Thanks "Adam", "John", "BillW50", and "M. I. 5 3/4", but the NTFS file system
was destroyed. I tried some recovery software, but the files were rather
unusable. I believe I simply unplugged it before it should have been,
according to my settings, which weren't optimized for quick removal. The
drive is attached directly to the computer, so it does get full power. I
didn't have another computer to try it on. I reformatted it, and now it is
working fine again. Didn't read in time to get that giveaway of the day!
MBR was ok, MFT wasn't, nor its mirror. Thanks again!
:
That doesn't sound too good!
Some good advice might be to try a Linux Live CD such as Ubuntu, often I
recover data using Linux. Another good starting point might be Ultimate Boot
CD. If you search for both you will be able to find them easily. Both of
these possible solutions will not change your existing setup merely running
off a CD.
The next step would be to start finding data recovery software (Ultimate
Boot CD I believe has this).
The possibility is that the drive might be on the blink or maybe result of a
virus infection (I've had this happen to me before). Backup other data first
don't want any further losses.
BTW is your external HDD getting enough power through the USB bus - are you
directly connecting the HDD to the computer or through another device such as
a hub?
Lastly, try the drive in another computer you never know
:
I got an IBM IDE hard disk back in year 2000 that broke twice. First time it
broke, I was able to recover 100% of my data (I don't care about system
files and other software) using Ontrack Easy Recovery. The second time (this
HD is to replace the 1st one that died), I was only able to recover about
90% which isn't bad at all.
:
This utility which is only free for about 6 more hours should do the trick.
It is a ZIPped file and just run Setup.exe within the next 6 hours. After
that you can relax. Then you need a way to burn an .iso file to a CD.
Giveaway of the Day (6 hours left)
Partition Recovery Bootable CD
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/partition-recovery-bootable-cd/
RAW format means your MBR is corrupt.
Yes, you probably didn't remove it properly.
That earlier post should take care of it and save it. It does repair the
MBR and partition information if needed.
--
Bill
Gateway Celeron M 370 (1.5GHZ)
MX6124 (laptop) w/2GB
Windows XP Home SP2 (120GB HD)
Intel(r) 910GML (64MB shared)
:
Yes. If you unplugged the drive before the cache had flushed, then
something won't be written back and there is a real risk that it's something
important (like the housekeeping data). Unless there is an overpowering
reason to do otherwise, I always recommend that external drives are
"Optimised for removal".
There are utilities which will search the disk for identifiable files. File
Scavenger is one but there are others available. The good news is that you
can try many of them for free to see what can be recovered, but you have to
pay before they will actually recover anything. The bad news is that many
will only work with NTFS file structures.
:
My USB External HDD has been working fine up until this point. When I try to
access the drive in My Computer I get the message:
[Windows Explorer]
F:\ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.
When I look at the drives 'General Properties' it says that the File System
is RAW and that Used space, Free space, and Capacity are all 0 bytes.
In Disk Management, it says I have a Volume: (F
, Layout: Partition, Type:
Basic, File System: 'blank', Status: Healthy, Capacity: 465.76GB, Free Space:
465.76GB, % Free: 100%.
I had been using the 'Optimize for performance' write caching setting.
Could this be the cause for the corruption?
What do I do now to repair the drive and is my data still salvageable?
Thank-you.
