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Dear experts
A little bit of background of my problem:
A few months ago, one of my 2TB Seagate HDD suddenly failed without any warning or clicking sounds. Windows 10 refused to start when the HDD was connected to the system. I removed the HDDs (three at that time) one by one, and when I removed this one from the system, the windows worked fine. Next thing, I reconnected the HDD to the system and the windows won't start again. The HDD was shown in BIOS but the windows won't start so we ran our PC without this drive.

Later I bought a good SATA to USB connecter (with a power connecter), connected it to the USB port and it showed the partitions in the drives on this HDD, but it was inaccessible, and the "Manage / Disk management" took loads of time to load and then the partitions disappear from the explorer. In short, no matter how I tried, the windows won't show up the drive and only could see our partition icons for a while before they go away.

I connected the drive in PC and ran Ubuntu live from USB, it detected the drive but unreadable, and I selected to install ubuntu on this HDD. It used the drive, formatted it with ext4 system (which I later realized I shouldn't have let it do that), and after taking a long time, Ubuntu was installed on this HDD but after rebooting it failed to start OS from the HDD.

When I run the PC (win10), windows starts fine now, and it shows the first FAT32 partition on this HDD with the rest of the HDD now as unformatted space. Now I ran EaseUS Programs, partition recovery did not find any old partitions on the drive, but EasUs data recovery did find some files, but the process was too slow, and it was running like 1% in one day. I kept it running for 4 or 5 days and got some photos recovered but the real photos are probably on a later partition. I ran the EasUs Data Recovery again, let it run for over a week, and it did identify some 8000 files or so, but after recovering the files, none of files were actually working. I couldn't open any jpg files with any image software. I ran the EasUs partition recovery again connected with SATA-USB cable, the process was too slow, but I let it run, however, after 10 days of running while it was around 30 percent done, it crashed.

Next thing, I learned about TestDisk. So, I made new bootable (persistent) Ubuntu USB with Rufus, booted the system with HDD connected to the mobo directly (without the SATA-USB connector). and installed Testdisk. The first run didn't identify the lost partitions except the normal ext4 partition and the first Fat32 (small partition) which were written by previous ubuntu live system. So I selected the deepscan option. Now, I still the FAT32 partition, then the first NTFS partition. I think the sectors that it shows, make it around 490 gb and I think there are at least four partitions on this drive. Testdisk has been running for over a week now, and today the scan was 16%.

First thing, I don't know why the scan is this slow. I suspect something is wrong with the PCB on HDD, but I searched around and didn't find anybody else stating the same issue.
Second thing, if it does crash like EasUS, can we still start again and continue from where it left off. And can we stop the the scan the recover the partition that it has already identified. Can we skip some part and do a scan on the end part of the HDD. What are my options? I was hopeful that I could recover data if I tried. So far, it is going ahead albeit slowly.
Some advice would be nice to have, what should I do after the scan is complete or it crashes.

Thanks for reading this wall of text.
Best regards to the community

I don't know what "slow" means. Disk speed is measured in bytes per second and by telling maker and model one is able to obtain a reference speed such as sustained or average transfer spead.

Please post your log file to this site using the attachments tab on the bottom of the page.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

Post your Testdisk log file as well.

Thanks for your kind reply.
With slow, I meant, the scan is progressing by maximum 2% per day and after more than a week (I think), today it reached 21%. Maybe this is just normal as it is deep scan, but I have no idea.

Below is the smartmontools report:

smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-5.19.0-21-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 (AF)
Device Model: ST2000DM001-1ER164
Serial Number: W4Z3P9PN
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 09b8366dd
Firmware Version: CC26
User Capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 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-2, ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 3b
SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Wed Feb 15 11:19:30 2023 UTC
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
See vendor-specific Attribute list for marginal Attributes.

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: ( 80) 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: ( 209) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: (0x1085) SCT Status 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 118 080 006 Pre-fail Always - 173083120
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 096 095 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 096 096 020 Old_age Always - 4679
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 079 079 010 Pre-fail Always - 26840
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 081 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 167322999
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 064 064 000 Old_age Always - 32117
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 096 096 020 Old_age Always - 4683
183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0032 091 091 000 Old_age Always - 9
184 End-to-End_Error 0x0032 100 100 099 Old_age Always - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 3927
188 Command_Timeout 0x0032 100 052 000 Old_age Always - 112 255 437
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 2
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 063 034 045 Old_age Always In_the_past 37 (7 6 38 23 0)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 184
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 224362
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 037 066 000 Old_age Always - 37 (0 8 0 0 0)
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 37904
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 001 001 000 Old_age Offline - 37904
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 199 000 Old_age Always - 68
240 Head_Flying_Hours 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 19480h+25m+30.705s
241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 57999941021
242 Total_LBAs_Read 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 1326335384514

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 3930 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 3930 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31956 hours (1331 days + 12 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 53 00 00 60 d1 01 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x01d16000 = 30498816

