Seagate ext. HDD, asking 4 format

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
Forum rules
When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Locked
Message
Author
darklove
Posts: 1
Joined: 18 Feb 2014, 12:26

Seagate ext. HDD, asking 4 format

#1 Post by darklove »

hello guys,

yesterday i was working on my Seagate external HDD copying a large file, suddenly i got the electricity off and when i turned the computer back on again, when i tried to open it back again, it asks me for format..i close that and i try to open it from my computer and i get this msg " disk structure is corrupted and unreadable " i see the drive as a RAW disk

i tried chkdsk with all the possibilities, i got "Corrupt master file table. Windows will attempt to recover" and then it says it was unable to fix that

i tried fix MFT from test disk, i got msg says the mirror MFT is corrupted also

ad right now am trying the deep search
Image

am wondering about these wornings

please help me to get back my external running and don't tell me i can't retrieve the data, it's all a project and studies from a year and a half and i don't want to lose it :cry: :cry:

Alphonse68
Posts: 6
Joined: 04 Feb 2014, 05:55

Re: Seagate ext. HDD, asking 4 format

#2 Post by Alphonse68 »

Hi,
I don't know what options you have available in TestDisk once it reads the partitions, but after a Deep Search I had these:

Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue _

where I tried "P" and was able to access my files I then got myself a large HD, installed Win7 and TestDisk in it, and copied everything possible into it. (It took a long time, but it was well worth it.)
Once I recovered everything, I simply re-installed the drive in the laptop and re-installed Win7, erasing ALL partitions first and then letting Win re-partition the drive as it needed. Now my old drive is back into action, and my new large capacity drive, with bare Win7 installed, is my backup drive.
Hope this works for you.
Cheers.

Locked