External Hard Drive Unreadable

I very recently ran into a major problem with my external hard drive. It's a Samsung HM120JC inside a USB external enclosure which I have been using for a few years as a backup and additional storage device.

Today I plugged it into my computer to transfer some files when it told me that I needed to format the disk in order to use it. There was a single NTFS partition on the disk containing about 100GB (out of 120GB) of mixed data, some of which are very important.

I did some Googling and found the TestDisk program. I ran it and it managed to find the partition and seemed to be able to detect all my files within. I tried to have it repair my partition tables to no avail. Going into the file system options it showed that the boot sector was "OK" as well. I also installed the free tool Recuva from the makers of CCleaner, which also seemed to be able to find my data.

As said before, it tells me I need to format the disk whenever I plug it in. Also, double clicking on it in My Computer brings up an error saying the disk is corrupt and unreadable. The Disk Management utility shows all 120 (113) GB free and in the RAW format (huh?). The same shows when plugging it into other computers.

Before I go any further, I'd like all your opinions. As I said, the data is important and must be recovered if there is a way to (cost-free if possible ). What should my next step be? Can the drive be restored without formatting or using data recovery software? If I need data recovery software, what are the best free options?

Your responses are appreciated!

 

If the data was that important it should have been in more than 1 place.

Try something like crystaldiskinfo to see what the SMART status of the drive is.

 

True...although in that sense the data is not exactly too valuable...just important to myself

Just tried crystaldiskinfo but it does not recognize the HDD

 

I'm reaching a bit here... but doesn't a Ubuntu boot disk give you the tools to enable a 'resetting' of the MBR tables so that the drive will work normally for you? See if any googling brings anything up in that direction.

Good luck.

 

TestDisk has an option that "Write TestDisk MBR code to first sector" which is explained here: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_MBRCode

Is this the kind of action you were talking abouit?

Thanks

 

No.

I'm thinking that the Ubuntu tools allow you to non-destructively re-format the HD essentially. But my memory is a little hazy on the exact software (or commands) that actually accomplished that.

 

Hmm...
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ ?

Would this require actually installing Ubuntu on my computer though?

 

First of all, unless you send it off for data recovery, buy another HDD.

Because you should ALWAYS recover to another source.

Then you'd need some software that reads the files off the drive without using the Master File Table - you could also try cloning the drive...
But read up on it first.

 

Update:

Haven't done anything to the hard drive yet but I think the cable is going bad so I might have to purchase another USB-A to USB-A cable first. Right now when I plug it in it will recognize that I've plugged in a "USB Mass Storage Device" but either not show the "Local Disk" in My Computer or have it show up but freeze if trying to open it. Also doesn't ask me to format it anymore...when it is recognized by Windows TestDisk shows it simply as a "Drive E" with no partitions (partition read error). I'm hoping it's just the cable and nothing else has happened to the drive overnight...

 

Update 2:

I seem to be able to get the computer to recognize the actual drive in the enclosure now...sometimes. Now, the bad news:

- I get up to the point in testdisk where it shows me my partition, in green. However, when I get it to list files, nothing shows up except for a couple 0 byte objects! Nothing changed to the drive as far as I know from last night when I unplugged it and shut down for the night. Now today the files are gone!

List files command shows the following now:

Code:

* HPFS - NTFS       0   1   1   14582 254 63     234436482 [ColinZhang HDD]
Directory /

dr-xr-xr-x    0    0        0   8-Nov-2009 10:43  .
dr-xr-xr-x    0    0        0   8-Nov-2009 10:43  ..

Use Right arrow to change directory, c to copy, q to quit

 

My guess is the MFT might be damaged/gone.

Either:
a) Get a specialist company to recover the files if they are important to you
b) Get recovery software that does not require the MFT to find files.

and - GET a SPARE DRIVE stop messing about with it.

The moment you had the problem you should have stopped using it, bought another HDD and then read up on it.

 

Hmm I will search up on that.

To clarify, this is an external hard drive and once I plugged it in to discover the problem, of course I didn't use (write to) it because it couldn't be used (written to). Unless (attempting to) read the file structure counts as writing to it.

Thanks for your help so far. I will keep this thread updated as any new developments come up.

