External hard drive inaccessible after unplug from router

[Brownchap]

I have Seagate GoFlex 500 GB External Hard Disk. It was working fine on my Laptop (Windows 7). I just tried to check if it works fine as Network Drive. I pluggged in to my Belkin Router. I worked fine. But thereafter it is not working as an external drive. Whenever I plug it in my laptip, it says 'please format'. I can see the drive but cannot see any file / folder. Also when I go to drive propery it does not show any voume name. It also does not show 'security' tab.

But when I am again plugging into my router, it just works fine. Can access read, write all files / folder.

Please help how to use it in laptop. I have tried using it in different laptops but problem is same. Cannot access.

 

[bryonhowley]

Was the drive first formatted when it was plugged into the router? If it was it may not be in a format that Windows understands. Not all routers use NTFS or Fat so you may have to pull the files off of the drive and then reformat it when it is plugged into the laptop.

My best guess it is formatted in one of the Linux filing system formats. As a network attached storage device the format does not matter.

 

[Brownchap]

Was the drive first formatted when it was plugged into the router? If it was it may not be in a format that Windows understands. Not all routers use NTFS or Fat so you may have to pull the files off of the drive and then reformat it when it is plugged into the laptop.

My best guess it is formatted in one of the Linux filing system formats. As a network attached storage device the format does not matter.

Thanks Bryon

I am not sure whether it has been formatted. When I plugged in, it did not ask me to format or I clicked anywhere to format. If this has happened in background, I am not sure. ow will I know ?

When I am checking the property while accessing thru router network, (A) Under TAB - General is shows Type Network Drive, File System : NTFS ; Under TAB Security it shows Object name : Z:\, Group or User name Everyone, root (Unix User\root), users (Unix Group\users). I can click on edit permision but really cannot change any parameter.

Also whenever I am plugging in to my laptop, pop up comes as 'Format Drive'

So what next ? How can I resolve further?

 

[fzabkar]

IMHO you need to find out exactly what happened to your file system, otherwise it will only happen again. To this end a little forensic examination with a disc editor, in readonly mode, would be in order.

If you wish me to help you, then please show us the contents of sector 0 of the physical drive. You could use DMDE.

DMDE - DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software:
http://softdm.com/

 

[Ignativssary]

I really don’t figure out your problems. But, if you merely want to access your files and folders inside this dive, this free external hard drive tool could be your choice: http://freeware-fix.blogspot.com/2013/02/hard-drive-recovery.html
It is really efficient and helped my friend restore all his inaccessible data from a logically corrupted hard drive. I hope it would help you out, too.
In the future, you should learn to do regular data backups on separate drives.

 

[Brownchap]

IMHO you need to find out exactly what happened to your file system, otherwise it will only happen again. To this end a little forensic examination with a disc editor, in readonly mode, would be in order.

If you wish me to help you, then please show us the contents of sector 0 of the physical drive. You could use DMDE.

DMDE - DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software:

http://softdm.com/

Thanks. I used DMDE....

How do I show you the content ? Well, I have clicked few things and can see Directory Tree SROOT and All folder under ROOT in DMDE

 

[fzabkar]

To save the requested sector(s), launch DMDE.

In the Select Device/Disk tab, select the Physical Drive, choose the Physical Devices radio button, uncheck the Show Partitions box, and click OK.

You should now see LBA 0 (sector 0) of your drive.

Now select Tools -> Copy Sectors

Start Sector -> 0
Number of Sectors -> 3

In the Destination pane, select File.

You will be offered a filename of lba_0_3.bin

Click Save, OK, etc.

You can then upload the BIN file to a file sharing service.

 

[Brownchap]

To save the requested sector(s), launch DMDE.

In the Select Device/Disk tab, select the Physical Drive, choose the Physical Devices radio button, uncheck the Show Partitions box, and click OK.

You should now see LBA 0 (sector 0) of your drive.

Now select Tools -> Copy Sectors

Start Sector -> 0
Number of Sectors -> 3

In the Destination pane, select File.

You will be offered a filename of lba_0_3.bin

Click Save, OK, etc.

You can then upload the BIN file to a file sharing service.

