[Technology] Help: How to recover external HDD data without formatting?

[1066familyman]

Any ideas please. Or will it require paying for software to do it?

Asking for someone else. They've tried the CHKDSK method on Windows apparently but that didn't work. Also tried initialising it on Mac or something.

I don't have Windows or a Mac so no clue myself.

 

[boik]

Well, I would probably use Linux to do that, but then I use Linux for everything. Not easy to talk a novice through tho.

 

[1066familyman]

Well, I would probably use Linux to do that, but then I use Linux for everything. Not easy to talk a novice through tho.

Brilliant, fire away please, if you can.

I only use Linux too, but I'm not a very advanced user.

I'm running a Linux Mint Serena 32 bit. So it's old, but works fine.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Might be that you need to repair the MBR.



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[Deleted member 22389]

Any ideas please. Or will it require paying for software to do it?

Asking for someone else. They've tried the CHKDSK method on Windows apparently but that didn't work. Also tried initialising it on Mac or something.

I don't have Windows or a Mac so no clue myself.

As Boik says try Linux. If you have a USB flash drive handy, you can download and write the Linux distro .iso to it.

Once complete, set the BIOS to boot from USB, the Linux distro will then boot from the USB.

Once the distro has loaded all you need to do then is plug in your drive.

Hope this makes sense?

 

[boik]

Brilliant, fire away please, if you can.

I only use Linux too, but I'm not a very advanced user.

I'm running a Linux Mint Serena 32 bit. So it's old, but works fine.

Depending on what the issue is, as Mr Bash says, you might just get away with plugging it in and it just mounting. If the filesystem or partition table are mangled then you may still be able to recover data. If it's just photos and or videos you want to recover then magicrescue is pretty simple for recovering files from a corrupted disk.

If it is more involved and there is deeper corruption then a combination of DD, testdisk and photorec can still potentially recover lots of data. Identifying what you've recovered isn't always easy though as filenames tend to get lost.

Happy to help, but not online much at the moment due to workshop clearout and enjoying the sunshine!

 

[Wardy's twin]

Any ideas please. Or will it require paying for software to do it?

Asking for someone else. They've tried the CHKDSK method on Windows apparently but that didn't work. Also tried initialising it on Mac or something.

I don't have Windows or a Mac so no clue myself.

before writing anything to that hard drive do you have a spare and see if one of the various block by block copy utilities work - there are some good free ones .

Also what is the problem scenario - what errors are you getting and had you changed anything prior to the issue.

I guess you have don both of these already but worth checking that you have.

If this is an external mount I assume its usb and you have tried on either another USB port or better still another machine.

 

[happypig]

It could be the enclosure that has failed. Do you have another one you can try it in ?

 

[1066familyman]

Thanks for all the responses.

To be clear, the problem is with the external HDD, not with a pc/laptop.

They have tried the device (usb powered) in two Mac's and a Windows machine. All the machines recognise the device but it won't open.

I have a fully functioning Linux only machine, which we're yet to try it in. If it doesn't open up in there, then perhaps I can still run something like testdisk to recover it?

The files lost are a combination of all sorts, but the most important ones are music related.

The HDD in question has been used very very frequently for lots of reads and writes, so possibly it's a hardware failure rather than software?

 

[boik]

OK, well let us know when you have it connected to your Linux box and we'll see what we can find out from there. Haven't used Windows or Macs since I left work some 8 years ago, so can't help on that front I'm afraid.

 

[1066familyman]

OK, well let us know when you have it connected to your Linux box and we'll see what we can find out from there. Haven't used Windows or Macs since I left work some 8 years ago, so can't help on that front I'm afraid.

Thanks.

Just plugged it in to my Linux laptop and it's a no show on there too in my home folder.

If I open it in Disks it shows up with nothing on it.

Is the restore disk option basically the same as formatting? In other words, loses all the data but restores the device to be usable again?

P.S. Just installed testdisk. Will it walk me through or will I need to go into terminal?

PP.S Can't find Testdisk, even though it installed ok from the Software Manager. Odd.

 

[beorhthelm]

if its not showing as a drive, could indicate a interface error not necessarily the drive. remove from the external housing and plug in directly to a machine and see if its recognised. if that fails you may be hosed as any recovery software needs the drive to be seen by OS.

 

[Is it PotG?]

EaseUS Data Recovery.

Free versions are available apparently.

 

[1066familyman]

if its not showing as a drive, could indicate a interface error not necessarily the drive. remove from the external housing and plug in directly to a machine and see if its recognised. if that fails you may be hosed as any recovery software needs the drive to be seen by OS.

Yes, shows as a drive, but nothing on it.

 

[Mortdecai]

If you think it might be a more mechanical issue try slamming it squarely on a solid surface. Maybe something inside is stuck a little and just needs a little persuasion.

 

[1066familyman]

If you think it might be a more mechanical issue try slamming it squarely on a solid surface. Maybe something inside is stuck a little and just needs a little persuasion.

That wouldn't be my decision to make. I can suggest it though

 

[boik]

That wouldn't be my decision to make. I can suggest it though

It could be a stuck disk if it's an old drive. Most people replace them before it gets that old though. The other trick that us old sysadmins used to use was to seal the disk in a plastic bag and put it in the frezzer over night. Then take it out and plug it straight in before it warm up again. I have had a stuck disk once and the slam on the disk did work, but the disk died a few days later.

Are you happy typing stuff on the command line? You could try typing "sudo fdisk -l" (thats a lowercase "L") and see if you disk shows up. If it doesn't then its almost certainly an electrical or mechanical issue.

If the data is completey irreplaceable and valuable there are compaines that can retrieve data from a completely failed disk but youre talking thousands.

Just going to eat and then going to a gig so will be offline.

Sorry.

 

[1066familyman]

It could be a stuck disk if it's an old drive. Most people replace them before it gets that old though. The other trick that us old sysadmins used to use was to seal the disk in a plastic bag and put it in the frezzer over night. Then take it out and plug it straight in before it warm up again. I have had a stuck disk once and the slam on the disk did work, but the disk died a few days later.

Are you happy typing stuff on the command line? You could try typing "sudo fdisk -l" (thats a lowercase "L") and see if you disk shows up. If it doesn't then its almost certainly an electrical or mechanical issue.

If the data is completey irreplaceable and valuable there are compaines that can retrieve data from a completely failed disk but youre talking thousands.

Just going to eat and then going to a gig so will be offline.

Sorry.

Brilliant, thanks.

Enjoy your food and gig. Hope you have a great time

 

[swindonseagull]

Recuva is a free option and I have used it to recover stuff on data sticks that would not be reconised....will it work on an external HDD? I have no idea but its free and worth a go.

Nothing to lose.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

Also might be worth trying disk clone software to see if it can access. At least then you might be able to backup and inspect. Macrium Reflect Free is decent.

Never managed to get Freezer/bang to work.

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