4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
Forum rules
When asking for technical support:
- Search for posts on the same topic before posting a new question.
- Give clear, specific information in the title of your post.
- Include as many details as you can, MOST POSTS WILL GET ONLY ONE OR TWO ANSWERS.
- Post a follow up with a "Thank you" or "This worked!"
- When you learn something, use that knowledge to HELP ANOTHER USER LATER.
Before posting, please read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf
Locked
Message
Author
VanillaMacShake
Posts: 3
Joined: 01 Jan 2019, 18:31

4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

#1 Post by VanillaMacShake »

Hello all,

I have a 4TB drive, a wdc wd40ezrx-00speb0 that i use as a storage drive. it recently went RAW and most programs only find about 1800GB, which i suspect was the free space. i was following the instructions on the testdisk page, but the scan results were completely unlike the step by step. from what i understand, there might be a "boot sector" of the drive, and that tells the drive what it is, and that is corrupted and telling it it is unformatted? i know the data is there because data recovery software shows it during a scan, but i havent done anything-recovery or otherwise to the drive yet as i would like to learn how to fix this error.
i have run the scan and it waits for my next input-
Attachments
testdisk.png
testdisk.png (24.5 KiB) Viewed 1821 times

User avatar
cgrenier
Site Admin
Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
Contact:

Re: 4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

#2 Post by cgrenier »

When TestDisk starts, it lists the disk model. Does it list your sdc disk as "wdc wd40ezrx-00speb0" or something else ?
If it's the correct disk model, use WDC utilities to check the HPA (Host Protected Area) and DCO (Device Configuration Overlay) parameters (Under Linux or Mac OS X, hdparm can be used instead).
Do not try to "fix" the partition table or the filesystem until the disk capacity is correct.

VanillaMacShake
Posts: 3
Joined: 01 Jan 2019, 18:31

Re: 4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

#3 Post by VanillaMacShake »

it does list the model number, but the size is incorrect. i did try the WD utilities program, but it doesnt seem to recognize the drive at all.
Attachments
testdisk 2.png
testdisk 2.png (17.37 KiB) Viewed 1814 times

User avatar
cgrenier
Site Admin
Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
Contact:

Re: 4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

#4 Post by cgrenier »

You can try
- hdat2 disk utility
- or get Linux Fedora and create a LiveUSB and try hdparm
If it's too complicated or if it doesn't work, you should contact a data recovery company.

VanillaMacShake
Posts: 3
Joined: 01 Jan 2019, 18:31

Re: 4Tb drive went RAW, can i recover?

#5 Post by VanillaMacShake »

as opposed to testdisk?
ill try that out, thanks.
all i have on there is downloaded media, i can recover it or redownload it all easy enough, but i thought this would be a good time to leanr how to fix it should it happen to a more important drive.

Locked