Question 3TB HDD Issue

Gary915

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So, upon shuffling around with my drives, I found that my (originally NTFS 3TB harddrive) now shows up as a FAT32, in the partition wizard all 3TB is somehow still there, but only 300mb usable in my file explorer.

What I did was install a new NVME 2TB drive onto my motherboard. This means that my current set up is:
-One main 500gb boot NVME
-One secondary 2TB NVME (Fresh)
-One 500gb SSD (Sata)
-One 2TB Harddrive (NTFS, SATA)
-One 3TB Harddrive (Originally NTFS, now FAT32)

I dont know what the issue is, but the only thing I can think of is that it has something to do with usable sata busses.

I have a Z390 Auorus Pro. 6 Sata slots. Upon using both NVME drives, SATA 1, 4, and 5 become unusuable, but 0, 2 and 3 remain usable. That is all available info I have. Any ideas? Ive never seen a HDD magically transform to another format, so my only guess right now is that my computer is only accessing a reserve partition on the drive instead of my main NTFS partition.
 
So, upon shuffling around with my drives, I found that my (originally NTFS 3TB harddrive) now shows up as a FAT32, in the partition wizard all 3TB is somehow still there, but only 300mb usable in my file explorer.

What I did was install a new NVME 2TB drive onto my motherboard. This means that my current set up is:
-One main 500gb boot NVME
-One secondary 2TB NVME (Fresh)
-One 500gb SSD (Sata)
-One 2TB Harddrive (NTFS, SATA)
-One 3TB Harddrive (Originally NTFS, now FAT32)

I dont know what the issue is, but the only thing I can think of is that it has something to do with usable sata busses.

I have a Z390 Auorus Pro. 6 Sata slots. Upon using both NVME drives, SATA 1, 4, and 5 become unusuable, but 0, 2 and 3 remain usable. That is all available info I have. Any ideas? Ive never seen a HDD magically transform to another format, so my only guess right now is that my computer is only accessing a reserve partition on the drive instead of my main NTFS partition.
that 300mb fat32 could be system recovery or efi partition, eitherway that ntfs partition should be still there, maybe it just lost drive letter
can you show picture from disk management?
 

Gary915

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Gary915

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Weird.

It looks like you have a 3TB FAT32 partition, and inside that partition is a 367MB FAT32 volume.

I suspect that your original NTFS volume is "Gary 3TB". If you d-click it and expand the $Root, do you see your file/folder tree?
I can only hope that this means it is fixable?
 

Gary915

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Weird.

It looks like you have a 3TB FAT32 partition, and inside that partition is a 367MB FAT32 volume.

I suspect that your original NTFS volume is "Gary 3TB". If you d-click it and expand the $Root, do you see your file/folder tree?
Further, if you have solutions and would like to hop onto a discord call or something of the sort to make all easier, I would not have an issue with that, and I could at minimum stream my screen for you
 
The safest approach would be to recover your files to another the drive. Just r-click the desired folder and select "Recover ...". Note that the free version of DMDE can recover up to 4000 files of any size from any one folder per run. The standard version costs US$20.

There may be a way to fix your partition structure, but I would feel much more comfortable taking such an approach if I knew what you had done to get into this mess.

Anyway, I would first recover a folder and then test the recovered files. That will give us some confidence.
 

Gary915

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The safest approach would be to recover your files to another the drive. Just r-click the desired folder and select "Recover ...". Note that the free version of DMDE can recover up to 4000 files of any size from any one folder per run. The standard version costs US$20.

There may be a way to fix your partition structure, but I would feel much more comfortable taking such an approach if I knew what you had done to get into this mess.

Anyway, I would first recover a folder and then test the recovered files. That will give us some confidence.
Got it. Currently in the process of recovering a folder.

Should recovery work, is it best to recover all files, then completely wipe and re-format the HDD?
 
After you have recovered those files that you need, I could help you to fix the partition structure. That only requires a few clicks, assuming that the 367MB volume contains no data. If it does, then this data would have overwritten some of your NTFS file system.
 

Gary915

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After you have recovered those files that you need, I could help you to fix the partition structure. That only requires a few clicks, assuming that the 367MB volume contains no data. If it does, then this data would have overwritten some of your NTFS file system.
My only question here is, is it worth it to try and fix the partition structure? I would have to move all files back onto the HDD anyway, right? Given this in mind, wouldnt it be simpler and safer to fully wipe the drive and repartition it?
 
If we can repair the partition structure, then Windows File Explorer will see your files as before. However, some files may have been overwritten by FAT32 stuff, and you won't know until you try to open the affected files. A complete rebuild would be safer but more tedious.

Good luck.
 

Gary915

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If we can repair the partition structure, then Windows File Explorer will see your files as before. However, some files may have been overwritten by FAT32 stuff, and you won't know until you try to open the affected files. A complete rebuild would be safer but more tedious.

Good luck.
I see. I have recovered some files that are important (Backed up photos)

Those seem to work and load correctly. 95% of the other files are games (fortunately) that can be redownloaded.

What should the next step be?
 
Go to DMDE's Partitions window.

Tick the Advanced checkbox. You should now see an Edit button

Highlight the $Volume 01 GUID FAT32 3.0TB line and then click the Remove button to get rid of this partition.

Highlight the $Volume 01 FAT32 367MB line and then click the Remove button to get rid of this volume.

Highlight the Gary 3TB NTFS volume and click Insert to reinstate this partition/volume.

Highlight the Gary 3TB NTFS volume, click Edit and select "Restore Boot Sector from the Copy ...".

Select Disk -> Apply Changes and reboot to allow Windows to re-examine the file system.

DMDE will prompt you several times with warnings because you will be writing to the source drive. Note that these edits won't touch your data.

After rebooting, and after your data are safe, you could run CHKDSK in readonly mode to verify that there are no problems with the NTFS metadata. This won't test the file contents, though.
 

Gary915

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Go to DMDE's Partitions window.

Tick the Advanced checkbox. You should now see an Edit button

Highlight the $Volume 01 GUID FAT32 3.0TB line and then click the Remove button to get rid of this partition.

Highlight the $Volume 01 FAT32 367MB line and then click the Remove button to get rid of this volume.

Highlight the Gary 3TB NTFS volume and click Insert to reinstate this partition/volume.

Highlight the Gary 3TB NTFS volume, click Edit and select "Restore Boot Sector from the Copy ...".

Select Disk -> Apply Changes and reboot to allow Windows to re-examine the file system.

DMDE will prompt you several times with warnings because you will be writing to the source drive. Note that these edits won't touch your data.

After rebooting, and after your data are safe, you could run CHKDSK in readonly mode to verify that there are no problems with the NTFS metadata. This won't test the file contents, though.
It seems to only allow me to remove $Volume 01 GUID FAT32 3.0TB.

Upon highlighting $Volume 01 FAT32 367MB, there is no remove button.

A green square on the original 3.0TB FAT32 line appeared.