3TB Seagate Backup Plus turned RAW

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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JoeSD
Posts: 1
Joined: 16 Jan 2014, 10:44

3TB Seagate Backup Plus turned RAW

#1 Post by JoeSD »

Hello, I'm needing some help with a 3TB Seagate Backup Plus HDD.. It was a "MAC" HDD used to save video files, but I installed a driver on Win7 to be able to save photos on it as well. (I edit videos with MAC and photos on Windows.)

I don't care so much about the video files, but the photos are very important so if I can recover anything I would like it to be the photos.

Disk Management shows the drive in RAW format. Tried Recuva, but no luck. Currently running TestDisk 6.14. It's analyzing slowly, but the first time around it came to a read error even after the deep search.

Would anyone have any suggestions? I can post whatever is needed and appreciate any and all help!!

KateH
Posts: 5
Joined: 04 Jan 2014, 09:31

Re: 3TB Seagate Backup Plus turned RAW

#2 Post by KateH »

Hi there,

Mine did the same thing, same model and everything. I only used it 3 times. Have you had any response to your query?

Lito
Posts: 83
Joined: 08 Sep 2012, 06:58

Re: 3TB Seagate Backup Plus turned RAW

#3 Post by Lito »

You mention using a driver to write files to the disk.You do not say which.
You do not mention having ever converted the HDD.
So in theory the HDD is still a Mac HDD. Windows does not have a clue about such a filesystem.
Probably thinks the disk does not have a partition? In any case not a Windows one.
It might be that the driver you use has failed, become corrupted.
Try removing it. Then reinstall it afresh.

Next is a list of things to explore (rant):

This is a free driver to read such a disk from Windows

Diskinternals Linux Reader

http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/

The same company (commercial) offers a way of creating your own boot CD

DiskInternals Boot CD

http://www.diskinternals.com/download/Boot_CD.exe

Creating your own CD is not difficult. The program gives you clear intructions on how to do so.

Also you can include a folder with your own choice of handy tools, such as TestDisk or some of the Sysinternals
Tools. You have to make that folder and choose your extra tools, before running the Boot_CD.exe.
Perhaps you could get to see your HDD booting from such a Boot CD.


Here there is another driver (not free) able to handle an HFS filesystem

Paragon's HFS for Windows

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/hf ... index.html


Another commercial offering could be the more expensive MediaFour's Mac Drive:

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive

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Have a look a the section about damaged HDDs:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

Get a copy of Knoppix CD or DVD

This is a very fast mirror in the Netherlands from where to download:

http://ftp.knoppix.nl/os/Linux/distr/knoppix-dvd/


This the UK mirror service - University of Kent:

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp. ... pub/linux/


There is a Knoppix 7.2 review on ZDNet:

http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-knop ... 000025571/


Clone your HDD -
" The best solution - both faster and more efficient - seems to be Antonio Diaz's 'ddrescue' "

From the same Knoppix CD/DVD you can run TestDisk.

If for whatever reason you cannot clone your drive, you could run PhotoRec to try and recover your photos.
It will run quicker if in the Options you deselect all file families by pressing "s" and then
selecting only the ones related to your pictures. JPEG, JPG, PNG or whatever they might be.
The recovered files will not keep their original names.
You would need a healthy disk with a partition or space large enough to save the recovered files.

If you plan to run PhotoRec from Windows, the easiest way would be to have a large HDD already partitioned (NTFS) and in that empty partition, using Windows File Explorer extract (unzip) the latest TestDisk dowmload. With the same Windows File Explorer, navigate to the TestDisk folder in the new hardisk and within the PhotoRec section create a new folder, with whatever distintive name you can think of (Recover, Pic_Save, Lost_Ark or whatever).
Then you can run PhotoRec by double clicking the executable file with that name. When asked where to save your files, it would be easy to choose the folder that you created.


Overview of OS X Mavericks from Apple

https://www.apple.com/media/us/osx/2013 ... erview.pdf

The Disk Layout section gives useful information.

It seems to me that your HDD is still a Mac HDD. You only mention using a driver to copy files to it.
It might be possible that the following solution would work, if you attach the cloned HDD to your Mac:

http://abhinay.wordpress.com/2009/04/12 ... ubuntu-cd/

The same thing more or less could be attempted from the Mac system itself:

http://blog.jbheren.com/post/2011/02/09 ... ume-on-osx

In any case trying this, would a leap of faith and not without risk to your data.
Having a clone of your HDD might expensive but it is your safeguard against that risk.

Best of luck

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