[SOLVED] Help! I accidentally turned my 1TB external hard drive into a 2.85MB mass storage device! Can this be fixed?

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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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Hello there!

I have a WD Elements 1TB external hard drive with lots of important files in it. I was watching a youtube video on how to download Linux mint to a USB and I had no idea it had to be an ordinary empty USB. So I used balena.io/etcher/ to do the whole procedure and after flashing I realized my 1 TB external drive was converted to a 2.85MB mass storage device!!!
I cannot afford to lose all that data nor to buy another external hard drive! Can someone please help me??? I would really really appreciate it!!!

Thanks!!!
Vassiliki
 
Solution
F
Windows Disk Management can initialise and format your drive (after you have recovered your data).

You can recover all your files for free if you are prepared to sit through multiple sessions of DMDE.
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thepersonwithaface45

Notable
Sep 23, 2020
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Sounds like you might be out of luck to be honest. Once you flashed that, you completely wiped and re-wrote the drive, no?
Not sure if you can turn it back into a 1TB drive.
Maybe there's a solution here:

Recovering the original storage capacity of an external hard drive

I used my LG 1terabyte external hard drive to perform system recovery for my hp system running windows 8.1, after that my 1TB external hard drive storage capacity changed to 30gig. Please how do I recover the original size of the hard disk 1TB?
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

Titan
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Mar 16, 2013
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"lots of important files "
"I cannot afford to lose all that data "

Why was there not a backup of this "important data"?

"nor to buy another external hard drive "
This is probably going to be required. Any potential data recovery will need to be recovered to a different physical drive.


Don't worry about making it a "1TB" again, until you've tried recovering the data.
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
34
2
35
thepersonwithaface45 said:
Sounds like you might be out of luck to be honest. Once you flashed that, you completely wiped and re-wrote the drive, no?
Not sure if you can turn it back into a 1TB drive.
Maybe there's a solution here:

Recovering the original storage capacity of an external hard drive

I used my LG 1terabyte external hard drive to perform system recovery for my hp system running windows 8.1, after that my 1TB external hard drive storage capacity changed to 30gig. Please how do I recover the original size of the hard disk 1TB?
forums.tomshardware.com forums.tomshardware.com
Click to expand...
Thanks so much for your reply! Actually I didn't really have the time to do much, once I realized what I had just done cold sweat started coming... I'll see if that link helps! Thank you!
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
34
2
35
USAFRet said:
"lots of important files "
"I cannot afford to lose all that data "

Why was there not a backup of this "important data"?

"nor to buy another external hard drive "
This is probably going to be required. Any potential data recovery will need to be recovered to a different physical drive.


Don't worry about making it a "1TB" again, until you've tried recovering the data.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for replying! That's a good question you asked. But you see, when you've been unemployed for the last seven years in Greece of 2020, well, you're not always able to buy all the stuff you would need to keep your data safe, you have to prioritize your expenses. That drive was a gift. Some of the data was backed up, but it was hundreds of GB in there. Thanks again🙂!!!
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
34
2
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USAFRet said:
"lots of important files "
"I cannot afford to lose all that data "

Why was there not a backup of this "important data"?

"nor to buy another external hard drive "
This is probably going to be required. Any potential data recovery will need to be recovered to a different physical drive.


Don't worry about making it a "1TB" again, until you've tried recovering the data.
Click to expand...
Do you think something like that would help?https://www.easeus.com/resource/res...easeus&lctid=692023&lcid=1600706046_3_3105955
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
34
2
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USAFRet said:
Other option:
Autopsy
www.autopsy.com

opsy | Digital Forensics

Autopsy® is the premier end-to-end open source digital forensics platform. Built by Basis Technology with the core features you expect in commercial forensic tools, Autopsy is a fast, thorough, and efficient hard drive investigation solution that evolves with your needs.
www.autopsy.com www.autopsy.com
Click to expand...
Thank you!!! Do you think it's easy to handle for a pc illiterate like me? Or would I need an expert?
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar

Judicious
Sep 22, 2010
9,549
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This is how DMDE detects my 8TB Elements:

DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg
 
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