 

I agree, there are compnaies that specialise in recovering hard drive data. If its really importent to you, you should send your drive to make them find everything you lost.
Second, it is risky to keep al your data in one hard drive. I do so too and nearly got a heart attack when my WD fell on the floor today. Surprisingly it still works fine, but I reinforced the corners and edges with white elastic rubber (from south africa). Thank god it was in the WD black bag (which doesnt protect against shocks, its as thin as a handkerchief) the plastic doesn't have a scratch.

 

Yes if I do ever get my files back I will be keeping my backups in at least 2 places!

So far the DIY method's not looking good... TestDisk says both the MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Chkdsk /r obviously doesn't work. I'm running GetDataBack but it's still going and so far is giving me all errors with 3-4 hours still left to go and at sector 10000000. "Error 2 in E: during ReadLogicalLBA [...]" I guess I'll leave it overnight and see if it there is something that doesn't get an error in the morning

Very strange though that one day the MFT is there and files look recoverable, yet the very next day the MFT is screwed up and so far looks like my data is too...

Wish me luck.

 

In theory TestDisk can repair the MFT... and "GetDataBack" - I hope you are not recovering data to the same drive because in that case all you do is breaking it even more....

I don't want to sound rude - but from this thread it seems you have a problem find any tool you find at it and complain how it doesn't work.

And if you continue like that you will not get anywhere.

Logical steps would have been:
1) Problem occurred - shut down HDD
2) Post problem on say NBR & research
3) Buy another HDD or make space available off the HDD
4) attempt recovery

Alternative:
At 2) send off to a specialized company.


At the moment I have a feeling you are best off sending it off to a data recovery company and have them recover the data.

 

I am not recovering anything to the same drive as it was broken and I couldn't if I wanted to - I do also realize this is a very bad idea.

When I found the problem with the HDD I immediately started doing some research on how to fix the problem. I saw many people having the same outer symptom of Windows showing the drive being unformatted, many other symptoms of which were the same or similar to mine. TestDisk was the most recommended tool which seemed to fix many people's issues. I ran the analysis/partition table repair option to see it had no effect (but did not damage my data...at least at the time). At this point I posted the problem here on NBR and on the "Microsoft Answers" place where to this point I still haven't received a response. Through the responses here on NBR though I decided to give a recovery attempt with software a try (that is GetDataBack) which obviously didn't go too well.

As you mentioned unfortunately it does look like the best option is to send the HDD off to the pros to recover the data. In the morning I will be evaluating whether or not the data is actually worth the fee for recovering the data (monetarily, not so much, but personally quite important/necessary). Whatever way I go, I will be purchasing a new external hard drive when I can. If I get the data back through the pros I will most likely use both drives for redundant backups. If it's not worth the price in the end I will begin new backups on the new HDD and keep the unrecovered HDD for a little while in case something comes up though. In fact the current HDD is a few years old and I suspect given that I purchased it from a small local vendor here in Beijing, it is not very reliable anyway.

I do appreciate the help you and everyone else has provided in this thread

P.S. looking into the future, could I get your opinions on a good external hard drive to purchase? Probably about 250GB or 320 max and preferably sub-$100. Of course it should be reliable and portable (so most likely 2.5"). Are HDDs in external enclosures generally less reliable than external hard drives marketed for that use (e.g. the Seagate FreeAgent Go)? Alternatively would it be better to purchase 2 lesser-quality or capacity cheaper drives for a total of at least 2 or ideally 3 backup HDDs? Or should I also look into other solutions such as online backup (speed concerns due to low internet speed here)? Thanks again!

 

OK - sorry - but I was getting annoyed at the unclear posts where it just seemed like you went into it headless...

After TestDisk you say the drive still worked - you tried to fix the partition tables though - my suspicion would be that something went wrong here.

GetDataBack - I'm not sure what it did... apparently its meant for NTFS and FAT drives - each with its own license you have to buy.
In case the partition tables are damaged that couldn't help as it wouldn't recognize the drive as either of those formats.

Recovery services - I think someone once stated a price of around 700$ here... a few years ago it used to be 3000-6000 Deutsche Mark... but that's more than 6 years ago... and would be around 4000-5000$....

=> basically I have no idea how much it would cost.

A nice external drive:
Western Digital passport drives are nice
Get any size you like.
If you want to make sure, get 2 and make sure they contain the same data.