Back up drive became RAW.

[megalithic]

Can't access it obviously, and you know the story, all my files are on there.

I used killdisc to wipe my primary drive then reinstalled windows, now my back up drive can't be accessed for some reason, pretty sure i didn't delete any partitions from it.

Anyway it's now asking me to format it so i can use it, i haven't obviously.

Tried Testdisc and whilst the drive is showing in the list it isn't finding any partitions/files when i run a test. the drive itself is showing zero space and zero spaced used.

I'm confident the data is still there and it's just the drives boot data that,s corrupt.

Any ideas?

TIA.

[tzijlstra]

You can try Linux on a pendrive, boot that and check the drive. There are several alternatives out there, check them out and find which you are most comfortable with.

 

I've used Knoppix in the past- https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-live-cd.htm

[megalithic]

Tried last night with linux mint. Couldn't access the drive.

[Ghozer]

use some Data recovery software like Recuva, or M3 Recovery etc, it will allow you to recover all your data from the drive, then you can format it again, check it for errors, and put your files back..

[martin6]

The free easeus recovery software can recover lost partitions

[megalithic]

Ghozer. when i specify the drive in Recuva i get - you need to format the disc in drive z: before you can use it.

Martin. Do you have a link? i've downloaded Easus partition master but can't see anything in there that recovers partitions.

 

Btw with linux mint i'm getting - Unable to mount location. Can't mount file.

[Ghozer]

If Recuva etc won't read it (as they don't initialise / read the same as windows default does) then it's likely the drives dead i'm afraid...

 

other than using a Live CD like "Ultimate Boot CD 4" - it's windows based, and has various tools in it, password reset/recovery, file recovery, drive/partition recovery, drive format tools, drive checking and scanning tools...

 

you can access "portable" apps via USB, so you could copy Recuva to a USB, boot from "Ultimate Boot CD" and run Recuva from there also...

 

if that doesn't work, you could google how to use diskpart to convert raw to ntfs and try that (LAST RESORT, DOING THIS WRONG CAN CAUSE MORE HARM)

 

-- other than the above, if none of them work, I have no more ideas other than it's dead

[martin6]

http://www.easeus.com/resource/partition-recovery-software.htm

 

Looks like a separate tool to download

[megalithic]

Thanks Ghozer, Martin.

Am running the easeUS partition tool now.

[swarfendor437]

If having any issues with Easeus, you could give Test Disk a try:

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Data_Recovery_Examples#The_type_of_the_file_system_is_RAW_-_Recovery_of_a_damaged_FAT_boot_sector

 

Test disk is free from here:

 

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

Always useful to have as many tools as possible available - hope you get your data back.