Originally, the 2TB WD was partitioned into 3 disks. On attaching to the the PC, Windows Explorer showed an unformatted disk. Disk Management showed an 1.86TB disk. Foolishly, I tried switching from MBR to GPT disk and even Dynamic Disk - but DID NOT format or partition the disk in WIndows. Unable to see my original partitions, I put the disk back into its original My Book Studio external hard disk enclosure. Whereupon the partitions all went missing when re-attached to the PC as an external drive.
Pardon my ignorance, but after some reading it occurred to me that the MBR was in the WD enclosure all this while, thus when de-casing the drive and attaching to the SATA in the PC, no MBR or partition tables were seen. The correct way to fix the drive is to work with it inside its original enclosure otherwise no MBR or Partition Table will be detected. I did not use the WD Smartware software though I have heard that hardware encryption by the USB interface works all the time in a WD My Book Studio external drive.
At this juncture I came upon your wonderful TestDisk program and followed the detailed instructions and it all seemed to work perfectly. I recovered the original 3 partitions exactly as it was before. But after its success, Windows 7 is still unable to see the 3 partitions or any of its files - even though a repeat scan with TestDisk reports everything is perfectly OK. What am I missing here?
As seen, the Disk 3 1862.98GB drive is online with all 3 Healthy Promary Partitions indicating that everything is fine with the TestDisk procedure. But in Windows Explorer, no disk or partition is seen at all. Where has it all gone?
Has the Partition Tables been written onto the hard drive itself? Or did it go to the WD enclosure interface with its troublesome hardware encryption? Should I try taking the drive out again and attach it to a SATA cable on my PC whereupon the work done by TestDisk may magically show up? Or will I see nothing due to the absence of the drive enclosure hardware?
Basically, does TestDisk work with these kinds of external hard drive where there are doubts as to the location of the Partition Tables and its readability after hardware encryption?
Would appreciate any light on the matter. Only days away from taking a hammer to the WD for all the pain inflicted these past weeks