Hi. I have done. Uploaded 2 files. Links given below

iba_o_3.bin http://rapidshare.com/files/2792132632/lba_0_3.bin
Problem with my External Hard Drive. doc

Check this link http://my.rapidshare.com/Brownchap/1561
or
http://rapidshare.com/files/2792132632/lba_0_3.bin
and
http://rapidshare.com/files/3280167746/Problem%20with%20my%20External%20Hard%20Drive.doc

 

[fzabkar]

This is the partition table in sector 0:


Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 6C 63 0A 00 00 00 01
000001C0 01 00 07 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 02 4C 38 3A 00 00


It shows that the drive has been partitioned in MBR mode with a single 500GB NTFS (0x07) partition beginning at sector 63 (= 0x3F).

The next step would be to dump the boot sector. To this end you would repeat the previous procedure, but with the following changes:

Start Sector -> 63
Number of Sectors -> 1

 

[Brownchap]

This is the partition table in sector 0:


Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 6C 63 0A 00 00 00 01
000001C0 01 00 07 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 02 4C 38 3A 00 00


It shows that the drive has been partitioned in MBR mode with a single 500GB NTFS (0x07) partition beginning at sector 63 (= 0x3F).

The next step would be to dump the boot sector. To this end you would repeat the previous procedure, but with the following changes:

Start Sector -> 63
Number of Sectors -> 1

Thanks a lot. Here it is refer rapid share link http://rapidshare.com/files/2250337615/lba_63_1.bin

However, I have resolved this. One of my friend told me, sometimes a router 'mounts' a disk. Belkin uses Unix. So it 'might' have mounted the disc in using Unix. Try out the disk in Unx / Linux system and check if I can see all the files / folder in that system. I plugged in the drive in my friends PC with Linux OS. It indeed showed up. He 'unmounted' the drive in Linux. I plugged in the hard disc in my Windows 7 PC and it worked. It is now accessible and with all folders/files intact.

After this I again repeated the cycle. I plugged on to the router. Unplugged it and plugged it on my Windows PC. However this time I did not face any issue. The hard disk was accessible via Router and also accessible via PC and I did not have to do 'unmounting' or any tweak. Hard disk wokred fine as plug and play in both side.


Now the query is two fold
A) Why this happened earlier and now i is not happening ?
B) If it happens again how to 'unmount' it after plugging in my Windows system ? I mean, do I have to access a Linux again to unmount and make the disc operative in Windows 7 or is there any other tool, which will unmount it in Windows it self and make the disc workable ?

Regards

 

[fzabkar]

I wrote the following before I saw your edit ...

That appears to be an intact NTFS boot sector. Its BIOS Parameter Block is telling us that the NTFS volume begins at sector 63 and has a size of 0x3A384C01 sectors (in hexadecimal). This is one less than the size reported in the partition table (0x3A384C02), as it should be. Therefore both sectors appear to be OK and they confirm that the drive still has its original 500GB NTFS file system.

I expect that your router would have an embedded Linux OS. If so, then it would appear that Linux is able to mount your damaged file system but Windows cannot. Therefore it might be possible to access your file system on your laptop by booting to a Ubuntu Live CD.

As for the reason for the damage, it could be that the drive was unplugged incorrectly. On a Windows box you need to safely eject the drive to ensure that any unwritten data are flushed from the cache. It could be that your router has a similar requirement.

 

[Brownchap]

I wrote the following before I saw your edit ...

That appears to be an intact NTFS boot sector. Its BIOS Parameter Block is telling us that the NTFS volume begins at sector 63 and has a size of 0x3A384C01 sectors (in hexadecimal). This is one less than the size reported in the partition table (0x3A384C02), as it should be. Therefore both sectors appear to be OK and they confirm that the drive still has its original 500GB NTFS file system.

I expect that your router would have an embedded Linux OS. If so, then it would appear that Linux is able to mount your damaged file system but Windows cannot. Therefore it might be possible to access your file system on your laptop by booting to a Ubuntu Live CD.

As for the reason for the damage, it could be that the drive was unplugged incorrectly. On a Windows box you need to safely eject the drive to ensure that any unwritten data are flushed from the cache. It could be that your router has a similar requirement.

Thanks again. Yes your analysis was based on scientific approach and must appreciate immensely what you did to analyse and help. Yes, I also think the disk must have been ejected wrongly from router.

Can we marked this as SOLVED so that someone else can then see this thread if something similar happens?

Regards