HDD External Hard Drive Corrupted and Unreadable

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Hi Themrvladek,

I am another person who has benefited from your useful advice. Like all the others, I too had faced the pangs of misery and hopelessness when I discovered that my external hard drive was corrupted and unreadable. I had all my kids' pictures on the hard drive, and not to mention my HD Movies, and loads of other personal stuff. I am so glad I looked online for help, and was directed to your blog.
This is just me, saying,"Thank you," for the useful advice, and I do hope that many other people benefit from this advice too, just like I did, and that they do not have to suffer the heartache of having to format their disk and of losing all their precious memories. So on behalf of everyone who has benefited from your advice, I just want to wish you well, and say how deeply I appreciate your taking the time out to share this valuable information! Have a great life ahead!
 
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To all those out there! if you ever face the problem where your external hard drive is corrupted and unreadable, the computer will prompt you to format the disk, but please don't! You could risk losing all your data,(and not to mention your memories, the little threads that make up your life!) I resisted the temptation to go for the "format option", which seemed like the right thing to do. I took the time to read this advice and I am so glad I did, because it solved the issue in no time! Here is Themrvladek's useful advice, it sure worked for me:

If you are under Windows operating system, go to Start > All Programs > Accessories, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. In cmd window that appears type this:
chkdsk x: /f
(where x = drive letter associated with your external hard drive, and before x: and after x: there is a space)
and press Enter.
Command chkdsk (check disk) will correct errors and your external hard drive will be accessible again.


It is not better to apply first a data recovery software, because that software cannot access inaccessible disk. Prior to use that software it's needed to format hard drive, which means losing data. So, data recovery software is the last option. Really, better is to perform chkdsk as I described above. After all, data recovery software cannot make a miracle, and many of files on formatted disk can be permanently lost, depending on the file format and the ability of data recovery software. Such the best professional software – which is not freeware – could recover from 180 to 200 file formats only, with no 100 percent guarantee to fully recover all the files. E.g. ParetoLogic Data Recovery Pro, or EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard, can recover almost any file. Note: "almost". What about those files that cannont be recovered? That's why data recovery software is the last step. Better is the first step would be chkdsk x: /f and second step chkdsk x: /r (fully correct files, clusters, and sectors on a inaccessible drive). Formatting disk and later recovery data is really the last chance.
 
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Hi Themrvladek,

I almost read all of yr solutions, which helped most of the users to recover their data.

But I have a different problem, that my hard drive doesn't show in My Computer at all.
Therefore, no drive letter for the external disk.
tried disk management @windows 8.1 but it says Disk 1 Unknown ... and when I tried to initialize to access it ... error appears ...

so no way to apply chkdsk command as drive letter is not available ...
any help will b highly appreciated ...

I don't need to recover any data from it ... just wanna put this drive in accessible conditions.

Regards

 
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Hi there....
I have the same problem and tried all themrvladek's way, but until now my external hdd is still corrupt and not accesible.
It appears "Windows cannot recover master file table. CHKDSK aborted".
Any idea for this problem?

I really need to save my external hdd without losing any files in it because it has my music collection (35k+), movies (500), and other very important files.

Please help me.
 
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You've lost the Master File Table. Your system keeps a backup but it would be corrupt as well if this is showing up under testdisk. This is what you can do. Firstly, disconnect your drive until you are ready to do this. Your drive is probably on it's way out and any spinning it does only brings it closer. Second, get something to back it up to.

Finally, download test disk here: www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

Follow these instructions to the LETTER, and backup everything before shutting down when you gain access to the drive, as this may only work once if your drive data is badly damaged.

Type in CMD in the search bar of windows, a single application will be found, right click and run as administrator.

Drag and drop the testdisk.exe into the window, select No Log with your arrow keys

Select the drive that is giving you problems. Make sure you actually select the right drive, as any working drives may lose data if this method is carried out on them when there is nothing wrong with them.

Remember to hit the left key twice to highlight proceed before hitting enter.

Select whichever type is highlighted (as long as it is Intel or EFI), then select Advanced, go down to the last partition, or if you have multiple partitions, you will know which one to use, hit Boot, then hit Repair MFT. If your drive is USB, then disconnect and reconnect after this has completed and your drive should appear, otherwise restart your system.

Explanation:

Your MFT (Master File Table) is a list of files on your computer. It is the daddy of all other file tables on your drive, meaning those tables all need the MFT to make any sense on the 1s and 0s on your drive. Your HD has a backup of it stored as it is very important, and when Windows loads it it checks the main version against the backup to make sure they both are safe to use, but when yours checked it found both the current version and the backup were corrupt. This Testdisk has just copied the safest version over the other. Windows will not check the two for corruption if they are both identical, giving you a chance to at least see your files. Some of them WILL be corrupt or even missing though, and any changes made to the the MFT, even simply recording the time you access these files, is going to corrupt the MFT further, hence you should only do this method the one time to get what you can off the drive, then inspect the data to see what works once it's on a safe Hard Drive.
 
