Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted....

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
alex298
Posts: 5
Joined: 31 Mar 2012, 14:59

Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted....

#1 Post by alex298 »

Hello,

--------------------------------------------
Platform: Windows XP SP3
External USB Hard Disk: Buffalo 1T
-------------------------------------------

My external hard disk got into problem about 9 months ago. I have been spending a few hundreds hours trying to find a correct answer to fix the problem.

I was about to give up when I come across your website by Google. It seems to give me the last hope.....

I download and ran TestDisk. The following is the scanned result:
testdisk-01.jpg
testdisk-01.jpg (81.16 KiB) Viewed 6325 times
I followed the instruction to write the partition and restarted the computer. However the situation is still the same.

P.S. I also tried to recover the data by a software before but fail. The reason is "mismatch FAT".

Anybody can help me to fix the problem. The hard disk has some very important files.

Best regards

Alex

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#2 Post by Fiona »

Can you run Deeper Search?
Please let me know If TestDisk finds more partitions?

alex298
Posts: 5
Joined: 31 Mar 2012, 14:59

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#3 Post by alex298 »

Hello,

It took me the whole day to do the Deeper Search. Here's the result:

It seems that there is only one partition.

Please advise what may be the problem of my external disk.
Attachments
testdisk-deep-search.jpg
testdisk-deep-search.jpg (80.29 KiB) Viewed 6312 times

alex298
Posts: 5
Joined: 31 Mar 2012, 14:59

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#4 Post by alex298 »

Hello,

It seems that my last hope is finished.

Best regards

Alex

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#5 Post by Fiona »

Sry for late.
It looks like your file system is damaged.
You didnt ge any other results.
Did you try the menu Advanced / Boot / and Rebuild BS.
It should only take some time but not as long.
Afterwards if Rebuild BS worked, you see the menu List.
Please check, do you see your data or an error message?
Don't use Repair FAT.
Until yet, you shouldn't change anything to your file system.

Information will follow!

alex298
Posts: 5
Joined: 31 Mar 2012, 14:59

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#6 Post by alex298 »

Hello,

Thanks for your kind assistance!

I tried Advanced / Boot / and Rebuild BS twice. It always freeze at 1% after running for 2 or 3 hours. Please see attachment.

Best regards

Alex
Attachments
testdisk-rebuild-bs.jpg
testdisk-rebuild-bs.jpg (51.03 KiB) Viewed 6282 times

alex298
Posts: 5
Joined: 31 Mar 2012, 14:59

Re: Buffalo 1T External Drive - The drive is not formatted..

#7 Post by alex298 »

Hello,

I also attached this screen shot. Maybe it helps to diagnosis the problem.

Best regards

Alex
Attachments
testdisk-rebuild-bs-00.jpg
testdisk-rebuild-bs-00.jpg (63.15 KiB) Viewed 6280 times

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