Yesterday one of my portable external hard drives suddenly stopped opening. Rebooting and changing the computer didn't help. At the same time, there was an important shooting on the disk, which I did not have time to copy to a stationary file archive, so I had to attend to the problem of data recovery. Under the cut - detailed step-by-step instruction - how to recover files from broken hard disk on their own.
So your outer hDD on 2.5 "(in this case, Seagate Expansion Drive 500GB) is no longer recognized by the system. In the explorer you see only the name of the disk, its size is indicated by the system as zero. The disk cannot be read. When you try to access the disk, you receive a warning" No access. The file or folder is damaged. Reading is impossible. "Depending on the version of the operating system, you may be prompted to format the disk. Trying to do this is not worth it - it will still not work, and on the disk we have required files.
To assess the condition of the disk by eye, go to Control Panel > Administration > Computer management > Storage devices > Disk management (Windows 8.1). As we can see, our disk is displayed in the system, its size (500GB) is indicated approximately correctly, but the file system instead of NTFS is indicated as RAW. Houston, we have a problem!
The first step is to try to eliminate possible interface errors: sometimes in such cases, replacing the cable helps. With this, everything is clear.
If replacing the cable did not work, then you can try changing the hard disk controller, or, if you are using a stationary computer, disassemble the case and connect the disk to motherboard directly through the SATA connector (there is a regular laptop screw inside the portable hard drive). Once, with the same symptoms, it helped me.
To change the controller, you need to go to a computer store and buy a new container for a 2.5 "hard drive. Mobile rivers cost an average of 400-500 rubles, they already have everything you need in the kit, including a screwdriver, a controller and a new cable.
Next, we take a screwdriver and disassemble the old hard drive, after which we insert it into the new case, attaching it to the new controller board. This is not difficult, but often the old case is assembled without screws, so if you plan to replace the drive under warranty, I recommend skipping this point of the instructions, and before replacing the controller, check the drive using software (see below)
So, we changed the controller, but that didn't work for us. But don't despair! Now is the time to examine the disc more closely, using a special software... Perhaps our problem is related to the corruption of the file system, and special software can help us
Download the distribution kit, unpack it into the C: \\ DMDE folder (the program does not require installation).
Launch the DMDE program. Select the damaged disk in the list of disks, click OK
The program quickly scans our disk and finds the NTFS file system on it. This is a good sign that we are doing everything right and that the data can be recovered. In the dialog box, select the main section, click the "Open volume" button.
Click on the arrow to the left of the "All Found + Reconstruction" label.
In the "Virtual File System Reconstruction" dialog box, click OK.
After a short treatment, we see the structure of our damaged disk - at first glance, safe and sound.
Now we are going to restore the data. Press CTRL-U. In the dialog box that appears, select the location where we will copy the files. It must be a different hard drive - good.
File recovery is not a quick process, especially if there are several hundred gigabytes of files. It's time to watch your favorite TV series and drink hot tea with buns.
After some time, the system reports the successful completion of the work. But did you manage to recover the files? Let's go watch ...
Hooray, the Lightroom catalog with the desired shot opens perfectly, as well as other files that we forgot to "backup".
So, we managed to recover all data without loss from an unreadable hard drive, spending much less money and time on it than it would take when contacting professionals (the same costs 5-10 thousand rubles in services).
What to do with this disc next? When using special programs, you can format it and bring it back to life for some reason, but it's better not to risk it - 99% that it will let you down again. By the way, this drive lasted only six months, so I don't recommend anyone to take this model - Seagate Expansion Drive 500Gb (I think that other Seagate 500Gb drives are similar, since there are a lot of complaints about them on the network). Sadly, I have been using Seagate hard drives for almost 20 years and have never had such problems with them.
Finally, I note that hard drives have different failures - for example, the described method will not help with physical damage. If a disc stops working after a fall, makes strange sounds - no need to finish it off with repeated switching or try to fix it yourself: only a specialist will help here.
And best of all: Never store important data on portable hard drives! Immediately after shooting, copy all photos to a couple of stationary disks or NAS storage with a RAID array.
I hope you never run into this problem with hard drives, but forewarned is forearmed!
First, I want to warn users right away that data recovery is performed immediately, in the shortest possible time, since the information on the disk may undergo an overlay process, which will lead to the impossibility of recovering data at all. This also applies to
Not much theory:
A hard disk can have multiple partitions, and each partition has subsections. And so it can go on indefinitely, but the point is that each disk partition has its own file system... You yourself assign the file system to disks and partitions: FAT 32, NTFS, etc.
Usually the NTFS system is used, it is more secure and less susceptible to destruction from improper user actions. Files located on hard disk have their own name and tags, by means of these tags the system can easily find files.
