Drive letter change

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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SirGraves
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 Nov 2023, 16:07

Drive letter change

#1 Post by SirGraves »

I was trying to repair an external passport usb drive and it was suggested that I changed the drive letter. Well i did that and picked P for the drive number, now it comes up as 5 in disk management and it wants to be initialized. so I try to do that and now it comes up cylic redundency check. I tried to change the drive back to the original drive letter it ( I ) had and will not let me do that. is it possible to that with test disk. I have read the notes and I do not see anything.

recuperation
Posts: 2737
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Drive letter change

#2 Post by recuperation »

Please post the internet location for this advice given! I am eagerly awaiting this information to learn more how to repair disks by changing the drive letter on a partition.
Thank you! :roll:

Ushavilash
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2024, 07:55

Re: Drive letter change

#3 Post by Ushavilash »

Hi SirGraves,

Please avoid initializing the drive further to prevent potential data loss. Instead, use data recovery software like TestDisk to attempt partition repair without losing data.

SirGraves
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 Nov 2023, 16:07

Re: Drive letter change

#4 Post by SirGraves »

I have tried to use TestDisk to recover the partition once but will try to do it again. And I don't understand why internet location has anything to do with a USB drive?

recuperation
Posts: 2737
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Drive letter change

#5 Post by recuperation »

SirGraves wrote: 15 Mar 2024, 18:33 I have tried to use TestDisk to recover the partition once but will try to do it again. And I don't understand why internet location has anything to do with a USB drive?
I was asking you where this advice came from because it is as helpful as snake oil.

As for your question, TestDisk has no feature to assign drive letters. TestDisk could not do this better than your Windows operating system.

If there is a partition and you can't assign a drive letter that should ring a bell.
I am not sure where your CRC is originating from. It might be the disk or the cable I don't know.

Your disk behaviour suggests dammage and justifies performing the standard procedure: Reading the SMART parameters using smartmontools and cloning the disk using ddrescue as described in the manual.

SirGraves
Posts: 6
Joined: 11 Nov 2023, 16:07

Re: Drive letter change

#6 Post by SirGraves »

I have tried to use the programs you suggested but I cannot figure it out. The Drive must not be any good. so I will try to format it and see if it helps. I have recovered most of the files before I did the drive letter change

Thanks for the help.

recuperation
Posts: 2737
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Drive letter change

#7 Post by recuperation »

For drive repair instructions on a physical level you have to look somewhere else.

The components of the TestDisk package deal with logical issues assuming that the disk is healthy, meaning that any sector could be read and written without any problems. To a certain extent this is true for disks with a limited number of unreadable sectors. An overwritten partition table is a logical issue and can be repaired provided that your disk is healthy.
A healthy partition will show the type of its file system, for instance NTFS. If a partition is marked as RAW, no file system is detectable by Windows and assigning a drive letter does not change anything.

There is a posting telling you how to use smartmontools:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

You find lots of information on the internet how to interpret the SMART parameters.

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