[SOLVED] How to repair raw external hard drive without data loss?

[tokotigerjosh]

Hi there.

I have a WD Elements 4TB external hard drive that has become RAW due to accidentally disconnecting the USB cable without dismounting it.
Now all the data on it is inaccessible. I could format it but I'm wondering if there's a way to repair it without losing any of the data on it. The computer still lists the drive as healthy.
The data isn't super critical but losing it would be terribly inconvenient so I want to see if there's a way to recover it first.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi there.

I have a WD Elements 4TB external hard drive that has become RAW due to accidentally disconnecting the USB cable without dismounting it.
Now all the data on it is inaccessible. I could format it but I'm wondering if there's a way to repair it without losing any of the data on it. The computer still lists the drive as healthy.
The data isn't super critical but losing it would be terribly inconvenient so I want to see if there's a way to recover it first.

With the proper tools, clone that whole thing to a different device.

HDDSuperClone, for instance.

HDDSuperClone | HDDSuperClone

www.hddsuperclone.com

 

[tokotigerjosh]

With the proper tools, clone that whole thing to a different device.

HDDSuperClone, for instance.

HDDSuperClone | HDDSuperClone

www.hddsuperclone.com

Well, I'm on Win 10, not Linux. Also, I don't have any devices with room to spare for the data on it. Is there any other way?

 

[USAFRet]

Well, I'm on Win 10, not Linux. Also, I don't have any devices with room to spare for the data on it. Is there any other way?

The Linux thing could be done on a bootable flash drive.

Not having some other device is problematic.
The more you mess with your current faulty drive, the closer it is to total fail and the less likely you are to actually getting anything back from it.

Maybe someone else will chime in with how to proceed.

 

[TerryLaze]

You can use testdisk, scan the disk and restore the partition table.

The idea of cloning the disk is because it could have some issue and doing anything to it could kill it off.

 

[DSzymborski]

Well, I'm on Win 10, not Linux. Also, I don't have any devices with room to spare for the data on it. Is there any other way?

Unfortunately, that's a bit like trying to fix your car's engine while the car is in motion.

To have any chance of recovering all of this data (since it appears you did not maintain backups), you need a drive to recover things to. If you recover it to itself, every file you recover will write over parts of other files. If you can't clone it, all you can really practically do is fire up Recuva or EaseUS and see if you can recover some of the data, ideally the most critical data, to the extra space you do have.

If this all sounds kind of messy and uncertain, it is. That's why a backup plan for data that's important is a basic part of PC ownership, no different than changing the air filter in your furnace or the oil in your car. Because recovering from backups is the only clean solution in situations like this.

 

[tokotigerjosh]

You can use testdisk, scan the disk and restore the partition table.

The idea of cloning the disk is because it could have some issue and doing anything to it could kill it off.

I tried testdisk last night, I wasn't really clear on how to use it. It said to use the default partition table since it automatically detects those but it defaulted to "none" which it advised against. I don't know which partition table type my HDD uses.

The data on this disk isn't super critical but it just would be terribly inconvenient to lose it.