Solved I can no longer use my external hardrive, it say says "format hardive"

[digiman2372]

I can no longer use my external hardrive, it say says "format hardive"

Hello everyone, the USB port on my external harddrive broke, so I bought a SATA adapter. Now, when I plug it in, it tells me that I have to format my harddrive in order to use it. I can't do this obviously because all my important data is on there. I tried restarting my computer, using different USB ports, and even using a different computer. It still keeps saying that I need to format it in order to use it. I tried using Test Disk to restore the partition and it has not been working. I want to stay away from data recovery programs because sometimes they don't recover everything and it's also difficult to tell which file is which. What do I do?

 

[billmcct]

Is it a Western Digital drive?

 

[samuria]

You say external harddrive broke, how was it broke if it was WD it can be encrpted

 

[Megahertz07]

You say external harddrive broke, how was it broke if it was WD it can be encrpted

Some WD external HDD has a hardware encryption on the circuit. If you install the HDD on another USB device it won't work. You have to use the WD USB device.
Maybe you can change the broken USB connector.

 

[digiman2372]

Is it a Western Digital drive?

here is the link to the hard drive I have. its a seagate 3 TB Robot Check

You say external hard drive broke, how was it broke if it was WD it can be encrpted

I'm sorry, the hard drive did not break, the USB port did. That's why I have the adapter now.


Megahertz, do you know how I can find out if I can change the broken USB connector?

 

[billmcct]

Since it is a Seagate drive it does Not use hardware encryption, therefore there is no danger of losing data.
To change the PCB board you will have to take the drive apart to get the number of the board to search for a replacement.
maybe something like this:

E153302 94V-0 Seagate EH2US9 External PCB 2.5" HDD Controller USB 2.0 / E55-7 | eBay

 

[Megahertz07]

There are many types of USB 3.0 micro USB connectors
Welcome to CSCONN

 

[digiman2372]

Since it is a Seagate drive it does Not use hardware encryption, therefore there is no danger of losing data.
To change the PCB board you will have to take the drive apart to get the number of the board to search for a replacement.
maybe something like this:

E153302 94V-0 Seagate EH2US9 External PCB 2.5" HDD Controller USB 2.0 / E55-7 | eBay

I am holding my PCB board in my hand and it is also a E153302 model just like the one you posted! However, instead of the following numbers being EH2US9, they are EH3U3. Will it still work? Now that I take a closer look. mine is 3.5" and the one you posted is 2.5". I wonder if it will still work? These are really hard to find it seems. I found one form this website but i'm not sure if its safe to buy.


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There are many types of USB 3.0 micro USB connectors
Welcome to CSCONN

these are not PCB boards are they? and How do I know which one is compatible? and if they are compatible, will it really get rid of the need to format my hard drive?

 

[billmcct]

As long as it looks physically the same then it should be good. All the board does is adapts the SATA drive connector to a USB in/output for your computer. The drive would still work just as well without the case using the wire you have.

 

[digiman2372]

i'm sorry if i'm repeating myself, but will this make it so that I do NOT need to format the hard drive? I can connect my hard drive to the computer with the SATA adapter that i have, it just wont let me access my information because it says I have to format the hard drive first. I don't want to get one of these and still have to format the hard drive. I think the seagate PCB has some data in that make the hard drive readable.

 

[billmcct]

I can't find anything showing the drive uses hardware encryption. If in fact it DOES then your f'ed. What shows in "Disk Management". Does it show as "Raw" or show a partition? If it does NOT show a partition then you can try to use "Partition Find an Mount" to recover the partition. (no data loss) If in fact the drive uses hardware encryption then all I see would be to carefully un-solder the USB connector from the board and replace it. Don't know if the new PCB board would use the same Encryption Key. You may need to contact Seagate and verify if the drive uses Encryption and if so would a replacement PCB board use the same Key

Partition Find and Mount: Download

 

[Snick]

That is another reason I don't like or recommend WD Drives!

Many posts here on Sevenforums regarding WD Drive issues!

My Opinion!

