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Recovering data from 1 TB HDD being recognized as 4 GB in BIOS

Posted: 04 Nov 2018, 12:51
by sheruvs
Hi,
I have a Seagate 1 TB HDD which is being detected in the BIOS at 4 GB and not getting mounted on my Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system (/dev/sdb). The list hw command on Ubuntu shows:

Code: Select all

uvs@uvs-ESPRIMO-P500:~$ sudo lshw -C disk
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: C400-MTFDDAK512M
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 040H
serial: 0000000012460365C33B
size: 476GiB (512GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=7e73438b
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST1000DM003
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@4:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: CC46
serial: S1D9YKS7
size: 3950MiB (4142MB)
configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512
Note the size and sectorsize of /dev/sdb

TestDisk shows it as:

Code: Select all

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

  TestDisk is free software, and
comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.

Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter):
>Disk /dev/sda - 512 GB / 476 GiB - C400-MTFDDAK512MAM
 Disk /dev/sdb - 4142 MB / 3950 MiB - ST1000DM003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org


Disk /dev/sdb - 4142 MB / 3950 MiB - ST1000DM003
     CHS 503 255 63 - sector size=512

Fortunately, I have a working and HDD which automounts on Ubuntu and which is exactly the same make and model.. the same details as above are:

Ubuntu lshw output of working 1 TB disk (/dev/sdb )

Code: Select all

uvs@uvs-ESPRIMO-P500:~$ sudo lshw -C disk
[sudo] password for uvs:
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: C400-MTFDDAK512M
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sda
version: 040H
serial: 0000000012460365C33B
size: 476GiB (512GB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=7e73438b
*-disk
description: ATA Disk
product: ST1000DM003-1CH1
vendor: Seagate
physical id: 0.0.0
bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
logical name: /dev/sdb
version: CC46
serial: S1D9YSEQ
size: 931GiB (1TB)
capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512  sectorsize=4096 signature=c2092d18
uvs@uvs-ESPRIMO-P500:~$ 
Note the difference in sectorsize in the working and non-accessible HDDs.

TestDisk output of working 1 TB disk:

Code: Select all

TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org


Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - ST1000DM003-1CH162
     CHS 121601 255 63 - sector size=512
-----------------------------------------------------
analyse current disk partition:
Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Current partition structure:
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 P HPFS - NTFS              0  32 33 121601  25 24 1953519616
No partition is bootable
Is there any way I can access the data on the 1 TB disk which is wrongly recognized by BIOS and is not getting mounted?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TIA,
Umakanth

Re: Recovering data from 1 TB HDD being recognized as 4 GB in BIOS

Posted: 05 Nov 2018, 16:13
by cgrenier
Some USB case may limit the disk capacity.
You can also try an "sudo hdparm --dco-restore /dev/sdb" or the equivalent using the HDD constructor tools.