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 10 00 60 d1 41 00 08:06:18.490 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 20 10 58 d1 41 00 08:06:18.488 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 08 f8 57 d1 41 00 08:06:18.487 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 18 18 52 d1 41 00 08:06:18.487 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 18 d8 51 d1 41 00 08:06:18.483 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 3929 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31939 hours (1330 days + 19 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 ff ff ff 0f Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0fffffff = 268435455

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+03:21:02.651 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+03:20:56.406 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+03:20:53.072 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+03:20:51.478 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+03:20:46.833 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 3928 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31937 hours (1330 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 ff ff ff 0f Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0fffffff = 268435455

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:50.762 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:46.881 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:43.010 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:42.746 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:37.706 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 3927 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31937 hours (1330 days + 17 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 ff ff ff 0f Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0fffffff = 268435455

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:04.949 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:04.936 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:04.921 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:04.896 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:48:04.830 READ FPDMA QUEUED

Error 3926 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 31936 hours (1330 days + 16 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 ff ff ff 0f Error: UNC at LBA = 0x0fffffff = 268435455

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:46:05.022 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:46:05.022 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:46:05.014 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:46:05.014 READ FPDMA QUEUED
60 00 04 ff ff ff 4f 00 5d+00:46:05.008 READ FPDMA QUEUED

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Below is the TestDisk log (I copied the original log file and then opened it with text editor, copied and pasted here):

Wed Feb 8 13:08:04 2023
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Linux, kernel 5.19.0-21-generic (#21-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Oct 12 18:33:17 UTC 2022) x86_64
Compiler: GCC 11.2
ext2fs lib: 1.46.5, ntfs lib: libntfs-3g, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: none, curses lib: ncurses 6.3
User is not root!
Hard disk list


TestDisk exited normally.
Using locale 'C.UTF-8'.


Wed Feb 8 13:08:04 2023
Command line: TestDisk /debug

TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Linux, kernel 5.19.0-21-generic (#21-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Wed Oct 12 18:33:17 UTC 2022) x86_64
Compiler: GCC 11.2
ext2fs lib: 1.46.5, ntfs lib: libntfs-3g, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: none, curses lib: ncurses 6.3
/dev/sdb: LBA, HPA, LBA48, DCO support
/dev/sdb: size 3907029168 sectors
/dev/sdb: user_max 3907029168 sectors
/dev/sdb: native_max 3907029168 sectors
/dev/sdc: LBA, HPA, LBA48 support
/dev/sdc: size 3907029168 sectors
/dev/sdc: user_max 3907029168 sectors
/dev/sdc: native_max 3907029168 sectors
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/mapper/control - 0 B - 0 sectors, sector size=512
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/loop12 - 0 B - 0 sectors, sector size=512
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/loop7 - 0 B - 0 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 251 GB / 234 GiB - CHS 30595 255 63, sector size=512 - Netac OnlyDisk, FW:1100
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512 - ST2000DM001-1ER164, S/N:W4Z3P9PN, FW:CC26
Disk /dev/sdc - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512 - STMAGIC SX100 2TB, S/N:2022090800215, FW:U0128A0
Disk /dev/loop0 - 2775 MB / 2646 MiB - 5420728 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop1 - 4096 B - 8 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop10 - 66 MB / 63 MiB - 129584 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop11 - 52 MB / 49 MiB - 102048 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop2 - 66 MB / 63 MiB - 129480 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop3 - 250 MB / 238 MiB - 488424 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop4 - 290 KB / 284 KiB - 568 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop5 - 96 MB / 91 MiB - 187776 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop6 - 363 MB / 346 MiB - 709280 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop8 - 48 MB / 45 MiB - 94056 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/loop9 - 250 MB / 239 MiB - 489712 sectors (RO), sector size=512
Disk /dev/nvme0n1 - 480 GB / 447 GiB - CHS 457862 64 32, sector size=512

Partition table type (auto): EFI GPT
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - ST2000DM001-1ER164
Partition table type: Intel

Analyse Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
Geometry from i386 MBR: head=256 sector=63
check_part_i386 1 type EE: no test
Current partition structure:
1 P EFI GPT 0 0 2 243201 80 63 3907029167

Warning: Bad ending head (CHS and LBA don't match)
No partition is bootable

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
FAT32 at 0/32/33
FAT1 : 32-1055
FAT2 : 1056-2079
start_rootdir : 2080 root cluster : 2
Data : 2080-1048567
sectors : 1048572
cluster_size : 8
no_of_cluster : 130811 (2 - 130812)
fat_length 1024 calculated 1022
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/32/33
FAT: cluster=2(0x2), pos=4128
FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 32 1048572 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 536 MB / 511 MiB

recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=0/14900, s_mnt_count=2/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Last mount time: Thu Jan 26 17:03:39 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

Results
* FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 36 1048576 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 536 MB / 512 MiB
P Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

