Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
shane
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 10:54

Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

#1 Post by shane »

I have a 2.5" Seagate Momentum drive (ST9320423AS) that was originally used in a 2010 Dell Studio laptop. I've been using the drive as an external usb-powered drive on the same computer for the past 6 months or so. Primary but with no OS. While I was using it a few days ago I noticed the computer warned me about not being able to write to the drive (something like that). I can't remember exactly what it said but the error popped up when I attempted to right-click>new folder. I was still able to access contents on the drive, open the drive, and watch videos stored on the drive. I figured I would just restart

Well, an hour or so later my video card driver crashed (I had just updated it) and within minutes of that crash my computer experienced a BSOD (which may be unrelated to the drive, but I figured I'd include it). When I restarted my computer the drive was seen as raw and I was asked to reformat.

In disk management my drive is showing as an empty raw disk (K).
testdisk11.JPG
testdisk11.JPG (95.82 KiB) Viewed 3033 times
In CrystalDisk everything seems okay.
testdisk10.JPG
testdisk10.JPG (119.62 KiB) Viewed 3033 times
I ran tests in SeaTools and the drive passed the basic tests.

In Windows I've already imaged the drive with TestDisk and extracted the files with PhotoRec to an external drive. What I'm having trouble with is diagnosing/fixing the disk. I've attached pictures of the results in testdisk.

Initially it says Bad Sector Count - No Partition is bootable.
testdisk11.JPG
testdisk11.JPG (95.82 KiB) Viewed 3033 times
It then gives the message about heads per cylinder being 255 but may be 16. When I search it finds the same disk but when I try to open it (P) it says "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem may be damaged."

When I changed the heads to 16 in geometry it came back with Number of Heads - Cylinder Masmatch error
Attachments
testdisk2.JPG
testdisk2.JPG (45.42 KiB) Viewed 3033 times

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

#2 Post by Fiona »

Would it be possible to diagnose your boot sector?
Start TestDisk, confirm at create a log with enter and select your affected disk.
Confirm at partition table type with enter also
Don't confirm at Analyse but Advanced.
Confirm at Boot.
Please upload another screen.
Highlight Rebuild BS and hit Enter.
Rebuild your BS will be in progress.
Normally, it takes some minutes.
If it's finished, please post the infos or upload a screen.
If you see a menu List, please highlight it and press enter.
Please let me know, do you see your data or an error message.
To get back to the previous screen, easily press q for Quit.

Infos will follow.

Fiona

shane
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 10:54

Re: Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

#3 Post by shane »

Thanks

Here's the first screen
testdisk13.JPG
testdisk13.JPG (48.98 KiB) Viewed 3031 times
Rebuilding of the BS is in progress
testdisk14.JPG
testdisk14.JPG (38.22 KiB) Viewed 3031 times

shane
Posts: 3
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 10:54

Re: Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

#4 Post by shane »

Rebuild BS finished with with the same screen as before (List - Rebuild BS screen - Repair MFT - Dump screen). Selecting "List" presented me with the "Can't Open Filesystem. Filesytem Seems Damaged"
testdisk15.JPG
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testdisk16.JPG
testdisk16.JPG (36.08 KiB) Viewed 3022 times
I looked over the log and noticed it says "Failed to rebuild boot sector." Picture below, entire log here http://pastebin.com/Q6AysG8g
testdisk17.JPG
testdisk17.JPG (90.47 KiB) Viewed 3022 times

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Recovering 2.5" Seagate Momentum

#5 Post by Fiona »

Your message indicates a faulty file system.
In this case it's advisable to use datarecovery software first.
After wards you can have a try to repair your file system using;
chkdsk driveletter: /r from a command prompt.
Please note, chkdsk is a utility to have a try to repair a file system but it's not intended to recover data.
Use it on your own risk.

Datarecovery depends on your files, what file types do you like to recover.
Pictures, photos etc.. PhotoRec is worth a try.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
If you need file names and directories you should use shareware.

Fiona

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