Hard disk in USB enclosure showing as RAW

[kat111]

hi.. I am autistic and it's really upsetting for me I'm worried about this a lot, I have a USB enclosure called "Mercury Elite Pro" with a "Seagate Ironwolf Pro NAS 16TB (ST16000NE000)" in it, it is still listed In Windows 10 LTSC 1809 (I don't like all the spyware in normal windows, I was trying to find a solution but even that has no way to stop windows services and defender always contacting microsoft and akamai IPs so I gave up, but that's not relevant to this just wanted to explain the weird OS version)

But it is listed without a bar showing how full it is [ ] or the whatever GB/TB out of whatever that is usually there, and when you try to open it in windows explorer it says it is corrupted. I checked Windows disk manager and it shows the disk still, but as RAW

I removed it from the enclosure entirely and linked it up to the computer like a normal hard disk or SSD with the SATA and L-connector power plug, and then I checked GSMartControl on the instructions by on the blog of James Litten (post "UPDATED How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became RAW", May 30, 2017) (only not linking to avoid spam filter) and it seems like no damage it's just some software issue? Which makes me even more worried of messing with it:



Then TestDisk:











(all the folders that should be there are are missing in the above)





I go to deeper search:



But this comes up:


This makes me very worried I am maybe going up the wrong tree, "mac hfs", I searched online and apparently that is really a mac thing? But it should definitely be a GPT NTFS windows partition like the first screen showed in TestDisk with the green horizontal bar

Thank you for any help

[kat111]

(p.s. both are brand new and only recently started using - I just read the instructions but it won't let me attach pictures as new user)

[recuperation]

Please correct the title of your posting. I don't know what "n o" stands for!

hi.. I am autistic and it's really upsetting for me I'm worried about this a lot, I have a USB enclosure called "Mercury Elite Pro" with a "Seagate Ironwolf Pro NAS 16TB (ST16000NE000)" in it, it is still listed In Windows 10 LTSC 1809 (I don't like all the spyware in normal windows, I was trying to find a solution but even that has no way to stop windows services and defender always contacting microsoft and akamai IPs so I gave up, but that's not relevant to this just wanted to explain the weird OS version)

But it is listed without a bar showing how full it is [ ] or the whatever GB/TB out of whatever that is usually there, and when you try to open it in windows explorer it says it is corrupted. I checked Windows disk manager and it shows the disk still, but as RAW

I removed it from the enclosure entirely and linked it up to the computer like a normal hard disk or SSD with the SATA and L-connector power plug,

The enclosure may contain electronics that change the sector size. Please retry Testdisk with your disk being operated in the external USB enclosure.
If that does not change anything when looking into the directory of the partition duplicate your drive using ddrescue as described in the manual and try chkdsk on the duplicate.
This hint is just a guess of mine hoping that chkdsk might correct something.

Otherwise try Photorec, loosing metadata information though, or try any other recovery software.

This makes me very worried I am maybe going up the wrong tree, "mac hfs", I searched online and apparently that is really a mac thing? But it should definitely be a GPT NTFS windows partition like the first screen showed in TestDisk with the green horizontal bar

You can ignore the weird names. What matters is if you can see content inside of those proposals using the p-key ("list files").
Your partition is a NTFS partition. GPT is the type of the partition table. The NTFS partition may be organized under a GPT or a MBR partition table scheme.

(p.s. both are brand new and only recently started using - I just read the instructions but it won't let me attach pictures as new user)

There may be a size restriction but no new user restriction. Pictures of Terminal screens fit well into the PNG image format. That may result in smaller size than the jpg format which is good for real pictures taken with a camera.

[kat111]

Oh and it's on the left side of the screen on the last screenshot the Mac HFS bit, it should be NTFS it's very strange, I couldn't find any other thing on the internet saying that's happened to anyone else?

The enclosure may contain electronics that change the sector size. Please retry Testdisk with your disk being operated in the external USB enclosure.

Just to make sure on this, that can happen even if the disk doesn't come with the enclosure? like one that comes empty, you just put the disk in it? (mercury elite pro is on amazon, I am not impressed with it right now though)

Thanks!!! Going to try now but I thought that might be something important in case other people find this on search

[recuperation]

Oh and it's on the left side of the screen on the last screenshot the Mac HFS bit, it should be NTFS it's very strange, I couldn't find any other thing on the internet saying that's happened to anyone else?

The best location to search is the site cgsecurity.org and the attached forum. There is no "should be". Partition table entries found by Testdisk may very well be garbage. Testdisk can identify entries but it is your job to examine the referred volumes/partitions/file systems.

The enclosure may contain electronics that change the sector size. Please retry Testdisk with your disk being operated in the external USB enclosure.

Just to make sure on this, that can happen even if the disk doesn't come with the enclosure? like one that comes empty, you just put the disk in it? (mercury elite pro is on amazon, I am not impressed with it right now though)

Empty enclosures would not come with such kind of electronics as it would render your hard drive that you used elsewhere logically unusable.

