Restore File Viewing from NTFS

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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JerrytheHellbound
Posts: 1
Joined: 29 Jan 2023, 22:41

Restore File Viewing from NTFS

#1 Post by JerrytheHellbound »

My external hard drive of which I back up everything got corrupted a few days ago and showed RAW on Disk Manager when I looked at it. I generally have it plugged in to work on something and if I need something else from it, grab it too.
I didn't unplug it without the safe to unplug notification either. When I first saw it was unreadable I figured it was just like, loading in and it would take a second.
But then I saw that it actually is just straight up blank even after like 20 minutes since booting up the computer.

So I went down this small rabbithole of trying to find ways on how to recover my files. Particularly some of the folders I'd been working on for the past 3 years.
First I found that one video for Disk Drill which while I did like, the 500 MB that I didn't know until after like 4 hours of scanning was what got me looking for an alternative.

So I found TestDisk, which I've loved so far, however, i've also been doing chkdsk with the same arguments as all the tutorials have (/f /r).
While I have been able to recover my files luckily. I know that basically 90% of all my files still exist. It's just that on the Explorer it doesn't show anything. Only a single rar file I had on the main directory.
I've also tried looking up through various searches with different wording and the like, however I have no idea what I need to be looking up. It all goes to "recover files", while what I want to see is my files on the drive "unhidden" and unhidden just gives tells me to use the setting like it's all hidden, which it isn't.

Is there a way to restore this? I've fiddled with each option on TestDIsk and run chkdsk multiple times as everyone keeps saying and it still doesn't show me the files on the drive itself.
I'd rather not have to download the whole unorganized file structure and then copy back to it after formatting.

recuperation
Posts: 2719
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Restore File Viewing from NTFS

#2 Post by recuperation »

JerrytheHellbound wrote: 29 Jan 2023, 22:49 My external hard drive of which I back up everything got corrupted a few days ago and showed RAW on Disk Manager when I looked at it. I generally have it plugged in to work on something and if I need something else from it, grab it too.
I didn't unplug it without the safe to unplug notification either. When I first saw it was unreadable I figured it was just like, loading in and it would take a second.
But then I saw that it actually is just straight up blank even after like 20 minutes since booting up the computer.

So I went down this small rabbithole of trying to find ways on how to recover my files. Particularly some of the folders I'd been working on for the past 3 years.
First I found that one video for Disk Drill which while I did like, the 500 MB that I didn't know until after like 4 hours of scanning was what got me looking for an alternative.

So I found TestDisk, which I've loved so far, however, i've also been doing chkdsk with the same arguments as all the tutorials have (/f /r).
chkdsk will bring a disk with logical errors in a partition into a defined clean state. In some cases that will make an unaccessible partition accessible again. Unfortunately the cleanup triggered by executing chkdsk is very likely to destroy evidence that can be used by other recovery programs. When recovering information from a broken disk it is a good idea to duplicate the disk using ddrescue as described in the manual even when the disk does not seem to have a phyiscal error (p.e. unreadable sectors). Testdisk has the ability to repair some specific errors on a logically broken partition, but it is not a full recovery software that would take into account all available remains on the disk in order to recover files and metadata information (folder structures, file names etc...).

While I have been able to recover my files luckily. I know that basically 90% of all my files still exist.
That is not a precise statement. Maybe your data exists but without the information where its parts are located on the disk you can't access your files.
It's just that on the Explorer it doesn't show anything. Only a single rar file I had on the main directory.
I've also tried looking up through various searches with different wording and the like, however I have no idea what I need to be looking up. It all goes to "recover files", while what I want to see is my files on the drive "unhidden" and unhidden just gives tells me to use the setting like it's all hidden, which it isn't.

Is there a way to restore this? I've fiddled with each option on TestDisk and run chkdsk multiple times as everyone keeps saying and it still doesn't show me the files on the drive itself.
Just try out third party recovery software to see if it digs more content out of your drive.
I'd rather not have to download the whole unorganized file structure and then copy back to it after formatting.
???

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