External HDD with NTFS. Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged. MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Harddisk too small.

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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lgcnlgc
Posts: 2
Joined: Yesterday, 07:42

External HDD with NTFS. Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged. MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Harddisk too small.

#1 Post by lgcnlgc »

Hello, everyone. Need you help, please. I have external 2TB TOSHIBA HDD which I use for storing files, and there is a lot of important data. Yesterday it suddenly stopped working when it was connected to Windows PC. Chkdsk doesn't work so I'm tryiing to fix it using my Linux laptop with TestDisk but still I'm not successful. I've read a lot of topics here but nothing mentions identical set of issues which I have or a working solution.

I have one HPFS - NTFS primary partition. When I do a Quick Search in it, it says "The harddisk seems too small... The following partition can't be recovered" and when I click on Continue, it shows two Deleted NTFS paritions of the same size, the second is a backup (because it says "Found using backup sector"). If I choose any of them, it shows empty list and says "No partition found or selected for recovery". I've tried Deeper Search, but it hasn't found anything.

When I ran TestDisk for the first time, I also saw "Bad relative sector." message, but it's not shown now anymore. Probably, TestDisk fixed it during "interface_write()" or when I've tried changing the Type of partition.

Also I see such an error in the logs when performing interface_write()

Code: Select all

ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x454c4946  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 57  usa_count: 3: Invalid argument
Record 0 has corrupt allocation size (1024 <> 134292672)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
If I try to list the files, it says "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged."

This is my log file, uploaded it to Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19iyWu0 ... sp=sharing
Hope it's allowed.

What I've already tried:
1) Advanced - Boot. Backup sector was OK while Backup boot sector was Bad. Sectors were not identical. I've clicked on Org. BS, and sectors became identical.
2) Changing the type of the first partition from 'Deleted' to 'Primary', rebooted. Doesn't help. Type is not changed.
3) Rebuild FS but it didn't finish:

Code: Select all

rebuild_NTFS_BS
Search mft stopped:    2228224/3907026944
Failed to rebuild NTFS boot sector.
4) Repair MFT, but it says "MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Failed to repair them."
5) I've tried PhotoRec, and it can recover files, I've tried it a bit and stopped. I hope there's a way to fix my HDD so as to save the file names and sturcture.
6) I've tried ntfsfix /dev/sda1 but also unsuccessfully:

Code: Select all

Mounting volume... Error opening read-only '/dev/sda1': Permission denied
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... Error opening read-only '/dev/sda1': Permission denied
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Permission denied
Error opening '/dev/sda1': Read-only file system
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
What I haven't tried in TestDisk:
1) Advanced - Dump
2) MBR Code
3) Delete (all data in partition table)

Could you please help me? Is it possible to try something else and fix the HDD?
recuperation
Posts: 3104
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: External HDD with NTFS. Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged. MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Harddisk too sm

#2 Post by recuperation »

Use smartmontools and create a log file of the SMART parameters to learn what your disk thinks about its health.
Clone the defective disk using ddrescue as described in the manual. Your rescue and fixing attempts may further degrade an already broken disk.
Use commercial data rescue software to see how much they can achieve.
When everything fails, use PhotoRec.

Data rescue software will try to extract your data.
"Fixing" as you expected is an exception provided by TestDisk.
To "fix" your HDD you will have to pay a data recovery company on an hourly basis.
Forget "fixing"!
lgcnlgc
Posts: 2
Joined: Yesterday, 07:42

Re: External HDD with NTFS. Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged. MFT and MFT mirror are bad. Harddisk too sm

#3 Post by lgcnlgc »

Thank you, I will try to use smartmontools and ddrescue.
By fixing I've thought about errors in partitions or MFT and I was hoping that TestDisk could help me fix those errors so that the HDD. That's why I used that word.
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