cgsecurity.org

Hi,

Have downloaded and installed TestDisk with the hope of regaining access to my secondary data drive. It's a 2 GB Seagate and acts as storage and nothing more.

I discovered I had a problem when one day my PC would boot, through a process of elimination I discovered that the PC would boot fine when the drive was disconnected but not when it was connected. I then attempted to connect it to a second machine and managed to get the machine to boot with it attached. It appears in Device Manager, and even has a drive letter in Explorer but clicking on it simply gives up an error message. I tried running Disk Management via Admin Tools but that just hangs and never loads.

On to TestDisk...

Loaded TD and proceeded to run it. I get to the screen where it asks me if I wish to create a log file, which I do and it then tells me to 'Please wait'. Unfortunately, nothing else ever happens and I never get any further. Any thoughts or ideas on how to proceed would be much appreciated.

Many thanks

Joe

JoeNinety wrote: 30 Aug 2020, 13:30 Hi,

Have downloaded and installed TestDisk with the hope of regaining access to my secondary data drive. It's a 2 GB Seagate and acts as storage and nothing more.

I discovered I had a problem when one day my PC would boot, through a process of elimination I discovered that the PC would boot fine when the drive was disconnected but not when it was connected. I then attempted to connect it to a second machine and managed to get the machine to boot with it attached.

That is not needed and not recommended. You can connect the suspected drive to a running system using a docking station p.e.
When starting the suspected drive up listen for unusual noice or ever repeating audio patterns.
Please attach a logfile from smartmontools or simply post it here.

Use the command

smartctl -a /dev/sdX > mylog.txt

where X denotes the drive letter in question.

Is your drive part of an external package like "WD Elements"?