HDD Partition Table Gone

[sthapns247]

I have a 4TB Seagate HDD that appears to have lost all partition information. It was formatted to NTFS in Windows 7. I was trying to copy a file over to it and the system locked up during the copy; totally frozen, couldn't even get into Task Manager. I ended up hard resetting the machine because I waited over an hour for it to unlock. Upon rebooting Windows reported the partition as RAW and I cannot access any data on the drive. A few free softwares I've tried (TestDisk, EaseUS) are reporting that there is no partition or that the partition table is corrupt.

Two questions:
1) Any suggestions for fixing or getting the data off the drive would great.
and
2) Does a corrupt partition indicate a failure of the hard drive? The drive is still under warranty, should I get it RMA'd or is that excessive?

Thanks!

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... Use TestDisk and either...
1) Load the backup " Boot Sector" table for the drive... If It I Good.
2) Reset your Disk geometry for that Drive per Manuf/4TB specs.

It is common for these 2-4TB drives to lose Disk Geometry With Windows... see it happen now and then... but the drives continued to work for a few years without a problems.

3) A Windows Command fix has also been reported here... http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1947114/fix-external-hard-drive-formatted.html

Start: All Programs: Accessories: Right click on Command Prompt, run as administrator...
at the prompt type:
chkdsk (Your problem drive letter here no parentheses): /x
hit enter.

 

[fzabkar]

I would start by determining the physical state of the drive. To this end I would examine the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo.

http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskInfo/index-e.html

Look for reallocated, pending, or uncorrectable sectors.

I would then examine the drive with a disc editor (eg DMDE freeware).

http://dmde.com/

Examine sectors 0, 1 and 2. That's where the partition information resides.

If you can upload an image of DMDE's Partitions window, we will be able to locate the backup NTFS boot sectors.