It happens that files are deleted, either by mistake, due to an incorrectly used command, the influence and sabotage of a virus, a banal power outage can also harm. The fact is that the file that you do not see in the same place is in the same place, no, this is not a verbal pun, the file is indeed where it was.
The only thing that happened to him was that he simply stopped being visible and his label was changed to remote. It is possible to recover this supposedly deleted file, practically in its original form, it is enough just to process the data on the hard disk and extract the file. For this, there are special utilities that serve as restorers of lost information.
There are tens of thousands of such programs on the Internet, and it's almost impossible to figure out which one is the most suitable. The only thing worth following is the advice of your friends and the experts you trust.
Recovery process:
Today, two remarkable utilities can be distinguished, these are RS File Recovery and R-Studio.
First of all, you need to understand two simple rules:
A). You cannot write data to a partition with lost information, but if this is a system partition, then it is recommended to restore it on a third-party machine, since system disk subject to constant data filling, if you are sure that lost information was located on a specific disk partition, the probability of recovery is very high.
B). If the actions you perform are of a purely incomprehensible nature, and you are not sure of your actions, then it is better to contact the specialists in service center, since your actions will make it even worse, you will destroy all hDD.
Data recovery from hard drive
So let's enjoy special programs for data recovery... There are quite a few of them, but now, it will be described how to use the utility RS File Recovery.
This utility is shareware.
First, download and install the program on the official website.
A) Selecting a logical drive.
We launch the program. All your logical drives will appear in the window. We select the disk you need. You need to select exactly the drive from which you want to recover data.
B) Disk scan.
Click on double click to the drive of your choice, or press right key and select the "Open" button. The scan of the selected logical drive will start and the program will display the contents.
C) Scan result and file recovery.
After scanning, the program will show in the window the entire contents of the disk. You can browse the contents of the folders you need. Deleted files will be marked with a red cross. To see only deleted files, press the "view" button in the program menu, and select the "filter" function.
Recovery
You have to select the files you need to recover. If you need to select several files, drag and drop the required data into the "Recovery list" column. After the list is prepared, click on the "File" button in the menu, and select "Restore from the list". The recovery wizard will open. You are offered several options for saving: saving to hard disk, burning to CD / DVD. Choose any. But, if you decide to save the files on your hard drive, then you need to save them on another local disk... That is, if you were recovering data from drive C, then should be saved to disk D.
You can also use a paid one to solve this problem. r-Studio program... How to use the program was described using an example.
Recovering hard drive partitions
There are also situations that disappear, or inadvertently deleted a disk partition. To restore a deleted or damaged disk partition to life, use Testdisk a utility that exists in 2 versions: restoring the main partition (booting DOS - this is the usual C drive for everyone), built-in (Windows - other drives).
This guide will show you how to recover information on your hard disk even if the file system partition (including NTFS) is damaged on it. We will show you how to recover it and not lose your data and how to solve others possible problemsassociated with the loss of information on the hard drive.
If you've been using your computer long enough, it's no secret to you that a hard drive cannot be considered a reliable place to store data. Unlike CDs and other storage media, a hard drive is a mechanical device that wears out in the process, just like any other mechanism. In addition to mechanical damage, there are many ways to lose data on a disk, where it is very easy and quick to change them.
The solution to most problems with hard drives when working with Windows 98 and earlier systems boiled down to using the fdisk program and a number of other utilities that allow you to partition and repair disks. Now the use of such utilities, even by an experienced user, sometimes leads to irreversible consequences ...
Imagine this situation: While working on an article on updating computers, when more than 10,000 characters were already written and there were a few suggestions and screenshots left, all you had to do was run fdisk on a computer with two Windows 98 / XP Pro operating systems and save multiple screenshots. In my article, several paragraphs described working with fdisk, warning readers not to use this program if they are not completely sure of their actions ...
So, I only needed to get a few screenshots, but I forgot that fdisk writes data to some areas of the disk when it starts up so that it would not be in them before. I remembered this only when I got the screenshots I needed and rebooted my computer to windows mode XP, or rather, wanted to reboot ... After a rather long wait, the system did not boot.
Disappeared primary partition?
The affected drive we will be dealing with was a 17GB Fujitsu with two 5GB NTFS partitions (XP Home and Professional) and 6GB of unused space. After the incident described above, the system in both XP partitions stopped loading.
After connecting the disk to my Windows 2000 computer, I started Disk Management. To do this in XP or 2000, click right click mouse on "my computer", select "management", and in the window that appears - "disk management".
The main section where my article was located was displayed as unformatted and the operating system could not read it. The system in the second partition could not boot, but at least it was recognized as formatted and the necessary files could be copied from it. Unfortunately, all the data I needed was in the first section.
