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

Ignore my previous post as I did the process again and now get the correct screen #5:

Got successfully to Screen 8, which said Boot Sector Status OK & Backup Boot Sector OK.
I chose LIST & got this:



Closed TestDisk, ejected the drive, turned off Dock & restarted.
Got this error message:

Using Bootice again, I took another capture of sector 63. There is change:

@jumanji
As you previously asked for, here is Sector 63 of the OTHER 2TB drive that is the same model & part number:

You may go to sleep now till I digest the info given by you and return

Are you a mind reader.... lol. I am feeling so very tired and off to bed now.

The screenshot of Sector 63 VBR you posted at page #31 was garbage. So I was surprised and skeptical when you reported that TestDisk found the bootsector at 63 OK. I was about to post that you repeat and post a screen by screen progress of TestDisk as I had done in my guide. By that time you posted a fresh bootice screenshot of sector 63 which is a normal and perfect VBR. How come it changed from garbage to normal? Did you give the command [BackupBS] or [Rebuild BS] anytime during the TestDisk run?

Is your dock playing dirty jumbling up data coming in from different sectors during processing off and on? Considering that you suddenly lost three drives in the dock, I do not now rule out that possibility. While you attributed it to your making a mistake, it may infact be due to an aberrant dock.

"As you previously asked for, here is Sector 63 of the OTHER 2TB drive that is the same model & part number:" ( your post # 44) That sector 63 has all zeros. It is not the VBR. The VBR in that disk may be at sector 2048. Even if it were at sector 63, it is of no consequence and relevant now since the disk under scrutiny seems to have a valid VBR @ 63 now. No need for transplanting one into the other which we were toying with.

I shall continue after a break.

Ok, If I post what all was running in my mind during this interregnum it will become unbearably long . So I will cut it short.

" Can't open file System. Filesystem seems damaged"

Christopher Grenier, the author of TestDisk recommends running checkdisk.

We had done it and done it successfully in many cases. But only in cases where MFT and MFT mirror matched but still the disk was not accessible.

Read this https://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...xplorer-2.html and then this https://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...ugh-app-2.html

Read also my note 3 in post #36 in this thread.

Rerun TestDisk, in screen 8 where it says Bootsector OK, Backup bootsector OK, move the highlight to [Repair MFT] and press ENTER. TestDisk is highly interactive. So I cannot predict what exactly will the next screen say. Post a screenshot of the ensuing screen. If I am not online and do not respond within half an hour, close TestDisk by hitting on X in the title bar top right and wait for my response. Do not hit on any other command to proceed on your own.

jumanji said:

is your dock playing dirty jumbling up data coming in from different sectors during processing off and on? Considering that you suddenly lost three drives in the dock, I do not now rule out that possibility. While you attributed it to your making a mistake, it may infact be due to an aberrant dock.

It was only two drives that got corrupted, both in the dock at the same time, no third drive involved.

jumanji said:

The screenshot of Sector 63 VBR you posted at page #31 was garbage. So I was surprised and skeptical when you reported that TestDisk found the bootsector at 63 OK. I was about to post that you repeat and post a screen by screen progress of TestDisk as I had done in my guide. By that time you posted a fresh bootice screenshot of sector 63 which is a normal and perfect VBR. How come it changed from garbage to normal? Did you give the command [BackupBS] or [Rebuild BS] anytime during the TestDisk run?

Yes, I ran [BackupBS] as you had requested in your Screen 6.