[kat111]

Thank you so much ok I am leaving it attached to the computer then (yeah I thought if I bought an enclosure to put the disk in it would keep the drive protected from dust and static electricity and stuff I wonder if because it was on USB that windows 10 always going to power-saving sleep messed it up somehow), I got depressed and went to sleep and I just left it alone a while anyway because I kept thinking I'm going to ruin things (I don't trust parcels to a professional place I lost a whole computer once that way that the parcel company lost when I had to send one that was faulty back years ago before I learnt to make my own)

I cancelled the deep search (this is the guide I was using before I found this forum), but this is how far it got after about 2 days (about 1/10, which means it would take about 20 days to check 16TB I guess):

tds.png (50.73 KiB) Viewed 2202 times

there's meant to be only one partition that is NTFS (instead of RAW):

mgmt.png (18.78 KiB) Viewed 2202 times

I read the ddrescue manual but I'm worried because I've never used linux before and I don't have an operating system for it yet, it seems like a bad time to jump in the deep end in case I screw up with learning (like how to mount), do you think Rescuezilla is as good it uses linux as a base but It seems a bit more newbie-proofed maybe, my big issue though is that I saw that either way they need about 5% more space on the disk, but I have no disk bigger than 16TB, not sure what i can do in that circumstance? (I'm scared of using windows chkdsk because I heard it can make you lose data?)

( https://libredd.it/r/datarecovery/comme ... p/gtp75d4/ says I should just replace the partition table but that seems risky since the James Litten guide said to do a deep search if P doesn't list the files on the disk like it should )

thank you

[recuperation]

Thank you so much ok I am leaving it attached to the computer then (yeah I thought if I bought an enclosure to put the disk in it would keep the drive protected from dust and static electricity and stuff I wonder if because it was on USB that windows 10 always going to power-saving sleep messed it up somehow), I got depressed and went to sleep and I just left it alone a while anyway because I kept thinking I'm going to ruin things (I don't trust parcels to a professional place I lost a whole computer once that way that the parcel company lost when I had to send one that was faulty back years ago before I learnt to make my own)

I cancelled the deep search (this is the guide I was using before I found this forum), but this is how far it got after about 2 days (about 1/10, which means it would take about 20 days to check 16TB I guess):
tds.png

there's meant to be only one partition that is NTFS (instead of RAW):
mgmt.png

I read the ddrescue manual but I'm worried because I've never used linux before and I don't have an operating system for it yet,

Use a live linux edition such as Knoppix and others that you can install on a stick. When being worried practice on other drives where you can afford failures.

it seems like a bad time to jump in the deep end in case I screw up with learning (like how to mount), do you think Rescuezilla is as good it uses linux as a base but It seems a bit more newbie-proofed maybe,

Rescuezilla does not seem to be suitable for handling broken sectors.
A current 5400 rpm drive with a capacity of 4 TB needs 8 hours when being connected over USB 3.0 on my old laptop. Your 7200 rpm drive should need 32 h when running at 5400 rpm but has to be faster. Your drive is at least 15 times to slow. That finding suggests an issue like broken sectors.

Please post a smartmontools log file:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

my big issue though is that I saw that either way they need about 5% more space on the disk, but I have no disk bigger than 16TB, not sure what i can do in that circumstance?

When not duplicating into a file but onto a disk 16TB is sufficient.

(I'm scared of using windows chkdsk because I heard it can make you lose data?)

If ddrescue reports read errors you are better of to run chdsk on a second copy that you generate out of your first copy. This way broken sectors do not delay the copy process.

( https://libredd.it/r/datarecovery/comme ... p/gtp75d4/ says I should just replace the partition table but that seems risky since the James Litten guide said to do a deep search if P doesn't list the files on the disk like it should )

I don't understand your reasoning. I don't want to comment on what any third party tells about Testdisk.
Read www.cgsecurity.org for first hand information. When reading the forum pay attention to the comments of user cgrenier. Comments of user recuperation are only 2nd best.

[kat111]

Code: Select all

smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-w64-mingw32-w10-1809] (sf-7.3-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate IronWolf Pro
Device Model:     ST16000NE000-2RW103
Firmware Version: EN02
User Capacity:    16,000,900,661,248 bytes [16.0 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.3/5319
ATA Version is:   ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.3, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82)	Offline data collection activity
					was completed without error.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)	The previous self-test routine completed
					without error or no self-test has ever 
					been run.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		(  559) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (1400) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x50bd)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   081   065   044    Pre-fail  Always       -       126962433
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   088   087   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       43
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   067   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       5321068
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       116
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       11
 18 Head_Health             0x000b   100   100   050    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   067   049   040    Old_age   Always       -       33 (Min/Max 27/42)
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       2
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       208
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   033   051   000    Old_age   Always       -       33 (0 21 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Pressure_Limit          0x0023   100   100   001    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       46h+25m+20.942s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       5046191866
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       19070624452

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%        50         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Thank you lots (I was wondering do you know if someone attacking the computer could cause this to deliberately happen if they were horrible? that is the worst feeling)

[recuperation]

I can't find obvious errours in your report. Please interrupt your scan and run Testdisk from a linux USB pen drive. If Testdisk remains so slow try to use a different computer.
If the speed problem persists duplicate your drive as told before.
You can then run Testdisk on your duplicate.

[kat111]

Thanks I will try see if I can figure out linux and ddrescue just to make sure... What should I do after TestDisk finishes, should I choose 'write' if one of the partitions has the files when listed on P? I was reading the wiki guide ( https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step ) on cgsecurity but it looks quite different from my results with weird fake partitions in my screenshot before so I'm not sure if I will see any good results when it gets to the end

Thank you