WD 1TB showing as RAW

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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jonathanhiott
Posts: 3
Joined: 23 Aug 2018, 16:33

WD 1TB showing as RAW

#1 Post by jonathanhiott »

Help please!
My External WD 1TB is suddenly showing as RAW. I have ran HDDscan and no SMART data is showing for the drive.
Tried running TestDisk Deep Scan and no partitions are found. When running the test, it shows numerous read errors and the scan takes about a day to finish
Tried running PhotoRec and it's not finding any files.

Any suggestions or recommended next steps?

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cgrenier
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Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
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Re: WD 1TB showing as RAW

#2 Post by cgrenier »

You should clone the disk using ddrescue to a new empty disk as described in https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Once it's done, remove the original disk and try to recover your data from the clone.

jonathanhiott
Posts: 3
Joined: 23 Aug 2018, 16:33

Re: WD 1TB showing as RAW

#3 Post by jonathanhiott »

Thank you for that information!

When trying to run ddrescue disk copy:
ddrescue /dev/sdb /dev/sdd sdb.log
I get output:
ddrescue: Output file exists and is not a regular file.
ddrescue: Use '--force if you really want to overwrite it, but be aware that all existing data will be lost.


sdd is a drive that already has data on it that I would like to keep but I can move data off sdd if needed.

The other method I tried is a disk clone, that you mentioned in your reply.
The trouble drive only has about 26gb free. When I try to clone the drive, I get message that there is not enough space.
is there a way to specify saving the data on a different drive (ideally sdd)?

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cgrenier
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Re: WD 1TB showing as RAW

#4 Post by cgrenier »

If your clone the disk to a disk (recommanded), the destination must be empty and at least as large as the original disk.
If you create a disk image, the destination is a file and must be stored on a partition with enough disk space.
It's a 1TB, so you need a 1TB or bigger HDD or 1TB of free space.

jonathanhiott
Posts: 3
Joined: 23 Aug 2018, 16:33

Re: WD 1TB showing as RAW

#5 Post by jonathanhiott »

Sadly, the WD drive has tons of read errors so a full recovery looks unlikely. Trying the freezer trick. :roll:
It did recover about 2 gig of data to my spare drive however.
When I plug the spare drive into Windows it says the drive needs to be formatted. How can I access the recovered data?
Is the spare drive formatted for Linux or?

Thanks for all your help!

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