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3TB external single partitioned HDD now RAW

Posted: 19 Dec 2013, 17:33
by scifihi
Hello, I'm lost! I've a 3TB external single partitioned HDD and it popped up as a healthy RAW partition. I've gotten into the drive with TestDisk 6.14 and it's giving me the option to save files. Where will they be saved to? Apparently I know just enough to be dangerous to my data. Thanks out to the TestDisk experts out there!

Re: 3TB external single partitioned HDD now RAW

Posted: 23 Dec 2013, 13:41
by scifihi
Well, I thought I was being ignored by this website. Apparently not. OK then, I've discovered the fix. Very simple to those that may have the same or a similar problem. The problem was in the Volume Bitmap. These are the steps that fixed my external HD: 1. Go to Control Panel >Administrative Tools >Computer Management >Storage >Disk Management. 2. Change or assign a different drive letter to the naughty drive. I used "Z" as that helped to prevent confusion (got 10 drives). 3. Trying to open the drive gives an error message: "Drive is not formatted" and asks if you would like to format it. NO, don't do that! 4. Go to the windows "Start"button.>"Run", type "cmd" to get to a command prompt. Then type "chkdsk Z:/f. "Z" will be whatever you've renamed the problem drive. "/f" is an option to have chkdsk fix errors.If you suspect any sectors also add the "/r" switch. The "r/" will probably take a long time which will require patience. It was a 3 step process and ended by stating "Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap". Windows had made corrections to the file system. I can see and use the HD again!