Unsure how to Repair Partition

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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riverofsouls
Posts: 1
Joined: 30 Nov 2012, 06:06

Unsure how to Repair Partition

#1 Post by riverofsouls »

I have a 3TB My Book external hard drive that isn't functioning properly. About half of it is full. I have three PCs that recognize with a beep that the hard drive is there, but does not list the device in My Computer. Device Manager does list the device, but Disk Management states that the hard drive is not initialized and cannot initialize it due to an I/O error. When I connected the hard drive to my laptop running Windows 7 and then plug the power cord in, the computer recognizes it "properly" and I am able to explore the drive. Exploring is very sluggish, however, and it took two hours to transfer 1 GB of data to my desktop. Disk Management lists the drive as healthy but obviously it isn't. TestDisk lists three different drives for My Book on F and reports that there is an incorrect number of heads, cylinders, and sectors per track in each one. Selecting Drive F lists a Sys 72 and Sys 74 error. I have followed this tutorial (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step) but testdisk kind of freezes when I try to press "P" to list the files. I don't know what to do, I have attached some screenshots...
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pigtail
Posts: 5
Joined: 29 Nov 2012, 17:55

Re: Unsure how to Repair Partition

#2 Post by pigtail »

Reading your problem, I would suggest you copy your files out asap first before any partition recovery.

Don't trust the "healthy" status under windows' build-in tools. Try to find out the heatlh conditiion from other 3rd parties which are able to analyze HD S.M.A.R.T. status. Usually if simple file copy operation becomes time consuming then before, the HD probably is aged / injured / getting sick...

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