testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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cocokola
Posts: 17
Joined: 22 May 2022, 22:34

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#11 Post by cocokola »

It continues.. Is it supposed to do this? Maybe I messed up on the numbers. Maybe the screenshot syndrome has kicked in?

Nope, I added commas. Maybe it is counting to the size in sectors #?

Log file is unchanged.

I eliminated the system problems.

Please advise.,
thanks!
xoxoxoxox
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recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#12 Post by recuperation »

As far as I can trace that you are seeing a display issue. The internal working of Testdisk is OK. At the moment you should ignore both figures behind "Search mft".

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cgrenier
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Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#13 Post by cgrenier »

I have uploaded a new 7.2-WIP version. Do you still have the output problem ?

cocokola
Posts: 17
Joined: 22 May 2022, 22:34

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#14 Post by cocokola »

Feedback, hopefully, you will heed. The article I was reading stated you had to read the manual to know how to use the util and it linked to your download page and as such, I missed out on important info, namely your step-by-step.
I took your advice to List files, which I didn't get that idea from the documentation, but it Is clearly in the step-by-step, glad I finally found it. Hence my recommendation is to change your download page to highlight this info since that is guaranteed to be seen by folks using your app. I was able to recover 50% of what I expected to find. The other files that were lost were still on the original drives, so I am good. However, since we get along so well I could help you help other users later, as requested in your Forum rules.

Suggestions for testdisk download page to help clarify https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

1) Remove bullet points on the top section
2) In this section add that" "There are two versions available (most) times below: the current stable version and a beta a.k.a WIP or work in progress (hyperlink to each) (Add which you suggest for most users)
3) The downloads page is missing a link to Step by Step. I would recommend putting a link to step by step then the documentation OR adding the step-by-step INTO the documentation.

Program changes/enhancements
1) Log: Make Appead default action
2) add to the log file "testdisk started on to your date/time"
3) Add start/end time for each task that can run for minutes/hours/days

---

Thanks to your hard work I was able to recover files; finding the step-by-step was the key to everything.

and yes the new build seems to be working; I am still trying to recover the rest.

thanks for the GPL tool.

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#15 Post by recuperation »

If you happened to download the 64-bit-version of the Testdisk package for Windows, please download it again. There was an important update 12 hours ago.

cocokola
Posts: 17
Joined: 22 May 2022, 22:34

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#16 Post by cocokola »

Roger, and thank you.
I kept getting stuck where it was listing read errors, but the drive scans fine with other tools.

I downloaded the tool, selected append, and now it is hung at "Please Wait..."

On another note: When the tool hangs, such as USB connection to drive drops, the tool hangs and there is NO way to close the window, end task, pskill.exe from admin cmd or even the system account (via psexec or task scheduler) you get an "access denied." One can only reboot. Is this expected?

Log file is just:

Code: Select all


Sat Jun 11 12:32:16 2022
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2022
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 8 (9200)
Compiler: GCC 11.2, Cygwin 3001.4
ext2fs lib: 1.45.3, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1

recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#17 Post by recuperation »

cocokola wrote: 11 Jun 2022, 18:36 Roger, and thank you.
I kept getting stuck where it was listing read errors, but the drive scans fine with other tools.
Which ones please?

I downloaded the tool, selected append, and now it is hung at "Please Wait..."
What is the size of your log file?

On another note: When the tool hangs, such as USB connection to drive drops, the tool hangs and there is NO way to close the window, end task, pskill.exe from admin cmd or even the system account (via psexec or task scheduler) you get an "access denied." One can only reboot. Is this expected?
Yes. It's not a unique property of Testdisk. The Testdisk package is a tool for drives that have logical dammage. It is not programmed with unreadable sectors in mind. When having disk problems you should always check your smart parameters as described here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

When having pending (unreadable) sectors you should duplicate your drive using ddrescue as described in the manual.
You end up with a physically healthy new drive that has some sectors not being filled up by the unreadable source.
This way you get rid of the "read error" problems.

You need to leave out the USB connection if it's unstable. You need stable hardware for Testdisk to work.
I experienced in a situation where the operating system was waiting for the result of a disk operation and I could not kill the calling process. I had to wait for a long time. If I remember correctly I could not kill the ddrescue process either.

Log file is just:

Code: Select all


Sat Jun 11 12:32:16 2022
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2022
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 8 (9200)
Compiler: GCC 11.2, Cygwin 3001.4
ext2fs lib: 1.45.3, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1
This log file suggests that either the drive where the log file resides is full or that Testdisk did not get any response from the drives.

cocokola
Posts: 17
Joined: 22 May 2022, 22:34

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#18 Post by cocokola »

Log file just said read error then proceeded to list every single read attempt. I am also stating I now am getting other tools that say there is hard drive corruption, so let's forget this item.

The log file for Please wait was only a dozen or so lines, there were no additional updates. I rebooted and started over after 4 hours of waiting. It was hung.

I added a SATA card so I can eliminate the USB, great minds think alike.

It is a Toshiba drive, they only have one outdated tool. It doesn't even recognize the drive. Seatools (Seagate's tool that has done an excellent job in the last with all makes/models of drives for me) SMART tests fine, short drive self-test shows ok. Generic short test passes, long generic test states it will take 28:53 to complete, but gets stuck at 0%.

I have been running Hard Disk Sentinel pro for about a year, it was helpful with a potentially failing drive in the past. The smart values are attached from HDS. Nothing looks wrong, but Ontrack Easyrecovery states there are bad sectors, and since it is SATA now I believe it.

Prior to all the recovery attempts, I made a sector-by-sector backup of the drive compressed with Macrium Reflect. 13.5Tb out of 16.x storage, but since it took so much space, I had to delete it to recover the files your tool was able to grab (thank you.) I will make a backup again.
I tried to look into ddrescue; as a windows guru since the late 80s ( and top-down developer, I am NOT versed in object-oriented.) I spun up a hyper-v Linux OS, mounted the drive for ddrescue, and am processing it now.
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recuperation
Posts: 2720
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: testdisk Weird output with 18TB drives, recovery question

#19 Post by recuperation »

I have to apologize but again, I can't help you any further if you don't follow my advice.

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