I want to know if fixing the boot sector will fix my problem

[wealthwise]

Hello I have a Iomega I TB USB driver partitioned into 2 NTFS partitions, I had it on for a few days but I don't believe it was connected to the USB, a couple days ago I connected it to my Win 7 system and I was shocked to find that one of the partitions was wiped out, all it shows is 100 MB space on it, I ran chkdsk and the volume is fine, I panicked because there are some very important files on their including very sentimental memories. I started searching online to find an answer as to what happened, no luck and all I could find was threads on recovering data from an erased partition, it appears to be reformatted, however all the files are there if you run a program like Active Partition Recovery,isn't there a way to restore the partition back to the way it was and have the files magically reappear? Would fixing the boot sector do that? I read about Dskprobe.exe to recreate the partition but I'm not sure how to that or if it will help, is the only way to recover the data and store it to a different medium?
Thanks for any help or suggestions.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, wealthwise!

As far as I understand this is an external HDD, right? I'm afraid fixing the boot sector won't do anything because it is located on your internal primary (OS) HDD. I'd advise you to go to Disk Management and check how the external drive appears there. You should be able to see the volume and the check what exactly has happened to the partitions. If it appears healthy and has all its partitions intact there, then you can try Assigning a different drive letter to it and see if that will help you access your files. I'd also check how the drive is recognized in another computer.
I'd also recommend you to use the HDD's brand-specific diagnostic tool instead of Check Disk, these utilities will help you determine the health and SMART attributes status of your external. You should refer to third-party HDD testing tools, in case you are unable to find the manufacturer's one.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[wealthwise]

In Disk Management the partition is healthy active Primary partition with 412.36 GB NTFS, tried assigning a different drive letter did nothing, however in HDDSCAN it appears there are CRC errors and Ultra DMA errors so therefore the drive is damaged, I'm not sure how much I will be able to recover, I am going to purchase a new drive, I wish I had known the drive was a Seagate I would have avoided it, well it is now close to 5 year old, so I can't really complain. Can you recommend the best free Partition Recovery software to recover what I can? Thanks

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there again, wealthwise!

Unfortunately, with these errors, I'd strongly recommend you to consider a professional data recovery company for assistance. Retrieving the files is rarely 100 % successful even for them, so I'd rather not risk further corrupting your files with third-party utilities by yourself.
In the future, I'd advise you to always keep backups of your most precious files. Having multiple copies of your data, stored on different drives/devices/services (on-site as well as off-site) is the best way to prevent such data-loss headaches.

Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD