Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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SyncroScales
Posts: 20
Joined: 09 Nov 2016, 23:10

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#11 Post by SyncroScales »

I was wondering if changing Disk geometry might help. I don't know how to fill in the information.

I was wondering if writing the Testdisk MBR code to first sector would help?

Should I add a partition once a scan is complete?

How do I upload large log files?

Thank you.
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cgrenier
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Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#12 Post by cgrenier »

There are a lot of read errors. As the testdisk.log file records all the problem, it is very large due to the bad disk.
Try latest PhotoRec 7.1-WIP (better performance than 7.0). Does it recover some good files or only junk data or even nothing at all ?

SyncroScales
Posts: 20
Joined: 09 Nov 2016, 23:10

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#13 Post by SyncroScales »

Hello.

PhotoRec scanned quite a lot of files (That I cannot see). But it found nothing.

I have decided to copy and paste parts of the log file into smaller document files. How can I post these?

SyncroScales
Posts: 20
Joined: 09 Nov 2016, 23:10

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#14 Post by SyncroScales »

I thought of some things I also need to do since the External HDD is recognized in the BIOS.

Can I scan the external HDD and my computer/drives/etc for malware before boot? Any recommendations?

Can I try any data recovery on the external HDD before boot?

My computer might be infected now. I did not do any Windows Updates and I received a message about Windows Explorer wanting to restart the computer to apply changes 'Restart Now' or Restart Later'. Task Manager said the process was in Windows\System32. I used Task Manager to close the window though and did not click anything. I think there is something at the beginning of the HDD and it might be malware. If I can bypass that and do a scan it might work. But as I showed in my screen snips, the size of the 2TB Ext.HDD is slightly smaller than the same size 2 TB internal and eSATA drives. I think I want to bypass that?

SyncroScales
Posts: 20
Joined: 09 Nov 2016, 23:10

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#15 Post by SyncroScales »

I tried to use R-Studio as bootable media before Windows starts. It was unsuccessful, I tried changing BIOS settings, but the DVD-RW and USB flash stick were not recognized.

I managed to get R-studio to recognize the Western Digital My Book in Windows. It gave me these messages in a log file that also had characters that could not be read.

R-Studio Log File

Read error
No O/S
No active partition

A disk read error occurred
BOOTMGR is missing
BOOTMGR is compressed
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

A disk read error occurred
NTLDR is missing
NTLDR is compressed
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

UID=405270612 dwIdx=42 Name=WD My Book 1130 1012 Children=43,
UID=405270613 dwIdx=43 Name=O: Parents=42,

- Drive Number 42 --------------------------------
* Drive Type [256 bytes]: Physical Drive,Disk
* Name [42 bytes]: WD My Book 1130 1012
* OS Object [40 bytes]: \\.\PhysicalDrive11
* R-Studio Driver [44 bytes]: WinNT\Handle\Physical
* Sector Size [4 bytes]: 512B
* Partition Size [8 bytes]: 1.81TB (-388003840 sec)
# I/O Tries [4 bytes]: Default
+ Drive Control [4 bytes]:
# Maximum Transfer [4 bytes]: 131072
# I/O Unit [4 bytes]: 512
# Buffer Alignment [4 bytes]: 4
+ Physical Drive Geometry [4 bytes]:
* Cylinders [8 bytes]: 243197
* Tracks Per Cylinder [4 bytes]: 255
* Sectors Per Track [4 bytes]: 63
* Sector Size [4 bytes]: 512B
+ Device Identification [4 bytes]:
* Vendor [32 bytes]: WD
* Product [64 bytes]: My Book 1130
* Firmware [16 bytes]: 1012
* Serial Number [32 bytes]: WCAZA4151824
* Bus Type [4 bytes]: USB
* Int13 Drive Number [4 bytes]: 0x85


- Drive Number 42 --------------------------------
* Drive Type [256 bytes]: Physical Drive,Disk
* Name [42 bytes]: WD My Book 1130 1012
* OS Object [40 bytes]: \\.\PhysicalDrive11
* R-Studio Driver [44 bytes]: WinNT\Handle\Physical
* Sector Size [4 bytes]: 512B
* Partition Size [8 bytes]: 1.81TB (-388003840 sec)
# I/O Tries [4 bytes]: Default
+ Drive Control [4 bytes]:
# Maximum Transfer [4 bytes]: 131072
# I/O Unit [4 bytes]: 512
# Buffer Alignment [4 bytes]: 4
+ Physical Drive Geometry [4 bytes]:
* Cylinders [8 bytes]: 243197
* Tracks Per Cylinder [4 bytes]: 255
* Sectors Per Track [4 bytes]: 63
* Sector Size [4 bytes]: 512B
+ Device Identification [4 bytes]:
* Vendor [32 bytes]: WD
* Product [64 bytes]: My Book 1130
* Firmware [16 bytes]: 1012
* Serial Number [32 bytes]: WCAZA4151824
* Bus Type [4 bytes]: USB
* Int13 Drive Number [4 bytes]: 0x85



