I Did Something Bad To My External HDD's & Can't Access Them.

@ignatzatsonic, good idea. I am making an image of the HDD with Macrium Reflect Free. The size is 1.8TB so I am lucky I have a fast SSD as C:\ Even with that, Macrium reports it will take four hours.

@ignatzatsonic
When I try to mount the image, I get the same error message about it needing formatting. It looks like all I have done is imaged the problem. Deleted image.

Downloaded MiniTool Partition Recovery Free & EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free.

After reading their respective guides, I chose to use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free as MiniTool will not recover, only find, as you can see from this:

From the User Guide of MiniTool Partition Recovery Free:"Kindly reminder: MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition can only scan for lost or deleted partitions. To recover the found partitions, you need to upgrade to advanced editions."From the User Manual of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Free:"Partition recovery wizard - Partition Recovery Wizard is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to recover volumes on abasic MBR/GPT disk that was accidentally deleted or damaged due to a hardware or software failure.The Partition Recovery Wizard first attempts to recover volumes "as is", i.e. logical volumes will be recovered aslogical and primary as primary respectively. If the primary volume cannot be recovered as is, it will be recovered aslogical. Also, if the logical volume cannot be recovered as is, it will be recovered as primary."

EaseUS did not find any partitions on either HDD. I ran both the short and long tests.

I am now running M3 Data Recovery software with the HDD's to try to recover what I can. I am not confident about getting anything. It will take some time and I will report my findings when finished.

Hi theoldfarter,

hmmmmm............theoldfather would have been more palatable . In fact I read it so the first time.

OK, that's just a preamble . Getting on, just take one dock and one HDD at a time. Unplug the other dock and other externally connected storage devices.

Uninstall the MiniTool Partition Wizard and reinstall MiniTool Partition Wizard Free v9.1 from https://www.filehorse.com/download-p.../old-versions/ On later versions Partition Recovery is not free.

1. Post full details of both the dock and the HDD you have selected and plugged in.

2. With those connected, post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management. Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of | Windows 10 Tutorials

3. If it throws any error message post a screenshot of that too.

4. Close Windows Disk Management and run PW 9.1. Say no if it wants to update and post a screenshot how your drive looks in it. - the very first screen that appears as soon as you launch that program.

Ooopps... forgot to take my pills after breakfast,. See you with those screenshots.

Hi jumanji,
The reason my username came to be theoldfarter is thus:
During school holidays, our 3 grandchildren, whom we called Big Fart, Miss Fart & Little Fart, would stay for a week with us.
The eldest, Big Fart, did indeed fart a lot. He made sure he saved it for when he and the other two were drying the dishes.
That got all of them trying to out-fart each other. We would call to them using their nicknames. They came up with a nickname for me, hence theoldfarter came into existence.

When joining forums, I kept on running into "name is taken", when I used my Christian name so now use theoldfarter. I have never since come across "name is taken" since.

I will do what you suggest but it will be tomorrow as I have processes running against the two drives which will take many hours to complete.

Take your time but hold fort not fart
9 reasons why you should never hold a fart: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...d-59424918.cms

jumanji said:

Take your time but hold fort not fart
9 reasons why you should never hold a fart: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...d-59424918.cms

An interesting read. lol

Using the M3 Data Recovery Software on the BitLocker 2.5 inch HDD, I was able to recover the contents completely. This drive is 750GB, of which 444GB was used. M3 took 9 hours to scan, and then copy to another external portable drive. Both the drives connected through USB 3.0.

In Disk Management, I deleted the volume and then created & formatted a new volume. Tested it with a few files, ejected, connected and BitLocker encrypted. The drive now works as it should.

I wonder if it was a corrupted MFT?

I will now use M3 Data Recovery Software on the other HDD, the 3.5". That is 2TB (actually 1.8TB) and has 1.7TB of data on it. If it is successfully recovered, it is going to take a very long time to do so. lol

@jumanji
I will hold off doing what you asked me to do until I see the outcome of this attempt.
If I am successful, then all is well :)

OK, good news. If something has worked , then persist with it instead of changing wings.. That also gives me leave to relax .

The files that M3 Data Recovery recovered are unusable. The vast majority of files are video and nothing will play. The total size of the recovered files is just about the same that is on the drive. I have just noticed that the drive is being reported as RAW, in Disk Management. Don't know what that means. What has happened to this drive, is different from what happened to the now completely fixed other drive.

I now place myself in your hands jumanji. I promise to not be an old FARTer :)

Address of HDD: https://www.seagate.com/support/inte...top-hdd/#specs
Barracuda Desktop 6-Gb/s Hard Drive 2TB ST2000DM001
Generation 7200.14

Address of Hard Drive Dock: ORICO 2.5 3.5 inch SATA3.0 USB3.0 1 to 1 External Hard Drive Dock - Black (6629S3)
ORICO 2.5 / 3.5 inch 2 Bay USB3.0 1 to 1 Clone Hard Drive Dock (6629S3)
2.5 / 3.5 inch 2 Bay USB3.0 1 to 1 Clone Hard Drive Dock (6629S3)
Taken off dock: Model: 6629US3-C

Plugged in and turned on the dock.screenshot of the first message that appears:



Dismiss that & get this screenshot of the second message:



Here is the screenshot of Windows Disk Management:



Here is the screenshot of MiniTool Partition Wizard Free v9.1, first run screen.



I will await your instructions Obi-Wan.... :)