 

[AK6DN]

Hello everyone, the USB port on my external harddrive broke, so I bought a SATA adapter. Now, when I plug it in, it tells me that I have to format my harddrive in order to use it. I can't do this obviously because all my important data is on there. I tried restarting my computer, using different USB ports, and even using a different computer. It still keeps saying that I need to format it in order to use it. I tried using Test Disk to restore the partition and it has not been working. I want to stay away from data recovery programs because sometimes they don't recover everything and it's also difficult to tell which file is which. What do I do?

How in fact do you know the hard drive is still 'good'? And that the data structure on the drive is 'good'?

I have used generic USB to SATA adapters and all they do is change the physical hardware interface. The data on the drive is EXACTLY the same.

For example, I can plug the SATA drive into the SATA/USB adapter, and then plug the drive in the USB port on the computer, format/mount/copy files to/from the drive. The dismount the drive, remove the USB adapter, and plug the drive directly into a SATA port on the same (or another) computer and it works as expected, boots and/or mounts correctly.

So unless you can demonstrate otherwise I question your basic assumption the drive is still 'good'.

Do you have another drive you can plug into your suspected bad SATA/USB adapter to see if it works?

Don

And BTW I ONLY ever use WD drives. Never had one fail in dozens I have bought. Only ever taken out of service because the technology got old (ie, SCSI, PATA, SATA 1.0) or needed more space.

My opinion.

 

[Megahertz07]

That is another reason I don't like or recommend WD Drives!

Many posts here on Sevenforums regarding WD Drive issues!

My Opinion!

The drive is a Seagate, not a WD

 

[jumanji]

Hi digiman2372,
If your Seagate is an old model 3TB drive, it would be an advance formatted MBR drive with a logical sector size of 4096 bytes. The SATA to USB bridge circuit inside the original enclosure has a drivetranslation circuit which converts the normal 512bytes per sector to 4096bytes per sector while writing into the drive and reconverts data coming from 4096bytes sector to 512bytes per sector while reading. . It is quite obvious thet the SATA to USB bridge circuit does not work because of the broken port.. When you take the HDD out of the enclosure and connect it with a SATA to USB adapter, the drive translation required is missing. So your OS is unable to read the data coming out of the 4096bytes/sector stream. Using TestDisk you have to provide the software Drive translation to convert it into 512bytes /sector stream and then copy the data to another drive. ( It is not a Partition Recovery problem. I only hope that TestDisk used wrongly by you for Partition Recovery hasn't corrupted your drive. )

If you confirm you are still there, I shall give you a step by step procedure for doing that. ( Don't use TestDisk on your own. You are likely to make mistakes like the one you already made and spoil your drive making data recovery impossible.) For copying the data recovered, you may require another external HDD with enough space.

Please read this thread Hard Drive seems corrupt. 1 Partition now showing as 3 Partitions? Solved - Windows 10 Forums but do not do anything unless I instruct you.

Now please post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management with only your Seagate 3TB drive connected. Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Do not format. Do not format.

 

[Snick]

The drive is a Seagate, not a WD

Several previous posts were regarding WD. My bad!

 

[cornemuse]

I do not know but I plugged a 1T WD 2.5 hdd via an 'esata' port on my Toshiba laptop with W10. After 10 sec or less it came back with sic 'drive must be formated'. Well, it was full (maybe 5 G free). I plugged it into several desktops via esata ports, (it always worked before). It did not show up in device manager or disk management. In device manager-disk drives I clicked 5 or 6 times to 'scan for hardware changes', finally, whew! it showed up. Then it showed up in Disk Management as 'dynamic'. (wanted to format) There is a procedure to 'activate' it every time it is connected. There is, that I can find, no freeware/shareware software for converting it back to basic. This is a simple enough workaround for me. Same procedure on other comps. Maybe this is the same issue with you?
(Curse you bill 'satan' gates & W10!)

-c-

 

[Snick]

There is, that I can find, no freeware/shareware software for converting it back to basic.

cornemuse

Here's you go!
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

And an AOMEI Video
How to Convert Dynamic Disk to Basic Disk without Data Loss ...

