Recovering from doorstopped external drive :-(

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
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Stevekin
Posts: 2
Joined: 05 Aug 2016, 17:27

Recovering from doorstopped external drive :-(

#1 Post by Stevekin »

Hi, be as brief as I can :)
I upgraded to Win 10 over the top of Win 7. Experienced a couple of BSOD. Research suggested numerous potential issues and Event Viewer suggested all manner of problems with drivers not loading etc.
Decide to upgrade the firmware of a 1TB WD MyBook Essentials external drive. Upgrade failed. Since then, no access to the drive.
Windows' This PC does not show the drive, although it knows it is being connected via USB (the sound). It is seen in device manager and correctly identified. Disk Management, however, shows it as Disk 1 Basic 931.5GB unallocted.
When the drive is connected via the electronics of the enclosure, it is not recognized by anything at all, only when connecting the drive either via USB or directly to the motherboard via sata cable.
I tried running TestDisk, but it found and could do nothing.
So now I'm awaiting the results of PhotoRec.
So far it is on it's third run of Pass 1 and has only found 8 files.
I know there are (or were) thousands of photos of my grandchildren :-/
Currently it has been searching for 23 hours and 16 minutes with 52 hours or so left.
This is after two count downs which automatically started the next countdown.
Hope I've explained that correctly ;-)

Question: Am I flogging a dead horse?
Or do I just let it go for as long as it wants ?
Thank you :-)

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cgrenier
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Re: Recovering from doorstopped external drive :-(

#2 Post by cgrenier »

The best way to connect the disk is via SATA (directly on the motherboard) instead of via USB.
Please let us know about PhotoRec results (BTW latest 7.1-WIP recommended)

Stevekin
Posts: 2
Joined: 05 Aug 2016, 17:27

Re: Recovering from doorstopped external drive :-(

#3 Post by Stevekin »

Thank you for replying :(
I did as you advised, connected directly to motherboard via sata cable and PSU and ran latest 7.1 version of both TestDisk and PhotoRec. Although this time Photorec found 3311 files totalling 444Mb, not one was of any of my 60GB or so of photos (JPEG, PSD & .CR2).
I am slowly becoming resigned to the fact I have messed up in a massive way.
But thank you for the opportunity to try and recover them :-)

ETA: The 3311 files all appear to relate to the drive's manufacturer (Western Digital) and pre-installed software.
Someone mentioned that the data may well be encrypted and without going through the external casing's electronics, it may be impossible to recover any personal files. However, I cannot get the drive to be recognized by anything at all when connected via the casing, only USB (outside the case) or direct (which is what I did of course :-) ).

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