HP 2TB SimpleSave: Partitions cannot be recovered ('The Harddisk seems too small!')

[dj89]

Hello,

I am trying to recover a partition on a 2TB HP SimpleSave - the partition is listed as raw in windows, and doesn't appear in quick search in test disk. However, when I run photorec it successfully finds most files on there. I now want to try recover the partition as it was, I ran a deep search for a week and it got to just over 20 percent when the following popped up:



The HDD is certainly a 2TB drive - with a HP NTFS partition (simplesave backup partition i figure?), and then the file partition. I've had to upload the log file to a third party website as the logfile is over 1.8gb, lol. Here it is:

https://ufile.io/cy5xzr1x

Any ideas on this? I have still got the HDD inside the HP enclosure, if worse comes to worse i can rip it out and place it inside the PC. This HDD is a friend of mine who stupidly put all their eggs in one basket and didn't make backups for some very important family photos. If it was any other scenario I'd of just cut the losses and moved on - lesson learnt, but they're between a rock and a hard place with this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[cgrenier]

Try to clone the disk to a new empty one (2 TB or +) using ddrescue as described in https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Do not put the damaged disk in an USB enclosure as the disk disappear when scanned ("The specified network resource or device is no longer available." error message)

[dj89]

Hello,

Thank you for the prompt reply. I have shucked the drive out of its enclosure. It turns out is is a Western Digital Green 2TB (cira 2011). Those are the ones that love to park their heads. I've put the drive inside my PC.

I am running ddrescue off a partedmagic liveusb. I wasn't sure what settings to use with it, but found these recommendations on another forum. Are these ideal? or should I change?

https://imgur.com/mfZ8j8X