Now you see files, now you don't!!

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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Starboy1
Posts: 1
Joined: 27 Aug 2013, 15:13

Now you see files, now you don't!!

#1 Post by Starboy1 »

I have a 3Tb Seagate drive which seems to be misbehaving.
When viewing image thumbnails in an Explorer window on my Windows 7 64 bit desktop computer, there were some gaps where the image thumbnails should have been. When I tried to click on the area where an image should be, Explorer locked up and the computer became unresponsive. My computer crashed and required a System Restore in order to make it work.
I have attached the Seagate to the same Windows 7 computer, a MacBook, Linux virtual machine on the Macbook, and Windows 7 as a BootCamp computer on the Mac. I have also used a Linux boot disc on the Windows 7 computer. On some occasions I have been able to see the folders on the drive. On some occasions, I can see the files as well. I have managed to copy one file from the Seagate on to another drive when using the Windows 7 desktop.
Every time I try to look inside a folder, Explorer crashes and the computer becomes unresponsive until I restart the computer.
In Windows Explorer, I can sometimes right click on the drive icon and select Properties. This is not always possible. I try to start chkdsk, but the dialogue window then just disappears. On some occasions when I have tried to use chkdsk, I have had a message saying that chkdsk is not available for Raw drives.
Computer Management shows the Seagate drive as being an NTFS drive with an 8Mb partition, which I am guessing is my MBR.
I have read the advice on your site, and have not formatted the disk, nor have I written anything to it.
I have tried TestDisk, but either get read errors for 24 hours after which time I stopped the test, or the program reports that it cannot see the partitions. I seem unable to save a log file.
I have tried Recuva, Gparted, and have had no luck in seeing the drive.
I hope the screen shots help in a diagnosis, and wonder if you can help me get my drive back?
Attachments
I tried an analysis with Test Disk. I ran past 108% and reported read errors all the time. After 24 hours I stopped so that I could try other options.
I tried an analysis with Test Disk. I ran past 108% and reported read errors all the time. After 24 hours I stopped so that I could try other options.
9 Read errors all the time.jpg (30.42 KiB) Viewed 2037 times
Windows reports that the drive is visible, but won't open the files.
Windows reports that the drive is visible, but won't open the files.
7 Properties of damaged drive.jpg (71.6 KiB) Viewed 2037 times
The C drive is at the top. The damaged drive is at the bottom. There is an 8Mb partition on the left which is shown Unallocated. I wonder if this is the damaged section?
The C drive is at the top. The damaged drive is at the bottom. There is an 8Mb partition on the left which is shown Unallocated. I wonder if this is the damaged section?
6 MBR partition on left side.jpg (105.62 KiB) Viewed 2037 times

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cgrenier
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Re: Now you see files, now you don't!!

#2 Post by cgrenier »

The disk is probably physically damaged. Try to clone it to a new disk as described in
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk

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