- Drive Number 43 --------------------------------
* Drive Type [256 bytes]: Volume,Disk
* Name [6 bytes]: O:
* Mount Points [8 bytes]: O:\
* OS Object [98 bytes]: \\?\Volume{ebc91797-a2c5-11e6-94c2-a78cf8021da5}
* R-Studio Driver [42 bytes]: WinNT\Handle\Logical
* Size [8 bytes]: 1.81TB (-388005888 sec)
* Partition Offset [8 bytes]: 1.00MB (2048 sec)
* Partition Size [8 bytes]: 1.81TB (-388005888 sec)
* Partition Number [4 bytes]: 1
* Partition Type [256 bytes]: NTFS/HPFS/exFAT (0x7)
# I/O Tries [4 bytes]: Default
+ Drive Control [4 bytes]:
# Maximum Transfer [4 bytes]: 131072
# I/O Unit [4 bytes]: 512
# Buffer Alignment [4 bytes]: 4
+ Physical Drive Geometry [4 bytes]:
* Cylinders [8 bytes]: 0
* Tracks Per Cylinder [4 bytes]: 0
* Sectors Per Track [4 bytes]: 0
* Sector Size [4 bytes]: 0B
* Bus Type [4 bytes]: USB

****************************************************************************************************

Severity Type Date Time Message
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Error System 01/12/2016 10:00:43 AM Read disk O: at position 15131444224 failed after 1 attempts. The system cannot find the file specified (2)
Error System 01/12/2016 10:00:43 AM Read disk O: at position 15131444736 failed after 1 attempts. The system cannot find the file specified (2)
Error System 01/12/2016 10:00:43 AM Read disk O: at position 15131445248 failed after 1 attempts. The system cannot find the file specified (2)
Error System 01/12/2016 10:00:43 AM Read disk O: at position 15131445760 failed after 1 attempts. The system cannot find the file specified (2)
Error System 01/12/2016 10:00:43 AM Read disk O: at position 15131446272 failed after 1 attempts. The system cannot find the file specified (2)


The Errors continued and I stopped the scan. Similar things happened with the testdisk logs.

Mon Nov 21 11:58:16 2016
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows Vista (6002) SP2
Compiler: GCC 4.8, Cygwin 1007.34
Compilation date: 2015-04-18T13:01:55
ext2fs lib: 1.42.8, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: 0.3.1-rc8, ewf lib: 20120504, curses lib: ncurses 5.9
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sda)=1000204886016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdb)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdc)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdd)=1500301910016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sde)=8002732032
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdj)=2000365289472
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(/dev/sdk)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=1000204886016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive2)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive3)=1500301910016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive4)=8002732032
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive5) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive5) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive5
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive6) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive6
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive7) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive7
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\PhysicalDrive8) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\PhysicalDrive8
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive9)=2000365289472
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive10)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=408021893120
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\D:)=2000396746752
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\E:)=2000396746752
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\F:)=1500299395072
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\G:)=592179101696
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\H:)=8002715136
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\I:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\I:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\I:
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\J:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\J:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\J:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\K:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\K:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\L:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\L:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\M:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\M:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\N:)=0
Warning: can't get size for \\.\N:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\O:)=2000364240896
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdc - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdd - 1500 GB / 1397 GiB - CHS 182401 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sde - 8002 MB / 7632 MiB - CHS 972 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdj - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB - CHS 243197 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdk - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512
Drive C: - 408 GB / 380 GiB - CHS 49605 255 63, sector size=512
Drive D: - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512
Drive F: - 1500 GB / 1397 GiB - CHS 182401 255 63, sector size=512
Drive G: - 592 GB / 551 GiB - CHS 71995 255 63, sector size=512
Drive H: - 8002 MB / 7631 MiB - CHS 972 255 63, sector size=512
Drive O: - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB - CHS 243197 255 63, sector size=512

Partition table type default to Intel
Disk /dev/sdj - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB
Partition table type: Intel

Interface Advanced
Partition table type default to Intel
Disk /dev/sdj - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB
Partition table type: Intel

Analyse Disk /dev/sdj - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB - CHS 243197 255 63
Current partition structure:

Partition: Read error

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdj - 2000 GB / 1862 GiB - CHS 243197 255 63
file_pread(9,16,buffer,32(0/0/33)) ReadFile The specified network resource or device is no longer available.

file_pread(9,3,buffer,48(0/0/49)) ReadFile The specified network resource or device is no longer available.

file_pread(9,3,buffer,95(0/1/33)) ReadFile The specified network resource or device is no longer available.

file_pread(9,8,buffer,111(0/1/49)) ReadFile The specified network resource or device is no longer available.



The errors just continue with the large log file testdisk made.

User avatar
cgrenier
Site Admin
Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
Contact:

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#16 Post by cgrenier »

The disk is in a bad shape, there is a hardware problem. You need to contact a data recovery company.

SyncroScales
Posts: 20
Joined: 09 Nov 2016, 23:10

Re: Blank external Hard-drive. Windows says must format it.

#17 Post by SyncroScales »

So Write Testdisk MBR code to first sector won't work?

When does someone use Write Testdisk MBR code to first sector won't work?

The thing is that Windows Vista recognizes the external hard-drive in Device Manager and wants to Format it. Safely Remove also recognizes the external hard-drive. So I think it is there. But I am skeptical to re-format the external hard-drive in-case I lose 25%-35% of the data?

I plan to speak to a Western Digital representative who emailed me about the drive also.

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