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/256518-peppermint3-create-live-cd-dvd-usb-use-emergency-backup.html to create your bootable pendrive with Peppermint Linux
- whichever is easy on you.

Just tried this method... the recovery wizard doesn't see drive H: at all. Not showing up in My Computer either.

 

[jumanji]

Again it is strange. If the drive did show up in Disk Management, I do not see any reason why Partition Wizard will not show, unless something serious has happened to the drive since you posted the screenshot.

Again you must plugin the drive, before you run Partition Wizard.

Does it still show in the Disk Management?

Are you still able to access the drive with live Linux? If so, do copy all the files to another external drive.

Try the recovery with Partition Wizard on another computer or download the bootable CD of Partition Wizard, burn it on to a CD, boot with it and try the recovery. (That should keep the Windows out of the loop)

What is the status of folders you recovered? Did you check for the files after unhiding?

 

[bigseb]

Update:

The files are still if I view them using a Linux live disk. However when I try to copy them over to another harddrive it starts the copy but then an error shows and ext harddive disappears.

I was hoping to fix this myself but it looks as if I'll have to get my company's IT guy to take care of it.

 

[alan10]

WARNING :-
Minitool Partition Wizard is generally suitable for both MBR and GPT style HDD.
UNFORTUNATELY its Partition Recovery Wizard is NOT suitable for use on GPT

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND the freeware Lazesoft Recovery suite :-
Download Lazesoft Products

I have a GPT style 600 GB HDD that twitched state into MBR due to a glitch in the Boot up transition from BIOS into Windows.
A 25 GB partition became RAW.
A 500 GB partition became unallocated space.

The Lazesoft Recovery suite has recovered my files,
and even 6000 MB Partition image backup files are intact and Macrium has verified their checksums.
This was done without any need to perform Partition Recovery
(I hesitated to use any partition recovery tool that might be misled by Windows into creating MBR partitions on the GPT boundaries)

NB Previously commercial software costing $69 also retrieved those files but that attempt failed Macrium verification.
I think the difficulty with a 6 GB file is that it was probably in perhaps 200 fragments,
and simple file recovery can only identify the "first extent" (technical term which I think means the first fragment),
hence I am impressed that both recovery tools found every one of 200 fragments and built up the same sized output files,
and astounded that the free recovery tool was able to find and fit several hundred pieces together in the correct order.

Just two "defects" which I reported to the developer and should be corrected in the next release :-

1.
Although it identifies the actual time-stamps of the files available for recovery,
when I tell it to save them (on a different drive) it allows Windows to save them with "today's time-stamp";

2.
Some recovery actions require it to use Windows "handles" on partitions,
and in anticipation of such a need it assigns drive letters to valid partitions that have no letters,
and those letters remain after the tool has finished and closed.
My 100 MB "System Reserved" partition became drive G:\ - it still is G:\ because it causes me no concerns,
but those who are purists may be horrified if this happens and you a slow to recognise and then fix.

N.B It can also build a WinPE Recovery Bootable CD/Flash

Amazing free software.

Regards
Alan

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
try some of these "Freebies"

15 Free File Recovery Software Programs (Free Undelete Software)

cheers
jimbo

 

[jumanji]

Update:

The files are still if I view them using a Linux live disk. However when I try to copy them over to another harddrive it starts the copy but then an error shows and ext harddive disappears.

I was hoping to fix this myself but it looks as if I'll have to get my company's IT guy to take care of it.

I do not know much about Linux but I have just seen many Linux users complaining that they are able to mount the NTFS drives but cannot copy the files. There was also some discussion on which driver Linux uses to read NTFS, may be sometimes read only.

So I would suggest that you go with the tried out Linux solutions as indicated in my post #6, either Lucid Puppy or Peppermint 3.

If you strike gold, let us know.

I am continuing to look at Linux not copying problem and will come back if I can find any discernible solution. You may also google search on the problem and perhaps you can understand and decipher better than me.

 

[alan10]

Please note that there is no mounting of partitions required with my suggestion
Download Lazesoft Products

That can see the physical drive and recover RAW files that Windows sees as neither FAT nor NTFS,
AND ALSO recover files without mounting partitions that originally occupied what is now unallocated space.
It does it all under natural installed Windows with zero need for LINUX.

 

[VistaKing]

BigSeb

Lets try this ...

We can run CHKDSK from Windows Recovery Environment, steps to follow:

Put the Windows 7 installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.

Press a key when you are prompted.

Select a language, a time, a currency, a keyboard or an input method, and then click Next.

Click Repair your computer. ( Bottom Left hand side )

Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.

In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
Type in what is in the code box press ENTER after each command

 DISKPART
 LIST DISK

   Information

Take note of the driver letter

Once you're done type

 exit

   Information

That will exit Diskpart

then do a

chkdsk n /f /v

   Information

n= drive letter