What to do? There are several ways to retrieve data, but before we look at them, we need to dwell on what the file system is and how your data is stored in it.
File systems
The file system defines the method that is used to store data on a hard drive or any other device that is used to store information. The free space on the hard disk is divided into partitions in which logical drives are created (C :, D :,…).
Windows can handle several file systems called NTFS (NT File System) and FAT (File Allocation Table). FAT is an earlier file system used in DOS as FAT-16 and in Windows 9x / Me as FAT-32. The main difference between FAT-16 and 32 is the maximum volume of disks and files that they can handle. FAT-16 can handle drives up to 2 GB. Operating windows systems 2000 and XP are fully FAT compliant, even though they use a different storage method as standard.
Windows NT, 2000 and XP work with file nTFS systemproviding better security and reliability of data storage. In addition, NTFS allows you to define permissions for each file. All these file systems uses a partition table and boot records (MBR) stored in the first sector of each disk to determine which partition is bootable.
If the information in the MBR is damaged, the operating system stops booting from it, and disk partitions may be detected as empty.
NTFS partitions
The first sector of an NTFS partition is reserved as a boot sector. It contains information that allows the system to work with this section, without this information the section will be inaccessible.
A copy of the boot sector is stored in the last sector of the partition. The equivalent of such a sector in FAT is also called bootable and is stored in the first sector of the partition. The difference with FAT is that FAT does not store copies of this information, making recovery more difficult ...
The first file that is stored on disk is called the Master File Table (MFT) - a table that contains information about the location of all files, their properties and access rights. NTFS keeps a copy of this information as well. FAT has a similar allocation table file files Allocation Table (FAT), backup copy which is also on the disk.
If a file is deleted, including from the "recycle bin", both file systems simply mark it as deleted. The data is not actually deleted from the disk, but the space it occupies on the disk is considered free. So all files can be recovered as long as you haven't written anything to disk after deleting them.
In my case, I used a disk with two NTFS partitions. When fdisk started, the program wrote something to important areas of the disk in both partitions. As a result, the first partition has a damaged boot sector. The second section simply has a damaged area with system files, and the system also does not boot from it, but the files on it are available. I transferred the disc to another computer. It was at this point that we broke off.
Warning: everything described from now on may, if used carelessly, lead to the deletion of disk partitions and files. If your hard drive has a physical problem, such as making strange noises or smoking, nothing described below will help, turn off your computer, remove the hard drive and take it to a service shop. Attempts to repair yourself are likely to lead to significantly more expensive consequences.
Information recovery
The first rule that cannot be broken if you are going to recover information on a damaged hard drive is not to overwrite anything.
If you accidentally deleted a partition, do not create a new one in its place, leave everything as it is.
If you deleted files from the trash, and then realized that you need the deleted information, do not write anything to disk.
The same applies to disk partitions. If you do not create a new partition in place of the lost one, the information about the old one will still be saved.
In my case, the disk contains copies of information about partitions and critical files. One partition is inaccessible due to the overwritten boot sector, and the second is no longer bootable, but information from it is still readable. Looking ahead, I will say that everything (or almost everything) was restored. Now let's dwell on how to do this.
The most inconvenient option is when you have one partition on the disk, and it was he who disappeared. Then it is best to transfer the hard drive to another computer. There are many advantages to using a second computer. You do not need to make the disk bootable, you can simply make the files readable and rewrite the necessary information using Windows Explorer.
If damaged system filesand the system does not boot, but the partition is available, the files can be easily read on another computer, and the problem will be resolved.
File recovery software
If you can't physically move your hard drive, resist the temptation to reinstall your system. There are some software toolsthat allow you to boot your computer with an alternate operating system and help you restore your files.
The easiest way to access files on your hard drive is to boot your computer with a DOS boot floppy disk and use a data recovery program like testdisk, discussed below.
Keep in mind that data recovery becomes much more difficult when working with a single partition that is also invisible. Many recovery programs need space to copy the recovered data. In this case, you have no guarantee that you will not destroy more than you restore. If you are unable to transfer your hard drive to another computer, consider connecting another hard drive to which you can install the system and recovery software.
There are several programs, such as ‘Winternals Disk Commander’ and ‘ERD Commander’, which will boot your computer under DOS or another operating system and begin the recovery process. Unfortunately, none of these programs are free.
If you connected your drive to another computer or connected a drive with the installed operating system, you can try to boot your computer and copy the data you want. You won't succeed if the information about the partitions is lost. In this case, the system simply will not "see" the logical drives.
Free software for data recovery
Existing free programsare usually less functional than paid ones. This is due to the fact that developers understand that if the lost data is really important, then people will be willing to pay for the program to recover it.