WD My Passport 0703- Crashed, won'event show on TestDisk.

[alifanwar]

Greetings,

I own a 500GB WD My Passport 0703 external hard disk (USB 3.0). I was copying some files from my MacBook when it suddenly 'disappear' from my MacBook. This hard disk is in NTFS format so in order to let my MacBook writes on it I installed Macfuse and NTFS 3G. This happened before but my other laptop running Windows 7 (64 bit) managed to detect the hard disk, but not this time!

My Windows 7 laptop can detect the hard disk and decided it need to be formatted. However Windows unable to format it every single time.

I tried Device Management and DISKPART command but the application/command window hung everytime the hard disk is connected! TestDisk also seemed to take forever to detect the hard disk and when it finally did, no partition is found.

I'm looking forward for your kind help/suggestion.. It contains years worth of pictures and important work document

[Fiona]

If your partition appears as RAW, means that there is a partition but not formatted.
Either boot sector could be damaged or file system.
Don't format it!
To judge your situation I'd need a screen of your partition table.
It's from Analyse your current partition structur.

Fiona

[alifanwar]

Thanks for your reply Fiona. TestDisk finally showed my external hard disk as in the attached screenshot. I have chosen the relevant disk but I think it's gonna take a while before I can use Analyse.

WD - testdisk 1.jpg (58.03 KiB) Viewed 7906 times

However, the other screenshot from CrystalDiskInfo showed Caution for 'Current Pending Sector Count'.

WD - crystaldiskinfo.jpg (161.36 KiB) Viewed 7906 times

If your partition appears as RAW, means that there is a partition but not formatted.
Either boot sector coud be damaged or file system.
Don't format it!
To judge your situation I'd need a screen of your partition table.
It's from Analyse your current partition structur.

Fiona

[alifanwar]

Here's the result from Analyse:

WD - analyse.jpg (35.47 KiB) Viewed 7905 times

[Fiona]

RO means read only.
Probably depend on your MacBook.
But might be ok to have a diagnose!
Please diagnose your boot sector.
Start TestDisk.
Confirm through until you see the menu Analyse.
Don't confirm at Analyse but Advanced.
Press enter at Boot.
If you see a message that your backup of your boot sector is ok and you see also the menu List, please check it and press enter to list your data.
Do you see your data or an error message?
Please let me know.
If the menu List is not available or you've seen an error message-!
Highlight Rebuild BS and hit Enter.
Rebuild BS will be in progress.
Normally, it takes some minutes.
If it's finished, please post the infos or upload a screen.
If you see a menu List, please highlight it and press enter.
Please let me know, do you see your data or an error message.
To get back to the previous screen, easily press q for Quit.

Infos will follow.

Fiona

[alifanwar]

The Advance option result in as the following screenshot:

WD - advance - boot.jpg (53.62 KiB) Viewed 7898 times

The boot sector is bad but the back up is ok. I am proceeding to list the data now.

Thank you for the guide!

[alifanwar]

The List option manage to list my data. I used Backup BS next but an error said 'Can't overwrite NTFS boot sector'.

Is this probably caused by not running TestDisk as administrator? However I have right clicked and 'run as administrator'.

[Fiona]

CrystalDiskInfos indicated some Problems about pending sectors.
In this case it would be better to copy your data to another intact Disk using TestDisk.
If you list your data, at the bootom of the screen you'll find all available commands to copy your data.
If you check that two dots and press enter you get one directory up.
To go into any folder, you can check that folder and use the right arrow key on your keyboard.
Standard path is your TestDisk folder.

It might be a better solution to copy/backup your important data first, because if you recover a damaged file system, if your OS reads an error it could hang or not response anymore.
Although your boot sector is damaged and you can repair it, it's advisavle about the CrystalDiskInfo-message to copy your data first.
Then you could have a try to examine your file system using chkdsk /r.

Fiona

[alifanwar]

Fiona,

I managed to copy some of the files into another disk. The only problem I am having now is the copying process is too slow; 2 hours for a 2~3MB file. Is this normal? Do I need faster computer to speed up this process?

Thank you.

[Fiona]

Do I need faster computer to speed up this process?

Nope, actually not.
I assume that's depend on bad sectors?
If TestDisk gets on read errors it might hang.
Until yet, we have no idea, are they soft bad (repairable) or physically damaged?
Diagnose will follow after recovery.
Now at the moment it's most important to stress your HDD as little as possibile and get your data off of your disk.

Would it be possible to create an Image to another disk and have a try to copy files?
You can use TestDisk to create an Image.
You'll find it under Advanced.
Info;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Media_Image
This Image is only intended to work with using TestDisk and PhotoRec.
If you want to restore it, you must use Linux and dd.
Description is here;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Damaged_Hard_Disk