 

[digiman2372]

I can't find anything showing the drive uses hardware encryption. If in fact it DOES then your f'ed. What shows in "Disk Management". Does it show as "Raw" or show a partition? If it does NOT show a partition then you can try to use "Partition Find an Mount" to recover the partition. (no data loss) If in fact the drive uses hardware encryption then all I see would be to carefully un-solder the USB connector from the board and replace it. Don't know if the new PCB board would use the same Encryption Key. You may need to contact Seagate and verify if the drive uses Encryption and if so would a replacement PCB board use the same Key

Partition Find and Mount: Download

I called seagate and they said they have no replacement parts avaiable. in Disk Management, the drive shows up as "RAW". I used partition find and mount, and it found 5 partitons, all of them were "FAT" and not "NTFS" as it originally was. Would I still be able to use any of these partitions? if nit the PCB is still in great shape beside the USB part being ripped off, maybe I can have a repair shop solder one back on?

How in fact do you know the hard drive is still 'good'? And that the data structure on the drive is 'good'?

I have used generic USB to SATA adapters and all they do is change the physical hardware interface. The data on the drive is EXACTLY the same.

For example, I can plug the SATA drive into the SATA/USB adapter, and then plug the drive in the USB port on the computer, format/mount/copy files to/from the drive. The dismount the drive, remove the USB adapter, and plug the drive directly into a SATA port on the same (or another) computer and it works as expected, boots and/or mounts correctly.

So unless you can demonstrate otherwise I question your basic assumption the drive is still 'good'.

Do you have another drive you can plug into your suspected bad SATA/USB adapter to see if it works?

Don

And BTW I ONLY ever use WD drives. Never had one fail in dozens I have bought. Only ever taken out of service because the technology got old (ie, SCSI, PATA, SATA 1.0) or needed more space.

My opinion.

unfortunately the other hard drive I have is not compatible with the SATA connector, but I can still use it to store all the data from the old drive. I'm assuming my old drive still works from what i've been reading, it just seems that my OS cant read it.

 

[digiman2372]

Hi @digiman2372,
If your Seagate is an old model 3TB drive, it would be an advance formatted MBR drive with a logical sector size of 4096 bytes. The SATA to USB bridge circuit inside the original enclosure has a drivetranslation circuit which converts the normal 512bytes per sector to 4096bytes per sector while writing into the drive and reconverts data coming from 4096bytes sector to 512bytes per sector while reading. . It is quite obvious thet the SATA to USB bridge circuit does not work because of the broken port.. When you take the HDD out of the enclosure and connect it with a SATA to USB adapter, the drive translation required is missing. So your OS is unable to read the data coming out of the 4096bytes/sector stream. Using TestDisk you have to provide the software Drive translation to convert it into 512bytes /sector stream and then copy the data to another drive. ( It is not a Partition Recovery problem. I only hope that TestDisk used wrongly by you for Partition Recovery hasn't corrupted your drive. )

If you confirm you are still there, I shall give you a step by step procedure for doing that. ( Don't use TestDisk on your own. You are likely to make mistakes like the one you already made and spoil your drive making data recovery impossible.) For copying the data recovered, you may require another external HDD with enough space.

Please read this thread Hard Drive seems corrupt. 1 Partition now showing as 3 Partitions? Solved - Windows 10 Forums but do not do anything unless I instruct you.

Now please post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management with only your Seagate 3TB drive connected. Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Do not format. Do not format.

Jumanji, I hope I did not mess anything up as I tried using test disk a couple of weeks ago. I would still like to follow your steps though. Also, someone suggested that I try using the ubuntu OS to see if it can read the drive. what do you think?


Also, I'm trying to attach two screenshots but it says the file size is too big. How do I get around this?

I do not know but I plugged a 1T WD 2.5 hdd via an 'esata' port on my Toshiba laptop with W10. After 10 sec or less it came back with sic 'drive must be formated'. Well, it was full (maybe 5 G free). I plugged it into several desktops via esata ports, (it always worked before). It did not show up in device manager or disk management. In device manager-disk drives I clicked 5 or 6 times to 'scan for hardware changes', finally, whew! it showed up. Then it showed up in Disk Management as 'dynamic'. (wanted to format) There is a procedure to 'activate' it every time it is connected. There is, that I can find, no freeware/shareware software for converting it back to basic. This is a simple enough workaround for me. Same procedure on other comps. Maybe this is the same issue with you?
(Curse you bill 'satan' gates & W10!)

-c-

I hope one of these suggestions will fix the issue.