Seagate 3TB HDDScan results, is there hope in recovering?

[freeman2014]

For reference, these are the results of the HDDScan

And heres a screenshot from windows:

I can't seem to see any data on the HDD anymore since  its not being recognized as formatted, so there's no way to make a backup! The drive still shows up in Windows Device Manager, but it shows up in Windows as a RAW drive (primary partition), with 2 other unallocated partitions. It was originally formatted as NTFS. I tried booting from Linux Ubuntu but can't see the the drive either.
 I have already connected it to different machines and on a HDD dock as well. Still the same.
 
What do the HDDScan results mean? Can you recommend  troubleshooting and data recovery software/methods? Would running these utilities cause further harm? For fear of damaging the disk further, I have not run chkdsk or testdisk on it yet.

 

Please excuse the newbie question, Is my drive the notorious 7200.11?
 

[jaclaz]

Your disk is a 7200.14 series, not a 7200.11.

 

The HDDScan is more or less meaningless (in this context), those are readouts from the S.M.A.R.T. a technology that I personally call D.U.M.B. that was devised to prevent (actually forecast) drive failures and never did so (flippism is approximately as accurate as SMART).

 

The Disk Manager view instead seems to be meaning that the disk is functional (good) but that has lost (partially or totally) the volume informations.

 

What you should do (advised) before anything else is:

1. procure yourself a similar (or bigger ) disk drive
2. "clone" i.e. make a "forensic sound" or "dd-like" copy of the "failed" disk

The above represents the "commonly recommended approach", providing a way out (or way back) if the recovery attempts fail, while it is optional, it is STRONGLY recommended.

 

Since the disk seems fully functional, it should be possible to attempt both a "filesystem" recovery (i.e. recover the indexing informations for the volumes, please read as "TESTDISK" or similar) and a (usually less satisfactorily) "file based" recovery (please read as "PHOTOREC" or similar).

 

A "file based" recovery (IF as it seems the disk is still functional) won't in any way "damage" or change the disk, as it merely consists of reading from it (but you will need anyway enough storage space to store the result of the extraction), whilst a "filesystem" recovery will need to write to key sectors of the disk, and thus the need for a "clone" should something "go bad" in the process.

 

The more information you remember how volumes on the disk were setup (how it was partitioned) the better.

 

Additionally provide these informations:

Which OS are you running?

Is it an internal or external disk?

How exactly (under which OS and with which tool) was it originally partitioned?

Which was it's use (i.e. a backup drive, a "main" drive, almost empty, almost full, recently defragged, etc)?

 

 

jaclaz

[freeman2014]

Hi Jaclaz,

 

Thanks for your response.

 

Additional info below:

Which OS are you running? > Windows 7

Is it an internal or external disk? > External

How exactly (under which OS and with which tool) was it originally partitioned? > Windows 7, disk management

Which was it's use (i.e. a backup drive, a "main" drive, almost empty, almost full, recently defragged, etc)?  > it was connected to an all in one touchscreen desktop (HP touchsmart), and was storing recorded tv programs and was also a repository of pictures and videos.

 

I will be buying a HD to clone the original disk into. Will buy Western Digital this time!

[jaclaz]

These are at the same times good and bad news.

 

Should it not be possible to recover data repairing the filesystem, usually the file based approach works fine for pictures (on a non-fragmented filesystem, and "data storage" volumes tend to be incrementally written and thus tend to be little fragmented) while videos or "recorded tv programs" are usually tougher to recover because they tend to be very large files and often they are fragmented.

 

However, it was a single (BIG) volume, right? 

 

In the meantime do the following:

1. get the dsfok toolkit: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/
2. extract it's contents in a "simple" path, let's say C:\dsfok\
3. open a command prompt as administrator in elevated mode and navigate to C:\dsfok
4. extract first 2050 sectors, given that in Disk Manager the disk is Disk 1 run:
5. dsfo \\.\PhysicalDrive1 0 1049600 C:\dsfok\disk1_begin.bin
6. compress the resulting disk1_begin.bin in a .zip archive (it should compress very well, to a bunch of Kb)
7. attach the .zip to your next post (or upload to a hosting site and provide a link to it)

 

jaclaz

Edited March 20, 2015 by jaclaz

[freeman2014]

thanks jaclaz. will keep you posted once i get a chance to work on the hard drive again.

[Rappelz]

Hi there,

 

thats hard i also lost 3 drives this way and have some aknoledgment in it.

You sayed it external....i think it was an GPT Partition right from full device?

 

First at all HDDScan and so sh---- Utilitys only harm your Equipment don´t use them and ist that what other user sayed...they just read out the smart Infos----- real cool way but the smart function ist to prevent hd crashes harms and so on.....so if you HD harmed they just speak the same s*** what bevor it you the smart function sayed real useless....

If you like to backup most of your datas its important you make it that way the finder sayed....got some Tools to make one to one bit to bit copys from your damaged drive.

 

REAL IMPORTANT DONT MAKE CHKDSK OR ANY STUPID TOOLS FROM YOUR OS THIS WILL HARM YOUR DRIVE HARDER AND ARE ALSO USELESS!!! I PREFER AFTER 1:1 BACKUP TAKE YOUR DISK AND GOTO SEAGATE WEBPAGE TO MAKE A CHANGE TO ANOTHER

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE WARRANTY!!

 

You will recieve then a Repaired same Model like you was have 6 Months new Warranty and in most Times better as your sended.

 

In some Times the Scenarios its this way for data lost if you has a GPT Partioned Drive external pluged.

 

May a install as internal drive can in 5% fix the harms.....also be  Aware from MS Updates over night, because OS checks up the File and HD intergrity

on booting up, if the are sad OS Begins automatically a chkdsk from the deserved drive and voila your drive are

 

1. at next morning on chkdsk maybe done 10-20% "thats the Price from big drives"

2  more harmed

 

btw some Tools like Testdisk are real helpie in some manners get it by Google them...

 

so at last i wish you good look with your difficulty Job

 

if you have some questions feel free to pm me

 

AT last hint, if you buy again a drive so big pay a bit more for a better Part and never ever buy seagate, they swapped to real bad Quality again and the time you now has to recover your datas stand in no way the more Euros you payed for a better Part?

Edited March 23, 2015 by Rappelz