External Hard Disk - Partition damaged or deleted after power failure
Posted: 08 Jul 2025, 22:19
Starting a new topic from this => viewtopic.php?t=13154
In this topic, I will try to put as much information as I can about my problem, to see if you can help me.
Thank you anyway so far.
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I have an external hard disk, Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive, with a Seagate Barracuda 3000 GB hard disk, model ST300DM001, with a single partition, formatted in ext4 (it has been formatted in NTFS before).
This hard disk had a problem with the power supply (the power supply burned out) during a power surge caused by the local provider where I live.
Ok, I bought a new power supply, with the same voltage and current specifications to replace the burned-out power supply and I made the change, where I could see the disk spinning again, but to my despair, there are no partitions on it...
Here at home, I have computers with Windows and Linux and I'm using Linux to try to recover my ext4 partition with testdisk...
When I run the command "sudo fdisk -l", I have the following information:
Ok, running testdisk with the command "sudo testdisk # start testedisk", I asked it to create a new log and I'll share it with you in the next post...
Next, I can identify my disk in the list shown as:
Next, testdisk asks me to select the partition table type. Here by default, it detects it as "EFI GPT", however, I don't believe that's true. Could you explain this to me better? I believe that here, it should be Intel... I ask him to continue with Intel and I start the analysis with the quick analysis...
Testdisk shows me 2 options in the list that I put below, but a message worries me:
So, from here on, whichever of the two options I choose, it doesn't return anything, but before continuing, I think it's important to share this information:
I'd like some suggestions on whether I'm on the right track or not. Of course, I'd like to ask about recovery, which is something we probably don't have the answer to at this point.
The important thing is that, at least since the power supply burned out, I've only replaced it with a similar one and haven't burned anything to the hard drive—I think that's important.
In this topic, I will try to put as much information as I can about my problem, to see if you can help me.
Thank you anyway so far.
-------
I have an external hard disk, Seagate Expansion Desktop Drive, with a Seagate Barracuda 3000 GB hard disk, model ST300DM001, with a single partition, formatted in ext4 (it has been formatted in NTFS before).
This hard disk had a problem with the power supply (the power supply burned out) during a power surge caused by the local provider where I live.
Ok, I bought a new power supply, with the same voltage and current specifications to replace the burned-out power supply and I made the change, where I could see the disk spinning again, but to my despair, there are no partitions on it...
Here at home, I have computers with Windows and Linux and I'm using Linux to try to recover my ext4 partition with testdisk...
When I run the command "sudo fdisk -l", I have the following information:
Code: Select all
Disk /dev/sdb: 2.73 TiB, 3000592977920 bytes, 73256645 sectors
Disk model: Expansion Desk
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector Size:(logical / physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O Size: (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel typ: dos
Disk Identifier: 0x6645f9080Next, I can identify my disk in the list shown as:
Code: Select all
"Disk /dev/sdb - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - ASMedia Expansion Desk"Testdisk shows me 2 options in the list that I put below, but a message worries me:
Code: Select all
TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sdb - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 357698 64 32
The harddisk (3000 GB / 2794 GiB) seems too small! (< 6001 GB / 5589 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumper settings, BIOS detection...
The following partitions can't be recovered:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
> HPFS - NTFS 357698 19 21 715396 37 10 732566070
HPFS - NTFS 357698 31 32 715396 55 31 732566272
[ Continue ]
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 3000 GB / 2794 GiB
Code: Select all
TestDisk 7.1, Data Recovery Utility, July 2019
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sdb - 3000 GB / 2794 GiB - CHS 357698 64 32
Warning: the current number of heads per cylinder is 64
but the correct value may be 255.
You can use the Geometry menu to change this value.
It's something to try if
- some partitions are not found by TestDisk
- or the partition table can not be written because partitions overlap.
[ Continue ]
The important thing is that, at least since the power supply burned out, I've only replaced it with a similar one and haven't burned anything to the hard drive—I think that's important.