[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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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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There is a new FAT partition at sectors 756 to 6643. This has overwritten a small part of your original NTFS volume at sector 2048. The Indicators column for your Elements volume is showing "xCF" instead of "BCF", which means that the boot sector has been overwritten. However, the "F" would suggest that the $MFT is intact, which means that we should still be able to recover your files with their original names.

What do you see if you double-click the NTFS volume (Elements) and expand the $Root?
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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USAFRet said:
A better site for your images is imgur.com. Post the link here.
Click to expand...
I'll have to sign up all from the beginning, can't I just use media fire?
fzabkar said:
There is a new FAT partition at sectors 756 to 6643. This has overwritten a small part of your original NTFS volume at sector 2048. The Indicators column for your Elements volume is showing "xCF" instead of "BCF", which means that the boot sector has been overwritten. However, the "F" would suggest that the $MFT is intact, which means that we should still be able to recover your files with their original names.

What do you see if you double-click the NTFS volume (Elements) and expand the $Root?
Click to expand...
I see my lost data!!!!!!!!!
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
There is a new FAT partition at sectors 756 to 6643. This has overwritten a small part of your original NTFS volume at sector 2048. The Indicators column for your Elements volume is showing "xCF" instead of "BCF", which means that the boot sector has been overwritten. However, the "F" would suggest that the $MFT is intact, which means that we should still be able to recover your files with their original names.

What do you see if you double-click the NTFS volume (Elements) and expand the $Root?
Click to expand...
http://www.mediafire.com/file/p140kzip27hct6y/Screenshot+(85).png/file
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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The free version of DMDE allows you to recover up to 4000 files from any one folder. The full version costs US$20.

Navigate to your desired folder, r-click the desired object and then "Recover" to another drive.

Note that any data that was overwritten will be lost, but that's only 2.35MB at most ( = [6643 - 2048] x 512 ).

Let me know if your recovered files are OK. If so, then we can have a closer look at the damage around sectors 2048 - 6643. It's possible that not all of them we overwritten, in which case there may be a totally free DIY solution.
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
The free version of DMDE allows you to recover up to 4000 files from any one folder. The full version costs US$20.

Navigate to your desired folder, r-click the desired object and then "Recover" to another drive.

Note that any data that was overwritten will be lost, but that's only 2.35MB at most ( = [6643 - 2048] x 512 ).

Let me know if your recovered files are OK. If so, then we can have a closer look at the damage around sectors 2048 - 6643. It's possible that not all of them we overwritten, in which case there may be a totally free DIY solution.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much!!! So you mean I'll have to pick just one folder to recover? Because no folder in there has 4000 files. And what if a folder has subfolders?
 
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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Just keep drilling down until you get to the bottom of the folder tree, pick any folder, and then recover it. DMDE will recover 1 file, or 2 files, or 4000 files, but not 4001. This exercise will serve as a test to ensure that the file system isn't seriously broken.
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
Just keep drilling down until you get to the bottom of the folder tree, pick any folder, and then recover it. DMDE will recover 1 file, or 2 files, or 4000 files, but not 4001.
Click to expand...
Will they be recovered on the same external drive? Because right now I do not have so much free space in my laptop.
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar

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Sep 22, 2010
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The safest approach would be to obtain another HDD, buy the standard version of DMDE (16 euros), and recover the entire $Root to your new drive.

Otherwise, we can examine the extent of the file system damage to see if a DIY repair is possible.

Double-click the Metadata files ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/Metadata.jpg

... then d-click $UpCase ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$UpCase.jpg

... then d-click $Boot ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$Boot.jpg

... then go to LBA 2049 in the lower right pane by dragging down the scrollbar:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/BOOTMGR.jpg

Show us what you see. If these areas are OK, then we can try to repair the boot sector.
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
The safest approach would be to obtain another HDD, buy the standard version of DMDE (16 euros), and recover the entire $Root to your new drive.

Otherwise, we can examine the extent of the file system damage to see if a DIY repair is possible.

Double-click the Metadata files ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/Metadata.jpg

... then d-click $UpCase ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$UpCase.jpg

... then d-click $Boot ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$Boot.jpg

... then go to LBA 2049 in the lower right pane by dragging down the scrollbar:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/BOOTMGR.jpg

Show us what you see. If these areas are OK, then we can try to repair the boot sector.
Click to expand...
I hope I did it right ...
View: https://imgur.com/a/eSWBwQe
 
Last edited:
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
34
2
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fzabkar said:
The safest approach would be to obtain another HDD, buy the standard version of DMDE (16 euros), and recover the entire $Root to your new drive.

Otherwise, we can examine the extent of the file system damage to see if a DIY repair is possible.

Double-click the Metadata files ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/Metadata.jpg

... then d-click $UpCase ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$UpCase.jpg

... then d-click $Boot ...
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/$Boot.jpg

... then go to LBA 2049 in the lower right pane by dragging down the scrollbar:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/BOOTMGR.jpg

Show us what you see. If these areas are OK, then we can try to repair the boot sector.
Click to expand...
Sorry, this is the right snapshot
https://imgur.com/a/fQ3vvG3
View: https://imgur.com/a/fQ3vvG3
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
You've shown us the boot sector (LBA 2048). It has been overwritten. If the other sectors (which you haven't yet shown us) have also been overwritten, then a DIY repair would not be feasible, at least not by me.
Click to expand...
So could I just recover files up to the total of 4000 ? And if yes, does it have to be all in one DMDE session or could I continue tomorrow?
fzabkar said:
Sorry, it appears that there is too much damage in that area of the file system. I would recover the $Root to another HDD and then rebuild your file system (ie reinitialise and reformat).
Click to expand...
So could I just recover files up to the total of 4000 ? And if yes, does it have to be all in one DMDE session or could I continue tomorrow? And also, do I need another application to reformat or would DMDE do that too?
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
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.
Click to expand...
Ok! I really can't thank you enough, fzabkar!!! I'm really really grateful for your help and your time!!! I wish you the best!!! How can I mark your answer as the best solution?
 
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V.O.

V.O.

Sep 23, 2020
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fzabkar said:
Thanks, but not necessary. Good luck.
Click to expand...
Oh, but I think it is necessary because other people might be helped too! I think I found it. 🙂 And if anyone has the same problem as me, if you go back in the thread you'll find in fzabkar's posts all the steps you have to follow with DMDE. I'm really grateful!
 
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