can't open filesystem filesystem seems damaged on External HDD after power failure

[EivlEvo]

Greetings.

I have a Seagate 1TB external HDD that I use as a media drive. It was connected to my router, and our apartment breaker tripped. After things came back on, the drive is no longer recognized, and asks to format, which I of course elected not to do.

I ran testdisk, and I get the "can't open filesystem filesystem seems damaged" after I try to list files off of the partition.

I'm just wondering what my next steps would be?

 

[RealBeast]

That is a common issue with external USB drives -- the MBR gets corrupted and there is not much to do other than reformat and find all your data from backup sources (which you hopefully have) if file recovery software doesn't help.

 

[EivlEvo]

That is a common issue with external USB drives -- the MBR gets corrupted and there is not much to do other than reformat and find all your data from backup sources (which you hopefully have) if file recovery software doesn't help.

So I'm just screwed then? I'm not expressly disagreeing with you, but this seems so contradictory to other shots I've read about recovery. The data isn't critical... just media and the like... But I'm surprised to hear that it's simply "lost".

 

[RealBeast]

If it was worth a lot of $$ professional recovery would be available, but practical recovery of files that are large like media files is difficult with recovery programs like Recuva. It is also not likely that you can rebuild the MBR with software or recover the partition with something like Easeus Data Recovery Wizard, although it can't hurt to give it a shot since it is free if you have the time.

You just need to understand that the odds are stacked very much against you, and you need to balance the value of your time against the likely chance and time involved.

I've done a lot of data recovery and it isn't particularly easy, especially from USB devices using software tools. Usually it is only partially successful at best and often the files are somewhat corrupted. Much of the recovery is easy talk comes from those that sell software to do it.

If it were precious family photos or documents, I would say go with the professional Seagate recovery service but that is not guaranteed and is quite costly.

 

[EivlEvo]

Thanks beast. I'm going to make one last ditch attempt at popping the shell, and running it straight to the MOBO. Any warnings against that? I'm quite comfortable with hardware modding.

 

[RealBeast]

No, as long as it is not a model that uses hardware encryption it is easier to run most of the recovery and repair software on SATA attached drives. AFAIK most Seagate models do not have such encryption.