3 TB WD External Hard Drive NOT Working [ RAW ]

@Paul Black

You have one other 3TB WD external which is working. Please plug it in.

On an elevated command prompt run fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter> Post the screenshot.

Sample screenshot:



What does Bytes Per Sector say? What does Bytes Per Physical Sector say?

The faulty 3TB drive does not involve a partition recovery. It is not a partition loss. There is no way - as far as I know - to restore the disk. Only data recovery.

We are only going to run a trial with TestDisk. If it finds all your data, you can at your leisure rerun TestDisk and copy the data you may require, in whatever space that is available to you - at present or in future - in other drives including the working 3TB drive or even flash drives.

I shall now go ahead and prepare the job card for you. Its going to take quite sometime with all the day time interruptions..

Good morning @jumanji, I hope you slept well.

jumanji said:

The faulty 3TB drive does not involve a partition recovery. It is not a partition loss. There is no way - as far as I know - to restore the disk. Only data recovery.

OK, thanks for the update.

jumanji said:

We are only going to run a trial with TestDisk. If it finds all your data, you can at your leisure rerun TestDisk and copy the data you may require, in whatever space that is available to you - at present or in future - in other drives including the working 3TB drive or even flash drives.

That is EXCELLENT news. I prefer to take my time and just get what I want off first and then worry about the rest at a latter stage.

jumanji said:

You have one other 3TB WD external which is working. Please plug it in.

On an elevated command prompt run fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo <drive letter> Post the screenshot.

Code:

C:\Windows\system32>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo E:

NTFS Volume Serial Number :        0x54d8d96ad8d94abe
NTFS Version      :                3.1
LFS Version       :                1.1
Total Sectors     :                732,558,079  (2.7 TB)
Total Clusters    :                732,558,079  (2.7 TB)
Free Clusters     :                341,062,371  (1.3 TB)
Total Reserved Clusters :                1,281  (5.0 MB)
Reserved For Storage Reserve :               0  (0.0 KB)
Bytes Per Sector  :                4096
Bytes Per Physical Sector :        4096
Bytes Per Cluster :                4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment    :  4096
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment :  1
Mft Valid Data Length :            387.00 MB
Mft Start Lcn  :                   0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn :                   0x0000000015d4f97f
Mft Zone Start :                   0x0000000000000000
Mft Zone End   :                   0x0000000000000000
MFT Zone Size  :                   0.00 KB
Max Device Trim Extent Count :     0
Max Device Trim Byte Count :       0
Max Volume Trim Extent Count :     62
Max Volume Trim Byte Count :       0x40000000
Resource Manager Identifier :      B705A8C7-9442-11E3-A459-F46D04D2DA6D

jumanji said:

What does Bytes Per Sector say?
What does Bytes Per Physical Sector say?

Code:

Bytes Per Sector  :                4096
Bytes Per Physical Sector :        4096

@Paul Black

Your screenshot noted.

Your job card is almost ready. May be in another hour so, I shall post it..

jumanji said:

Your job card is almost ready. May be in another hour so, I shall post it.

Thank you, I REALLY do appreciate the effort and help you are putting into this for me.

@Paul Black

Please plug in only your faulty 3TB WD drive. ( safely remove all other USB connected storage media.) When you run TestDisk you will then see only your system disk and the faulty 3TB WD.

You will run testdisk_win.exe in the testdisk-7.1 folder. ( You may create a shortcut on the Desktop)

TestDisk has to be run with admimistrator privileges. Run as administrator.

The following screenshots illustrate the work flow. If at anytime you get a screen different from what is shown or you need any clarification, stop, take a screenshot, quit TestDisk and post the screenshot. You can rerun TestDisk later..

Screen 1:


Screen 2:


Screen 3:


Screen 4:


Screen 5 :
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Screen 6 :


Screen 7 :


Screen 8:


Screen 9:


Screen 10 :


Screen 11:


As with any data recovery job, I keep my fingers crossed. . Good Luck.

I will be peeping in every once in a while. So do not hesitate to give a shout if you need any clarification.

And no need to hurry. Do it at your own convenience.

Copying files listed by Test Disk: My external hard drive suddenly became unllocated: - Page 3 - Windows 10 Forums - start with screenshot 4 inthat post.

Hello @jumanji,

A quick question before I start please.

Probably NOT, but shall I also disconnect the TWO ADDITIONAL INTERNAL DRIVES as well [ Drive D: & Drive I: ]?

No need to disconnect any internal drives. With internal drives, TestDisk will show all your internal drives and the plugged in 3TB faulty WD drive. You will choose the 3TB WD faulty drive for Test Disk to work on.

jumanji said:

No need to disconnect any internal drives. With internal drives, TestDisk will show all your internal drives and the plugged in 3TB faulty WD drive. You will choose the 3TB WD faulty drive for Test Disk to work on.

Thanks. I am just about to start.

BRILLIANT @jumanji,

ALL the folders and files appear to be there.

So I now need to quit out of TestDisk, attach the OTHER 3 TB drive, and go through the WHOLE process again [ including the Geometry section ? ]. Then follow the link to Copy the data, is that correct please ?

When Copying, is there any way that you can open the folders and just select certain files within them, or does the WHOLE folder have to be Copied?