I was backing up some stuff from my laptop, because I needed to reinstall windows. Unfortunately, my external HDD failed at the end of making the backups. I am not sure what happened, but the file transfer became slower and slower, and I eventually cancelled the transfer and tried to safely remove the HDD. Afterwards I couldn't explore the disk anymore and windows tells me it needs to be formatted. A second laptop tells me the same. Also, the systems seem to become slow when I connect the drive. Chkdsk also doesn't seem to be able to do anything with it.
Since I moved rather than copied some of the data, there's some data I would like to recover. Also, I know there already were some photos on the disk before I started backing up. I think I do have these photos on another source, but I am not 100% sure, so I would like to be able to check the file names and match them with my NAS.
I tried to run TestDisk. When I try to list the files, it isn't able to do that ("Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged"). That's kind of what I figured, but the question is: is there anything I can do about it and repair the file system? When I try to run the analysis function, nothing happens for a long time, then it says
Code: Select all
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121597 255 63
Analyse cylinder 121597/121596: 99%
Read error at 0/5/45 (lba=359)
MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 Stop
Does this tell you anything? At least this error is not ending up in my testdisk.log file:
After this, I tried to run photorec. This way I am able to recover files, but it's taking a LOT of time, probably over a month if I have to believe photorec's own estimation. Given the fact that my disk was far from full (Maybe even less than 10%), and that I am only interested in part of the data, I am hoping there is a better solution than this.
Tue Oct 12 11:33:35 2021
Command line: TestDisk
TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, September 2021
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 8 (9200)
Compiler: GCC 11.2, Cygwin32 3001.4
ext2fs lib: 1.45.3, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1
Error reading $MFT: Input/output error.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error.
Error reading $MFT: Input/output error.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
Error reading $MFT: Input/output error.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error.
Error reading $MFT: Input/output error.
ntfs_mft_load(): Failed.
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error.
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=256060514304
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=1000170586112
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=227877584896
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\D:)=26843545600
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\E:)=1000168488960
Hard disk list
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 - 256 GB / 238 GiB - CHS 31130 255 63, sector size=512 - NVMe INTEL SSDPEKKW25, S/N:0000_0001_0000_0000_014D_912E_4C5C_D2E4., FW:PSF
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121597 255 63, sector size=512 - WD My Passport 2606, S/N:WXP1AB8HPCXT, FW:1024
Partition table type (auto): EFI GPT
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - WD My Passport 2606
Partition table type: EFI GPT
New options :
Dump : No
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : No
Interface Advanced
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=1
hdr_lba_alt=1953458175 (expected 1953458175)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=1953458142
hdr_lba_table=2
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
file_win32_pread(604,2,buffer,6293504(391/191/57)) read err: read after end of file
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.
gpt_change_part_type
Change partition type:
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
Change partition type:
1 P FAT32 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
file_win32_pread(604,240,buffer,2064(0/32/49)) read err: read after end of file
disk_image write() failed: Permission denied
No space left for the file image.
Interface Advanced
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=1
hdr_lba_alt=1953458175 (expected 1953458175)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=1953458142
hdr_lba_table=2
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 1000 GB / 931 GiB
Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.
Analyse Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121597 255 63
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=1
hdr_lba_alt=1953458175 (expected 1953458175)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=1953458142
hdr_lba_table=2
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
Current partition structure:
1 P MS Data 2048 1953456127 1953454080 [My Passport]
Questions:
1) Is there anything I can do to repair the filesystem? Perhaps some expert settings, or another tool I should try?
2) Is there a way to stop photorec and continue where it left off?
3) From other Forum posts, I understand that it's better to make a copy image, and work from the copy. However, that means I probably need to buy another disk first. Or is it possible to save the image to my NAS? (Probably not!?) Would the photorec process be faster after making a copy to a SSD drive? (I suppose so?)