Hint for advanced users: dmsetup may be used if you prefer to avoid rewriting the partition table for the moment:
echo "0 1048576 linear /dev/sdb 2048" | dmsetup create test0
echo "0 3905978368 linear /dev/sdb 1050624" | dmsetup create test1

interface_write()
1 * FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 36 1048576 [NO NAME]
2 P Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
FAT32 at 0/32/33
FAT1 : 32-1055
FAT2 : 1056-2079
start_rootdir : 2080 root cluster : 2
Data : 2080-1048567
sectors : 1048572
cluster_size : 8
no_of_cluster : 130811 (2 - 130812)
fat_length 1024 calculated 1022
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/32/33
FAT: cluster=2(0x2), pos=4128
FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 32 1048572 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 536 MB / 511 MiB
FAT32 at 0/32/39
FAT1 : 32-1055
FAT2 : 1056-2079
start_rootdir : 2080 root cluster : 2
Data : 2080-1048567
sectors : 1048572
cluster_size : 8
no_of_cluster : 130811 (2 - 130812)
fat_length 1024 calculated 1022
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/32/39
FAT: cluster=2(0x2), pos=4128
FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 32 1048572 [NO NAME]
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 536 MB / 511 MiB
NTFS at 16/113/34
filesystem size 1048576000
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 786432
mftmirr_lcn 2
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
HPFS - NTFS 16 113 34 65287 72 1 1048576000
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 536 GB / 500 GiB

recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=0/14900, s_mnt_count=2/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Last mount time: Thu Jan 26 17:03:39 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 1

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 32768 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=1/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB
Linux Swap 82 187 42 343 208 41 4194288
SWAP2 version 1, pagesize=4096, 2147 MB / 2047 MiB

block_group_nr 3

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 98304 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=3/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 5

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 163840 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=5/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 7

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 229376 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=7/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 9

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 294912 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=9/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 25

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 819200 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=25/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 27

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 884736 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=27/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 49

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 1605632 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=49/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 81

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 2654208 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=81/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 125

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 4096000 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=125/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 243

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 7962624 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=243/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 343

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 11239424 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=343/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 625

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 20480000 -B 4096 device" may be needed
recover_EXT2: s_block_group_nr=625/14900, s_mnt_count=0/4294967295, s_blocks_per_group=32768, s_inodes_per_group=8192
recover_EXT2: s_blocksize=4096
recover_EXT2: s_blocks_count 488247296
recover_EXT2: part_size 3905978368
Filesystem created: Thu Jan 26 10:15:06 2023
Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Backup_SB, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB

block_group_nr 729

recover_EXT2: "e2fsck -b 23887872 -B 4096 device" may


This is the end of text in the log file.

PS. Since the Testdisk is running, I cannot access my other drives connected to the system.

Your drive is about to die. Until now I have never seen so many reallocated and pending sectors, the former maximum was an estimated 12000 on a collegue's laptop drive.
Please duplicate the drive as described in the Testdisk manual. When duplicating to a disk instead of a file you might need the -force parameter.

Any access to the disk bears the risk of further degradation or failure.
You should stop the Testdisk scan and either try to duplicate the drive or have a professional recovery service recover your drive.

As people try all sorts of things with Testdisk they are not supposed to do, duplicate the duplicate.
Having a second duplicate allows you to play around with one duplicate without having the need to stress your dying drive even more by trying to create a duplicate again which is very likely to have less successfully copied sectors than the previous duplicate.

Thanks.

I think you mean ddrescue.

ok, I am looking at how to use ddrescue now.

Another thing:

Is there a safe way to stop TestDisk? Shall I just close the terminal in which it is running?

I read in the manual, [16.5 ddrutility: restricting ddrescue to NTFS allocated data block]

can we use this so we can just try recovering the NTFS partitions?

I have a 4TB HDD, that I think use to copy the drive, right? or I need an exact same model drive?

Thanks in advance.

Update:

I did close TestDisk, it wasn't closing easily. Either I pressed Q repeatedly or Ctrl C, that worked. I noticed the HDD is now making a double click sound which I never heard before. The sound is not a really "clicking" sound but something double dub dub.

Anyway, I will search first how to run ddrescue first and try to run that on weekend.

recuperation wrote: 16 Feb 2023, 08:13 Your drive is about to die. Until now I have never seen so many reallocated and pending sectors, the former maximum was an estimated 12000 on a collegue's laptop drive.
Please duplicate the drive as described in the Testdisk manual. When duplicating to a disk instead of a file you might need the -force parameter.

Any access to the disk bears the risk of further degradation or failure.
You should stop the Testdisk scan and either try to duplicate the drive or have a professional recovery service recover your drive.

As people try all sorts of things with Testdisk they are not supposed to do, duplicate the duplicate.
Having a second duplicate allows you to play around with one duplicate without having the need to stress your dying drive even more by trying to create a duplicate again which is very likely to have less successfully copied sectors than the previous duplicate.

Please advise shall I try to duplicate the disk to image file or use the disk to disk method?
Thanks

There are lots of reasons for both ways, but try to run the disk to disk mode.