ThermaltakeDuet replaces partition info with other disk's
Posted: 14 Sep 2012, 01:58
I had two 2TB HDDs in a Thermaltake Duet dock (the older one, with the eSata, not the USB3 version, but using USB2 on my Macbook Pro), and suddenly today, it seems at random, one HDDs started identifying itself as having the same name as the other, with the same root directory. This identity conversion was only partial, as the subfolders contained only gibberish. I though it was a disk repair problem, and used the Mac Disk Utility, which claimed to have repaired it but left it in its previous condition, which seems to have confirmed, maybe aggravated, the problem. The HDD was formatted by the Mac OSX in FAT32 to make it compatible with Windows machines (so it may be recoverable by Windows if it isn't via the Mac?). Now, using TestDisk, I've found an even older partition, but it appears that the directory of the other HDD that was in the Duet has replaced all traces of the partition that occupied the whole HDD, and was working perfectly, until earlier today.
I've read a dozen of so google entries by people who've lost partitions one way or another on the Duet device. Speculation seems to be that it's the hardware chip in the device. One of the reports actually specified the directory duplication phenomenon that I've experienced, but without reporting any success in fixing it. Plenty of reports of reports to Thermaltake and replace units, but nothing about actually fixing the disks suffering the identity crisis.
I'm trying the TestDisk extended search, which seems like it will take about 24 hours, but am of course worried that in one instant the Thermaltake (and my subsequent attempts to recover with the Mac's Disk Utility?) may have led to losing 1.6TB of data, most of which I have elsewhere, but it will take me dozens of hours to reduplicate what I can from existing sources. Today's event was at the end of an attempt to get everything from many sources in a single duplicable disk, but unless I can somehow recover the directory which is what I presume the Thermaltake Duet replaced, a lot of work will have been wasted. Of course, I should have kept an exact duplicate of the HDD as I went along, but I didn't.
Does this make any sense, or ring any bells? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance for reading all this.
I've read a dozen of so google entries by people who've lost partitions one way or another on the Duet device. Speculation seems to be that it's the hardware chip in the device. One of the reports actually specified the directory duplication phenomenon that I've experienced, but without reporting any success in fixing it. Plenty of reports of reports to Thermaltake and replace units, but nothing about actually fixing the disks suffering the identity crisis.
I'm trying the TestDisk extended search, which seems like it will take about 24 hours, but am of course worried that in one instant the Thermaltake (and my subsequent attempts to recover with the Mac's Disk Utility?) may have led to losing 1.6TB of data, most of which I have elsewhere, but it will take me dozens of hours to reduplicate what I can from existing sources. Today's event was at the end of an attempt to get everything from many sources in a single duplicable disk, but unless I can somehow recover the directory which is what I presume the Thermaltake Duet replaced, a lot of work will have been wasted. Of course, I should have kept an exact duplicate of the HDD as I went along, but I didn't.
Does this make any sense, or ring any bells? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance for reading all this.