Recovery from a RAW filesystem

[elumenel]

Hi! I'm new here and would like to ask some help regarding recovering files from a harddisk. I do not have any idea on how to use testdisk. i just used the manuals from the site. and i can't find any topic in the forum regarding my problem.

My seagate 500gb external portable harddisk was working yesterday, but when I plugged it in today, it's memory became 0 bytes. I checked disk management and it said the harddisk (which has only 1 partition) has a RAW filesystem, instead of the NTFS i was expecting.

How can i recover files from this? I needed my thesis files here and hoping someone can help me graduate (((((

this is what happened when i used test disk.

i selected INTEL in the type of partition.

2.JPG (58.31 KiB) Viewed 10294 times

when i analysed, it said READ ERROR

3.JPG (45.07 KiB) Viewed 10294 times

so i did quick search, and this is what happened.

4.JPG (39.39 KiB) Viewed 10294 times

it seems to take so long and is not yet finished. am i doing it right?

i would be really grateful to anyone who can help me

[Fiona]

Would it be possible to use the version 6.14WIP?
Did you run TestDisk as administrator?
You should select your disk not the drive?
Please use the 32 bit-version.

Fiona

[elumenel]

thank you for replying!

i am now using the 6.14 version. and i am also running as administrator and i believe this is also 32 bit.

i do not understand the difference between disk and drive. this is what shows when i run testdisk

cae.JPG (57.98 KiB) Viewed 10291 times

the one highlighted is the one i wanted to recover files from.

should i proceed?

[elumenel]

when i proceeded, it was still the same

cae2.JPG (45.28 KiB) Viewed 10288 times

[Fiona]

Disk is your physically device!
Drive is a partition how it appears in your explorer.
On this screen;
http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/down ... php?id=477
Your Disk is a WDC WD3200aajs-65M0A0
Below you see only your drive which has drive letter Z: .
That's it.
Would it be possible to upload another screenshot from your disk management console.

Fiona

[elumenel]

cae3.JPG (124.12 KiB) Viewed 10283 times

the disk WDC WD3200aajs-65M0A0 is my internal hard disk. what i want to recover files from is my 500gb external hard disk, but i do not understand why it is listed as drive instead of disk.

hoping you can give more advice, thank you so much

[Fiona]

Your HDD is listed correctly.
Except file system is not displayed.
But the cause might be your boot sector or file system.
It could be diagnosed using TestDisk.
But there are some other things where I'm struggling around in your case.
It's your disk recognition.
Could you have a look into your device manager how your disk will be listed there?
It should be listed as USB Device and you should see the brand of your disk.
Please check it and let me know.

Fiona

[elumenel]

Hi, yes the device is listed as follows.

reaa.JPG (80.64 KiB) Viewed 10275 times

i should say that whenever i plug in this harddisk, it takes a long time for my computer to detect it (it takes a long time in disk management for example), and sometimes my windows explorer crashes.

[Fiona]

Would it be possible to test your external disk using CrystalDiskInfo?
http://crystalmark.info/software/Crysta ... dex-e.html
It provides some S.M.A.R.T. values about your disk.
USB is not as clearly supported but in any case better than nothing.

It's a strange behavior that TestDisk doesn't find it as a disk.
I'm trying to figure out, why.

Fiona