cgsecurity.org

Hi.
This is basically my first serious use of Testdisk - I am wondering what do with my current use of Testdisk & I've come here as the best place for advice. My problem
is as follows :
I have a 6TB external hard drive. I have used no more than 500gb of this hard drive - A good 5.5 of the rest of this EHD is unused/never used disk.

Now - the direct problem I'm looking to correct - approx 200GB has gone missing from this hard drive (250 plus is still shown on the respective external hard drive on
my computer).

To look to correct this problem I earlier tried out 'EaseUs' :
After a deep scan I found that there were 69 files found on an existing partition (that weren't shown on my computer) labelled as 'found'. There were also 44 files
labelled as : More lost files (raw). This search took around 3 days.

But I decided I would rather use Testdisk to recover my missing files. I opened Testdisk - and within 24 hours I'd got access & recovered the 'found' files. I then
looked for further files but I couldn't see any. The 'raw' files. I had a further look & - to cut the story short - I'm currently on : ANALYSE CYLINDER (an alternative
description of a 'deep scan' ?).
Here's why I'm looking for advice : As mentioned the Easus deep scan took less than 3 days. I thought the Testdisk scan would take about the same time. But the
thing is I'm currently perhaps 9 days into the Testdisk scan:

It currently reads : Analyse Cylinder 182255 / 729600: 24%. underneath it reads : MS DATA (then some numbers) underneath that :
Unknown then various numbers & below that: BeFS then various numbers. Below that there's a > followed by various letters & numbers ending with a [].
[img]

I'm looking for experienced user advice because I'm around 9 days into the 'Analyse Cylinder'. Will testdisk have now completed the scan (5.5TB of the disk is
completely unused/ never used) but for some reason is continuing to scan ? Can I safely stop the scan & the job will be done - and if I stop it will I then see If my
'raw' files are available ? Or do I wait a further 3 weeks to analyse the disk, though the vast majority of the disk is completely unused.

I am using testdisk-7.2-WIP.win64 edition.

I would quite appreciate some Testdisk experienced advice.

In the meantime, after posting this enquiry - I wanted to try something else & at first I was using two data recoveries at the same time - so I decided when asked 'Stop scan - yes or no - I took a gamble on yes. Now I couldn't find any further files. But I am now trying another file data recovery.
If I don't get satisfactory results I may well come back to testdisk - I could then really do with a step-by-step guide (for the scenario I have described).

20thcenturyman wrote: 02 Nov 2021, 02:07 Hi.
This is basically my first serious use of Testdisk - I am wondering what do with my current use of Testdisk & I've come here as the best place for advice. My problem
is as follows :
I have a 6TB external hard drive. I have used no more than 500gb of this hard drive - A good 5.5 of the rest of this EHD is unused/never used disk.

EHD ??? No gamer speak! "5.5" what? Read here:
viewtopic.php?t=10792
Point 2

Now - the direct problem I'm looking to correct - approx 200GB has gone missing from this hard drive (250 plus is still shown on the respective external hard drive on
my computer).

To look to correct this problem I earlier tried out 'EaseUs' :

I tried out Microsoft, it's really nice!

After a deep scan I found that there were 69 files found on an existing partition (that weren't shown on my computer) labelled as 'found'. There were also 44 files
labelled as : More lost files (raw). This search took around 3 days.

But I decided I would rather use Testdisk to recover my missing files. I opened Testdisk - and within 24 hours I'd got access & recovered the 'found' files. I then
looked for further files but I couldn't see any. The 'raw' files. I had a further look & - to cut the story short - I'm currently on : ANALYSE CYLINDER (an alternative
description of a 'deep scan' ?).

You should have seen the words "quick scan" before. Maybe you selected "deep scan". There is a cylinder counter if I remember correctly that can be seen in both modes of analysis.

Here's why I'm looking for advice : As mentioned the Easus deep scan took less than 3 days. I thought the Testdisk scan would take about the same time. But the
thing is I'm currently perhaps 9 days into the Testdisk scan:

It currently reads : Analyse Cylinder 182255 / 729600: 24%. underneath it reads : MS DATA (then some numbers) underneath that :
Unknown then various numbers & below that: BeFS then various numbers. Below that there's a > followed by various letters & numbers ending with a [].


[img]

Please upload the missing image(s) to this site using the attachment tab on the bottom of your edit window!

I'm looking for experienced user advice because I'm around 9 days into the 'Analyse Cylinder'. Will testdisk have now completed the scan (5.5TB of the disk is
completely unused/ never used) but for some reason is continuing to scan ? Can I safely stop the scan & the job will be done - and if I stop it will I then see If my
'raw' files are available ? Or do I wait a further 3 weeks to analyse the disk, though the vast majority of the disk is completely unused.


I am using testdisk-7.2-WIP.win64 edition.

I would quite appreciate some Testdisk experienced advice.

9 days for 24% of 6 TB is
36 days for 100% of 6 TB roughly.
That gives 1/6 TB per day which is 166 GB/ day or roughly 7 GB/ hour. 7,2 GB/hour would be 2 MB/sec which is like nearly 2 powers of ten below an assumed native speed of 200 MB/sec (Depends on the speed of your secret drive).
I guess your disk is broken and it may be already degrading. Having just used a low percentage of its space (500 GB of 6000 GB) reading out the available files (using Testdisk) was the best decision you made but now you should reduce the number of access operations to a maybe already degrading disk.
You should rather duplicate the drive as described at the end of the manual labeled "testdisk.pdf" and run all other recovery attempts on the healthy clone.
Having just used 500GB does not necessarily mean that this data is located in a linear matter in terms of sector numbers at the beginning of the drive.