External Hard Drive 'inaccessible'

[rd11runner]

Hello,

This is my first post on MSFN, I appreciate all of your patience ahead of time.

I was opening files on my external hard drive last night, more specifically, audio and video files. There was one video file that stopped playing for unknown reasons at first, I closed my media player, reopened it, then windows said that the file was corrupted. I try to open another file, same thing. Then a balloon pop-up in the system tray said my '\secure' folder is corrupted. I believe this is a hidden system folder for the ntfs file system? Anyway, the pop-up also said to run check disk. I did so, but when I ran check disk, it said that it could not read the volume. I tried to access the drive with no luck receiving the message 'drive inaccessible.' My first question is what possibly happened? Has the ntfs file system been corrupted? I just find it hard to believe that this could happen by just opening files on my external hard drive. This incident has never happened before. I checked in disk management that the partition is still recognized by windows though, so the partition isn't deleted. I can disconnect the drive and reconnect it fine, and the Maxtor's software pops since I have the drive password protected. I have restarted my computer twice and plugged in the drive in other USB ports with no luck. Although I will try to connect the drive to another computer to see if this works.

I had some recovery software, search and recover 3, but I could not 'fix' the file system. What steps should I take to recover my drive? Any good software to fix these problems? All recommendations are welcome. I want to explore my options before I take my hard drive to a data recovery company. This would be a last ditch option. Please let me know what other information you need to help diagnose the problem so better feedback can be provided.

I have a Maxtor OneTouch II USB 2.0 connected to a Windows XP Pro SP3 pc.

Thanks for all of the help in advance.

-Charlie

[Zxian]

Did you run chkdsk from the command line, or from the drive properties box? Open a command window (Start->Run->cmd->Ok) and then type the following:

chkdsk E: /R

Assuming that E: is the drive letter of your external hard drive.

Do you hear any strange noises or clicking coming from the drive itself?

[rd11runner]

I did open a cmd line and typed it in (chkdsk D: /R), and it says it can't read the volume. So when I restarted windows xp, check disk never came up to inspect it either before windows started. I will have to post a screen shot of the error message if it would help.

I was pretty sure that I didn't hear any clicking sounds. I will listen to it again. If that is the case, I have found out that putting the hard drive sealed in a zip-lock bag in the freezer for about 12-24 hours works. Unfortunately I do not have internet access at the moment back at home, and I am writing from work, so I will have a reply ready by tomorrow. Sorry for the wait. Thanks for the reply.

[jaclaz]

If that is the case, I have found out that putting the hard drive sealed in a zip-lock bag in the freezer for about 12-24 hours works.

Hmmm, use with GREAT care, that is something that may work in a very few number of cases, it's not the "overall" solution, worth a shot ONLY after everything else has failed, as there are quite a bit of probabilities to deepen the problem or cause another reason of malfunctioning.

If I were you, first thing I would try to take the drive out of the USB or firewire or whatever external case and connect it directly to a PC through the ATA or SATA connector, just to make sure it is not the external case controller.

Then I would try checking it with the Hard Disk manufacturer diagnostic tool or mhdd:

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/

Then I would try running again CHKDSK from command line or Recovery Console.

Then again, I wold try running TESTDISK on it:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Of course the two last steps only if there was some success with the previous ones.

jaclaz

[rd11runner]

Thanks Zxian and jaclaz for the posts.

I tried switching USB ports with no luck. I ran chkdsk again instructed by Zxian with no luck. I have inserted two error messages onto this post to help out as attachments. Please feel free to look at them.

I also ran a diagnostic test on the drive itself provided by the included Maxtor tools that came with the drive and no errors were detected. This program is based in Windows XP, though. Strange.

jaclaz, I will take your advice and hold off on the freezing the drive, only as a last resort. I will download the mhdd software, take the hard drive out of the case, and connect the drive inside my case to a PATA connector. Then run mhdd. If needed I'll run chkdsk in the recovery console, and run TESTDISK.

I have heard users running chkdsk, and when errors are found to fix the file system, it deletes thier data in the process. Is that true?

Again thanks for the detailed guideline. I will give an update back as soon as I can.

[jaclaz]

I have heard users running chkdsk, and when errors are found to fix the file system, it deletes thier data in the process. Is that true?

Sure, it can happen in some cases.

The general idea is to run first CHKDISK without parameters, no changes possible as it will be a read only scan.

Check which kind of error(s) it detects and then decide whether going on with /F or /R parameters.

But the point is a bit different from how you posed it.

Normally, CHKDSK will repair a filesystem, WITHOUT damaging "GOOD" data.

In some cases it can "damage" some data but the "damaged" data was NOT "GOOD" data before CHKDISK was used.

I hope you appreciate the not-so-subtle difference, though maybe put in a not-so-clear sentence.

In other words, it is possible that after CHKDSK usage with the /F or /R option some data is missing, but the missing data was not damaged by the CHKDSK run, it was already damaged or missing before.

The "standard" procedure for "accurate" data recovery is:

1) Image the drive as RAW

2) make a copy of the image, for safety

3) try fixing the drive

4) if failing, restore the image to drive and loop to 3) using another approach

With this approach it may be possible to recover "bits and pieces" of the damaged files, very, very, very rarely a whole file.

jaclaz

[schloss]

The part that worries me about data recovery for this drive is this part of the first post:

... I have the drive password protected. ...

That on its own could explain the two error messages in the screen shots posted above.

Does anyone know how Maxtor implements this password protection?

--

[lalapnt]

this has happened to me a lot of times till one day i just decided to find out what causes these kind of problems and read that when there is and electrical fluctuation, the disturbance in electricity supply is what actually corrupts the files system...and with me i just used recovery apps and got my docs back. then, i formatted my hdd..it was like yours.