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hello all.
i'm in a bit of a pickle myself. the issue i've got is delicate - i've been helping out a friend with an indie movie production, working as a DIT on the set. anyway, here's what happened.
we're shooting in 4k raw, so we've got massive amounts of data to store. now, one of the disks we use to store it was working fine yesterday, but when i turned on the computer today to make a backup copy of it, i got a "one of your disks needs to be checked for consistency" notification on startup. after the computer went through with it (and deleting something called "orphan directories" or similar in the process), i tried to copy the material, only to find out that three folders are inaccessible (reported as "corrupted and unreadable"), while others remain accessible, but in some cases the contained files cannot be opened nor previewed (please note that some data remains intact and files can be opened and previewed in windows explorer).

while i'm currently playing with the idea of utilizing themrvladek's approach, i'm keen on getting some insight into what has happened and how to safely restore all the data.
please bear in mind the disk has not yet been backed up and i would like to avoid any further loss of data on it.
it took some time for me to cool off and avoid a panicky reaction, only to realize i don't have any idea how to solve this matter. so i'd appreciate it if someone out there can help me out.
also, i'd consider a professional data recovery service as a last resort, due to the fact that we are limited on funds and the sheer size of both the disk in question and the data stored on it.

thank you.
 
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The first thing you should do is carry out the backup you were going to do. Simply put, if you haven't done anything to provoke corruption on that drive (such as hard resetting your machine) then it's up in the air as to why these files are unreadable and you should get the other data backed up first so you have no chance of losing more. It also means that you will always have the data in case you decide to run chkdsk or another file recovery program and lose the data on that drive or something.

Firstly, after my backup, I would run chkdsk -f on that drive. I believe how has already been mentioned. I would also be careful not to actually move, add or change any of the files on the drive before that point, as technically your odds of cleanly fixing those folders goes down exponentially the more the drive changes between the files becoming unreadable and you carrying out that chkdsk. Backing up is reading from the files, so no data is actually changed on the files aside from the 'last read' attribute.

Should that not work, you will need to start looking at more complex solutions. Report back if you don't find your data coming straight back after chkdsk.
 
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thanks for your swift reply genz.
i've been looking deeper into the subject and i have to admit that there were power shortages while copying footage from camera SSDs to the HDD. (we were filming on sailboats, so using a generator to power the computer and HDD docks was the only option - and, you guessed it, it unexpectedly and without any warning stopped at one point).
already figured out that's a real bummer..
but i was able to access some of the same files i can no longer preview when i was exporting the DNG files into resolve to prepare proxy videos for the director and DoP to see. so frankly this is what is wondering and worrying me at the same time.
suppose this is what caused the disk to fail - is it still a good idea to do the backup first?
 
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Is this for internal hdd or for external hdd?
When I read your post, it seems for internal hdd.

CMIIW.

And about the chance to recover my data.
Is it full data recovery or am i have to give up some files or even for the worst, i must give up all my data?
 
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Hi Themrvladek,

I was transferring files into my 1TB western digital hard drive the other night. I left it working over night. When I checked this morning my hard drive is no longer readable by my PC. I have tried connecting it to other PCs including to a Mac but just the same response. I reconnected it back to my PC and opened the Disk Management. I have found out that my hard drive is labeled "Unknown and Not Initialized". I tried to initialize the disk but I am getting the Virtual Disk Manager error message "The media is write protected".

Please help me. I need to retrieve my files stored in this hard drive.
 
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It's for external as well. Any drive that is still detected by the computer will function. If you are using an external drive and it doesn't light up upon plugging it in, your problem is the SATA-USB bridge and can be fixed by opening your case and taking the large metal drive, then slotting it into something like this = http://www.amazon.co.uk/DUAL-DRIVE-DOCKING-STATION-eSATA/dp/B009WK1UY4/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_0_0

As long as it is detected as a drive with capacity (even if that is inaccessible to the OS), test disk will work.

As for the recovery status, firstly, you can back up and restore both blocks using the options on the one before last menu. The option is Backup Superblock if my memory serves me correctly. Restoring those will leave your MFT as it was before you carried out this procedure.

Your data integrity depends on two things.

Even though this is allowing you access to your files again this does not fix or break them in anyway, because it doesn't actually touch the real data. What you are doing is essentially brute force instructing your computer to open the drive using an older map (think of a literal land map of your town from a couple of years ago) of where the data is, even if the computer knows that something is wrong with the map, because the current AND backup map is flagging up as damaged and it's that or nothing.

Windows is pretty good (understatement) at fixing any faults it sees on the fly once the drive is open, or at least giving you a chance to read the data, but there is only so much that can be done.

Now as we both know that map may have changed since then, and if it has then it may or may not have been a bad thing.

These are the raw facts: If your drive is new (Advanced Format) and the data on it has changed less that 4KB in size between the old and new map it will be perfect, if it is older that number is 512bytes (your block size). This is the degree of accuracy of the map basically. If it's shrunk since, then it will have spare zeroes on the end, which will likely be truncated (cut off at the end) by your system automatically. If it's grown however, then the file itself may be truncated. If it's very new (hours before failure) it won't be there. That's the nature of the beast. The last drive I carried out this procedure on however was a 3TB drive, and there was about 1500 damaged files out of 2.6 million. Remember that the drive I was repairing was damaged to start with and went back to seagate for repairs straight afterward, and you may well realise that of those maybe 100 were truncated.

