[SOLVED] Unknown and unallocated Disk after i killed task of some game installation

[user51192]

Hi drive gurus please help me out,

I have read many many questions and my situation might be different even if solution is same. I am bit worried and confused right now.

I have new WD 2TB and an old 1TB seagate desktop drives, my windows OS is on new one from where I was installing a game onto 2nd seagate 1TB drive and ended up killing that install from task manager as it was taking long time and exit button was not working. Right after that, the partition where i was installing became inaccessible and after restart whole seagate drive was not visible.

Now it shows as unknown, uninitialized, unallocated device (does show the total drive size). Minitool partition wizard showed as Bad Disk.

To recover partitions i read i can Initialize the disk, rebuild MBR or run chkdsk but I am afraid they might wipe out my data. I do need my data in same structure.

My 2tb has 1.2TB of free space so should i clone this bad disk first before trying anything on it so i can put this image back and try again if something goes wrong with recovery? And which tool can help in cloning exact state of drive? Then which tool can i try to recover my file structure/partition ?

Currently my testdisk(on ubuntu live) is scanning this drive which is taking some time, i am not familiar how to use testdisk.

Any help is highly appretiated. And i can't afford to go for recovery shops.

 

[rgd1101]

sound like hardware failed. doubt it will be able to clone it

"i can't afford" where the backup?

 

[USAFRet]

I do need my data in same structure.

That may not be possible.

 

[fzabkar]

Can you retrieve a SMART report with CrystalDiskInfo?

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

 

[user51192]

That may not be possible.

Can you retrieve a SMART report with CrystalDiskInfo?

https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

sound like hardware failed. doubt it will be able to clone it

thanks for replies, this drive was working on a daily basis, and only gave issue when that setup was unpacking data files and i killed the task, so for me its hard to believe it failed or some drive error will be there, i will try the SMART test as soon as current testdisk test finishes.

And i can see one of my C drive partition in testdisk which is still going on, but i also see it says Invalid NTFS or exFAT boot, here is the image:

https://imgur.com/0uGyFch

View: https://imgur.com/0uGyFch

 

[fzabkar]

I wouldn't use any tool which scans your drive. That will only accelerate its failure. I recommend DMDE because it will normally find and display your partitions within seconds.

https://dmde.com/

CrystalDiskInfo will show us the physical state of the drive. If there are numerous reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors, then you would be best advised to clone the drive with a tool such as HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. These tools understand how to work with bad heads/media.

 

[user51192]

CrystalDiskInfo will show us the physical state of the drive. If there are numerous reallocated, pending or uncorrectable sectors, then you would be best advised to clone the drive with a tool such as HDDSuperClone or ddrescue. These tools understand how to work with bad heads/media.

SMART test says Disk is OK, and Threshold not exceeded. Could you please let me know if you think disk is not good or something. Here is the image:

https://imgur.com/DGrytKL

View: https://imgur.com/DGrytKL

 

[fzabkar]

Your drive is sick. Attributes 187, 197 and 198 are reporting hundreds of bad sectors. I recommend that you clone this drive ASAP.

However, before you start, can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?

 

[user51192]

Your drive is sick. Attributes 187, 197 and 198 are reporting hundreds of bad sectors. I recommend that you clone this drive ASAP.

However, before you start, can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE?

Oh man, ok can i run DMDE in ubuntu where i am current running testDisk? It showed below message:

The following partition can't be recovered:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

HPFS - NTFS 206502 57 58 211089 0 61 73686568

what can i take from this message?

 

[fzabkar]

Testdisk is the wrong tool for the job. It stupidly reports partition information in terms of CHS values (cylinder/head/sector). This is absurd for drives operating in LBA mode, as they all do.

The message you are getting from TestDisk is that it has found a 37GB partition at the 1.7TB point in a 1TB HDD. That doesn't make sense.

 

[Turtle Rig]

thanks for replies, this drive was working on a daily basis, and only gave issue when that setup was unpacking data files and i killed the task, so for me its hard to believe it failed or some drive error will be there, i will try the SMART test as soon as current testdisk test finishes.

