External HDD stopped working, help recover with TestDisk

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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silkysmoooth
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Nov 2016, 17:33

External HDD stopped working, help recover with TestDisk

#1 Post by silkysmoooth »

Hi,
My 3TB Seagate Go Flex simply stopped working. I removed it from the case and connected to PC directly. It's now recognized but asks to format it. Obviously I want to recover data on it, so won't format.
Downloaded TestDisk and followed some advice on the internet.
So after "Analyse" it shows "Invalid NTFS or EXFAT boot" and lists 3 items:
1 P HPFS - NTFS
1 P HPFS - NTFS
2 E Extended LBA

'No partition is bootable' and 'Partition sector doesn't have the endmark 0xAA55'.
Proceeded to Quick Search and after 6 hours of searching it found: >L FAT32 partition and nothing else. If I P and try to see the files it says "No File found, filesystem may be damaged".

What do I do now ?
Any other ways to fix this ?

Any info would be appreciated.

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cgrenier
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Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
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Re: External HDD stopped working, help recover with TestDisk

#2 Post by cgrenier »

Do you had several partitions or a single partition ? NTFS or exFAT ?
As your disk is over 2TB, scan it using EFI GPT partition table instead of PC/Intel. Please post the testdisk.log file content.

silkysmoooth
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Nov 2016, 17:33

Re: External HDD stopped working, help recover with TestDisk

#3 Post by silkysmoooth »

I don't really know if it was NTFS or exFAT, as I never had problems with this drive, so never even looked up. As far as I know there was only a single partition.
EFI GPT was a lot quicker. Results:

The harddisk 3000gb/2794 GiB seems to small << 6001 GB/ 5589GiB>
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings. BIOS detection...
The following partitions can't be recovered:
Mac HFS
MS Data

------------


I have 2 other SSD drives:
Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB - Drive C
and
Disk /dev/sdb - 250 GB = Drive X

Not sure why is Drive D: - 373 GB when it should be 3tb ?

The log file text is very long. This is the start of it, the rest is filled with "lseek err Invalid argument
file_pread..." messages.



filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\G:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\G:
filewin32_getfilesize(\\.\H:) GetFileSize err Incorrect function.

filewin32_setfilepointer(\\.\H:) SetFilePointer err Incorrect function.

Warning: can't get size for \\.\H:
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\X:)=249923895296
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14593 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdb - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30401 255 63, sector size=512
Disk /dev/sdc - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 364801 255 63, sector size=512
Drive C: - 119 GB / 111 GiB - CHS 14580 255 63, sector size=512
Drive D: - 373 GB / 348 GiB - CHS 45440 255 63, sector size=512
Drive X: - 249 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30384 255 63, sector size=512

Partition table type (auto): Intel
Disk /dev/sdc - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB
Partition table type: EFI GPT

Analyse Disk /dev/sdc - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 364801 255 63
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.
Trying alternate GPT
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.
Current partition structure:
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.
Trying alternate GPT
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdc - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 364801 255 63
NTFS at 0/0/57
Warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (NTFS) != 512 (HD)
filesystem size 730004000
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 366281999
clusters_per_mft_record 1
clusters_per_index_record 1
NTFS part_offset=28672, part_size=2990096384000, sector_size=512
NTFS partition cannot be added (part_offset<part_size).
NTFS at 0/0/57
Warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (NTFS) != 512 (HD)
filesystem size 730004000
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 366281999
clusters_per_mft_record 1
clusters_per_index_record 1
MS Data 56 5840032055 5840032000 [FreeAgent GoFlex Drive]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 2990 GB / 2784 GiB
check_FAT: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (FAT) != 512 (HD)
check_FAT: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (FAT) != 512 (HD)
NTFS at 363528/103/48
heads/cylinder 16 (NTFS) != 255 (HD)
sect/track 2 (NTFS) != 63 (HD)
filesystem size 6174
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 2058
mftmirr_lcn 5162
clusters_per_mft_record 2
clusters_per_index_record 8
MS Data 5840077683 5840083856 6174
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
NTFS at 363528/103/48
heads/cylinder 16 (NTFS) != 255 (HD)
sect/track 2 (NTFS) != 63 (HD)
filesystem size 6174
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 2058
mftmirr_lcn 5162
clusters_per_mft_record 2
clusters_per_index_record 8
MS Data 5840083856 5840090029 6174 [Boot]
NTFS, blocksize=512, 3161 KB / 3087 KiB
FAT12 at 363531/57/47
FAT1 : 1-9
FAT2 : 10-18
start_rootdir : 19
Data : 33-2879
sectors : 2880
cluster_size : 1
no_of_cluster : 2847 (2 - 2848)
fat_length 9 calculated 9
heads/cylinder 2 (FAT) != 255 (HD)
sect/track 18 (FAT) != 63 (HD)

FAT12 at 363531/57/47
MS Data 5840129152 5840132031 2880 [EFISECTOR]
FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB
FAT12 at 363531/103/29
FAT1 : 1-9
FAT2 : 10-18
start_rootdir : 19
Data : 33-2879
sectors : 2880
cluster_size : 1
no_of_cluster : 2847 (2 - 2848)
fat_length 9 calculated 9
heads/cylinder 2 (FAT) != 255 (HD)
sect/track 18 (FAT) != 63 (HD)

FAT12 at 363531/103/29
MS Data 5840132032 5840134911 2880 [EFISECTOR]
FAT12, blocksize=512, 1474 KB / 1440 KiB

HFS magic value at 363930/75/34
part_size 1891172354
Mac HFS 5846540208 7737712561 1891172354
HFS blocksize=16777216, 968 GB / 901 GiB
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=5846540208, size=1891172354, end=7737712561, disk end=5860533168)

HFS magic value at 363930/75/36
part_size 1891172354
Mac HFS 3955367858 5846540211 1891172354
HFS found using backup sector!, 968 GB / 901 GiB
NTFS at 364800/0/49
Warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (NTFS) != 512 (HD)
filesystem size 732564000
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 366281999
clusters_per_mft_record 1
clusters_per_index_record 1
MS Data 49 5860512048 5860512000
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 3000 GB / 2794 GiB
NTFS at 364800/0/49
Warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (NTFS) != 512 (HD)
filesystem size 732564000
sectors_per_cluster 1
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 366281999
clusters_per_mft_record 1
clusters_per_index_record 1
file_pread(6,8,buffer,1571836232(365191/160/34)) lseek err Invalid argument
file_pread(6,1,buffer,1571836232(365191/160/34)) lseek err Invalid argument
NTFS: Can't read MFT
MS Data 5860512048 11721024047 5860512000
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 3000 GB / 2794 GiB
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=5860512048, size=5860512000, end=11721024047, disk end=5860533168)
file_pread(6,1,buffer,1565565872(364801/81/1)) ReadFile Incorrect function.

f

silkysmoooth
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Nov 2016, 17:33

Re: External HDD stopped working, help recover with TestDisk

#4 Post by silkysmoooth »

When pressing continue, I found P MS Data partition and when pressing P it shows all my files. Should I "Write" now ? as that's what other posts suggest.

Thanks

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