To really give a good analogy, if the buildings (files) on that map are smaller or near enough the same size now as they were then they will be copied completely when you copy that file off the drive. The moment that the map is made however, Windows is going to start playing with the map in it's usual fashion, moving files, updating last access times etc, and we know that the map has issues somewhere, so copy off first, worry later.

If you have done defragmenting since the last time your MFT was backed up, that would mean that pretty much very file would give you junk data (because defragmenting is literally reordering all the buildings on the map for efficiency and thus the old map would not direct you around the new town).


In case you are thinking of using the drive afterward (in the case of it being a drive that doesn't seem to be actually broken, like one that disappeared after a power failure etc etc), run a chkdsk after backup and try if you want, but don't be surprised if a couple of months down the line the drive does the same again. Your map is damaged, and with Windows acting like it's not, that fault may grow, even if the damage evades chkdsk (remember that what you just did is outside chkdsk's usual expected problems, damage does not cause data to copy itself). There are drives out there that silently fail and seem to work fine for months despite deleting and corrupting data in the background.
 
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This advice, hopefully, will work, but it seems it could be a while before I know ... I am trying to repair, via my desktop, a 160Gb WD laptop drive which is connected to my PC via a USB cable. It has, so far, been running for just short of 23 hours and is, apparently, 2% through the run ... that means I am looking at leaving this running for at least another MONTH :-o !!!

Any ideas how to speed it up 🙂 ?!?
 
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What are you running Tesatdisk or chkdsk. If chkdsk is taking that long then it's not going to finish and you[re wasting your time. If you are running Testdisk then you have not followed my instructions. I did not tell you to use the scan feature. If you have run chkdsk and it hasn't fixed your problem, TestDisk will not get you a full recovery.

TestDisk should only be used in scan mode if you are looking for a specific set of files to recover.
 
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As I said in the last post, if it takes more than 5-6 hours then it's not going to work.

Honestly speaking I don't leave it more than an hour most times. It can go into a cycle of damaging your files trying to fix them. Like I said, if your drive is on deaths door copy everything off before doing ANYTHING.

Human beings with their wishful thinking always see the "fix all" option and hammer away at it believing that they are special sauce and it will work for them. I just got off the phone with a client with an obviously failing drive that wants to ignore her drive telling her its dying because it still successfully runs time machine backups. Sometimes you've just got to get what you can before the house burns down, else all you end up with is a pile of ash.
 
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As I said in the last post, if it takes more than 5-6 hours then it's not going to work.

Honestly speaking I don't leave it more than an hour most times. It can go into a cycle of damaging your files trying to fix them. Like I said, if your drive is on deaths door copy everything off before doing ANYTHING.

Human beings with their wishful thinking always see the "fix all" option and hammer away at it believing that they are special sauce and it will work for them. I just got off the phone with a client with an obviously failing drive that wants to ignore her drive telling her its dying because it still successfully runs time machine backups. Sometimes you've just got to get what you can before the house burns down, else all you end up with is a pile of ash.
 
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I was running Chkdsk. I stopped it & started it about 4 times, each time after it had run for many hours, and EVENTUALLY it finished enough for me to extract data from it. However, it still wouldn't boot the laptop it came from so it met a grisly end 🙂 !!!
 
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I am not tech or computer savvy person.. Please help me my internal hard drive that I took out from my corrupted registry netbook (500 Gb) is not appearing on my computer. Last time it's working but just yesterday it's not working nor appearing anymore. There's a light but not blinking and sounds in my internal hard drive when I try to insert it. I tried to check it on my computer management on storage but there's no such disk.. Please any tech person who can help me out? I dont wanna reformat it and use recovery softwares because It can't recover all and sometimes it recovers corruped files..
 
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The problem was there was no warning sign whatsoever that my drive was failing, and considering that I am quite particular about losing my data, it is quite frustrating. I backed up all my data except these files (movies and tv shows files), which are quite large, so it was quite expensive for me to buy two identically-sized hard drive.

Anyway, back to the problem, when I ran the CHKDSK option, should there be a response from the command prompt? Because all I get is blank for a long time. I haven't tried leaving it for an hour or more though. Also, when I try to access the hard drive from My Computer, it will hang until I remove the external disk itself.

 
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Mine says:
the type of file system is FAT32.
an error occurred while reading the file allocation table <FAT 1>.
an error occurred while reading the file allocation table <FAT 2>.
there are no readable file allocation tables <FAT>.

Any ideas?
 
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You have to remember that USB is not a storage connector as SATA, SAS, IDE etc are. Whilst you can check for deterioration on USB drive using SMART-over-USB, it's non-standardized so leads to some older drives going awry replying with non-truths about the state of the drive.
 
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