And i can see one of my C drive partition in testdisk which is still going on, but i also see it says Invalid NTFS or exFAT boot, here is the image:

https://imgur.com/0uGyFch

View: https://imgur.com/0uGyFch

Listen to the above guru and grab CrystalDikInfo and check the health status of the hard drive. If it's blue and says good then the drive is ok and might need a format to recover from a nasty stoppage of large data transfer. If it says Caution in Red then the drive is dying and you need to backup your data ASAP and what not. Good Luck 🤷🏽‍♂️😷☮

 

[user51192]

The message you are getting from TestDisk is that it has found a 37GB partition at the 1.7TB point in a 1TB HDD. That doesn't make sense.

DMDE is showing me error should i proceed? Here is the image:

https://imgur.com/BzaAcI9

View: https://imgur.com/BzaAcI9


Says Data error make sure to know risk of working further, should i stop here?

Can you please then suggest me best approach to this? I have time to spend even days if i can at least gather my images and videos which are important family pics and college pics.

And can i just clone sector by sector so i can maybe work on same image later? I dont know which tool to use, please suggest.

 

[fzabkar]

Clone your drive with HDDSuperClone. It's a Linux tool, but its author has created a Live CD to simplify the job for you.

The risks are that the drive may accumulate too many bad sectors and become unresponsive. You may want to consider the cost of professional data recovery, but it's your call.

 

[user51192]

DMDE and crytal disk both reports are here:

https://imgur.com/TQxAfJU

View: https://imgur.com/TQxAfJU

https://imgur.com/WI8JfVf

View: https://imgur.com/WI8JfVf


Crystal Disk says caution on 2 variables (uncorrectable and current pending sectors)

 

[fzabkar]

Something is wrong in the 614GB area of the extended partition. I would clone your drive and then work on the clone.

 

[user51192]

Something is wrong in the 614GB area of the extended partition. I would clone your drive and then work on the clone.

thank you for the guide, i will do the clone first then, i could spend upto $200 but i think recovery is more costly than that.
Its really surprising everything was working great till now with it, even 2/3 partitions were fine when 1 partition got corrupted but i restarted and then whole disk was corrupted.

And can i clone it to existing drive having 1.2TB of free space, and which tool do you recommend to analyse the cloned image?

 

[USAFRet]

And can i clone it to existing drive having 1.2TB of free space, and which tool do you recommend to analyse the cloned image?

"cloning" should be done to a blank drive. No existing data that you wish to keep.

 

[fzabkar]

And can i clone it to existing drive having 1.2TB of free space, and which tool do you recommend to analyse the cloned image?

Yes, you can clone your drive to a 1TB image file. DMDE (and other data recovery tools) can then work with the image. That said, when you extract files from the image, you will still need more storage space.

 

[user51192]

Yes, you can clone your drive to a 1TB image file. DMDE (and other data recovery tools) can then work with the image. That said, when you extract files from the image, you will still need more storage space.

"cloning" should be done to a blank drive. No existing data that you wish to keep.

Given the results of my drive above, do you think i will be able to grab 80% of pictures on it? Around 400GB of pics and videos of my family and from all of the events i organised are there.

I really appreciate for looking into this, thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Percentage of success only counts when the data is actually recovered.

 

[fzabkar]

Which partition holds your desired data? 63GB? 323GB? 614GB?

You can increase your chances of a successful recovery if you minimise the stress on your HDD by targeting specific areas.

 

[user51192]

Percentage of success only counts when the data is actually recovered.

sure, i just don't understand how bad is my case. If its really bad then i will try for recovery services, but if i can get around half of data/pics then i won't have to pay that much.

 

[USAFRet]

sure, i just don't understand how bad is my case. If its really bad then i will try for recovery services, but if i can get around half of data/pics then i won't have to pay that much.

1% or 99% would cost the same.

 

[user51192]

Which partition holds your desired data? 63GB? 323GB? 614GB?

You can increase your chances of a successful recovery if you minimise the stress on your HDD by targeting specific areas.

I think 323 had most important data, rest of my event pics/videos were in 614GB if those are correct sizes. 63GB one has nothing, its just old OS installed on it as C drive.

 

[fzabkar]

You can start by cloning the 323GB logical disk to an image file. Start sector = 122882048, end sector = 753721343. Then run data recovery software against the image file. You may not be able to recover your file names, so the results may not be good. However, the most important thing is to get a reasonably good clone.

Here is one possible recovery tool:

R-Photo - Free Photo and Video Recovery for Windows OS file systems:
https://www.r-undelete.com/free_photo_recovery/