3 TB WD External Hard Drive NOT Working [ RAW ]

@Paul Black

No worries. Elements model is not self encrypting. My Book and Passport are and therefore when taken out you can only recover the enrypted data which won't be of any use.

Just for my information, how many partitions did you have in that 3TB disk?

And yes. @ Malok was right. These advance formatted MBR drives are of 4096 bytes per sector size instead of the conventional 512 bytes/per sector size.

And here is the thread I mentioned for your read. Hard Drive seems corrupt. 1 Partition now showing as 3 Partitions?
( Unfortunately the OP mfx had deleted all the screenshots showing his disk. Does not matter)

Our strategy will be to ask TestDisk to convert the 4096 byte stream to 512 byte stream and read the drive.If it shows all your files you need to copy the files to another plugged in disk with adequate space. I only wish the disk is in good health and it is not the bad sectors which is causing the problem.

For the day I am done since it is already 21;20 hours. I shall post my instructions on using TestDisk tomorrow morning. I am always slow - rusted brains

You may download the stable version of TestDisk & PhotoRec 7.1 (July 7, 2019), Data Recovery. ( not the beta version 7.2 ) from TestDisk Download - CGSecurity

Thanks for taking the time on this @jumanji, it is appreciated.

jumanji said:

Just for my information, how many partitions did you have in that 3TB disk?

I did NOT create ANY EXTRA Partitions on it, I used it as is.

jumanji said:

And here is the thread I mentioned for your read.

Hard Drive seems corrupt. 1 Partition now showing as 3 Partitions?

( Unfortunately the OP mfx had deleted all the screenshots showing his disk. Does not matter )

I will read that in a little while, thanks.

jumanji said:

Our strategy will be to ask TestDisk to convert the 4096 byte stream to 512 byte stream and read the drive.If it shows all your files you need to copy the files to another plugged in disk with adequate space. I only wish the the disk is in good health and it is not the bad sectors which is causing the problem.

For the day I am done since it is already 21;20 hours. I shall post my instructions on using TestDisk tomorrow morning. I am always slow - rusted brains

You may download the stable version of TestDisk & PhotoRec 7.1 (July 7, 2019), Data Recovery ( not the beta version 7.2 ) from TestDisk Download - CGSecurity

OK, I will download TestDisk & PhotoRec 7.1 - Windows 64-bit ready [ DONE ! ] for your instructions tomorrow.

Once again, thank you.

I have been thinking about the various options available to me BEFORE starting the recovery method itself.

Although my IDE/SATA Docking Station has an Offline Clone option, it is NOT much use to me because I do NOT have, and can NOT afford, to buy another HDD of comparable size.

I even thought about Imaging the HDD. I use AOMEI Backupper Standard where the Image compresses to about 40-50% of the original size. I suppose I could delete some files etc from my other 3 TB HDD to make room. The thinking behind this is to have an Image that I could possibly Mount if need be !

Hopefully, the problem with my HDD will only be because the Partition Table has become corrupt, and is repairable with TestDisk !

I will await instructions from @jumanji tomorrow, who is far MORE knowledgeable than myself in this area.

I have just spent some time looking at TestDisk & PhotoRec [ Websites & YouTube ].

A couple of the options available require that I have the same amount of FREE space [ 3 TB ] available on ANOTHER disk, which unfortunately, I do NOT, so this limits what I can actually perform with respect to recovery.

I will await instructions from @jumanji tomorrow, who is far MORE knowledgeable than myself in this area.

I like the idea of an image as a 'backup plan', but I'm wondering if any disk imaging program could work without a functioning file table. I have a geeky curiosity to know!

But I definitely would NOT do anything that might affect the drive before you can work with Jumanji to recover data with TestDisk. If it will image as is, then so be it. If not - abort!

As for the extra drive space: Do you have an idea of how much of the 3TB on the Elements was actually used?
Normally it is not all of 3TB, so you could start now to consolidate all of the data on your other drives to make room for the transfer for the recovery.
Unfortunately it looks like this is a laptop, and the 120GB main disk is all you have., and D: is full.
But if you have a OneDrive or Google Drive or both to transfer stuff to that could work. But 3TB into 120GB is problematic.

I believe the process will be to save the data off disk, reformat the disk, then put the data back if the disk is deemed healthy. So I'm wondering if you can sign up for enough cloud storage (temporarily) to get the chore done. This could also be a time to call in favors from friends.

Be prepared: the next shoe to drop is that the if Elements disk is deemed bad you are going to need to buy a new disk anyway.
The Good news is that this is not always a certainty. Sometimes the file table gets corrupted on a perfectly good drive.

You are in good hands. If there is a way then Jumanji will find it.

Thanks for the reply @TV2, it is appreciated.

TV2 said:

But I definitely would NOT do anything that might affect the drive before you can work with Jumanji to recover data with TestDisk.

NOTHING done other that stated in my OP.

TV2 said:

As for the extra drive space: Do you have an idea of how much of the 3TB on the Elements was actually used?

I am pretty sure that it is quite a bit less that 1.50 TB.

TV2 said:

Normally it is not all of 3TB, so you could start now to consolidate all of the data on your other drives to make room for the transfer for the recovery.
Unfortunately it looks like this is a laptop, and the 120GB main disk is all you have., and D: is full.
But if you have a OneDrive or Google Drive or both to transfer stuff to that could work. But 3TB into 120GB is problematic.

It is actually a Desktop.
NO, neither.

TV2 said:

I believe the process will be to save the data off disk, reformat the disk, then put the data back if the disk is deemed healthy. So I'm wondering if you can sign up for enough cloud storage (temporarily) to get the chore done. This could also be a time to call in favours from friends.

I have looked at TestDisk and there are options where you can view [ if recoverable ] the folders [ files ] before doing anything. I am NOT interested in the downloaded films or series that are on there because I can always do them again. It is mainly the personal stuff, which is probably only about 25-30 Gigabyte at the most.

TV2 said:

Be prepared: the next shoe to drop is that the if Elements disk is deemed bad you are going to need to buy a new disk anyway.

I can NOT afford that, I will just use my other 3 TB WD External HDD.

You want specific partiton recover dont try finding the files that can mess it up they will all be there is the parition is recovered you sometimes need to try several parition reover software they dont need disk space as its a simple matter of writting the tables

Thanks again @Samuria,

Samuria said:

You want specific partition recover don't try finding the files that can mess it up they will all be there is the partition is recovered you sometimes need to try several partition recovery software they don't need disk space as its a simple matter of writing the tables

Which ones do you recommend please ?

A lits Top 10 Free Partition Recovery Software 2022

DiskInternals Partition Recovery is good often one will work and not another so dont give up

"I can NOT afford that, I will just use my other 3 TB WD External HDD. "

Ah! Missed the 3TB external. I was looking at the screenshot of Disk Management. I just saw the 120GB, the USB stick, and the problem Elements.
Hopefully you'll be able to free up 1.5TB on that other one - someway - somehow.