(didn't post this in /wsr/ as it's more of a discussion than a specific request)
Plugged in a 750GB external drive (fat32, I think it came that way) and had errors while trying to copy some files.
I was able to move 85% or so of the files off onto other drives, but there are still some corrupted files left behind.
During moving and running chkdsk /f, some of the files "disappeared". At last check, there as about 60GB or so left on the drive, but the amount actually visible in explorer was far less than that.
I haven't written anything to the drive and I don't intend to till I can get the rest of the files off. I initially tried running chkdsk, only to sit there and watch it stuck at 0%. Presently it's been running for 16hrs or so and it seems to have gotten stuck at 20%.
At least it looks like it's working and putting the damaged files into FOUND...
Any suggestions for what else to try?
Should I close chkdsk, and try running it again?
I hoped recuva would have been of some help, but it said it wasn't able to run on the drive.
chkdsk is destructive, should not be using on 15%+ corrupted drive, just going to make tings worse.
As long as drive still recongised (appears in exploerer, etc), file recovery program (Easus Recovery myself) would be a better idea. Yoos chkdsk /f only for odd minor file errors, and preferably not even then.
Weigh up how much you really need the files as well, 60GB of mostly corrupted data probably gonna stay mostly corrupted, no matter which drive you transfer it to - if films or some BS you can reload, forget em.
>>964668
well, considering there were only a handful of damaged files on the other parts of the drive, I don't think all of the ~60GB left would be corrupted as well....I did managed to get a few files that were in the same folder(s) before the rest disappeared
but I'll look into it, thanks
>>964649
Never write to a dodgy disk.
Buy a new disk, image the old disk from it, make a copy of the image, and work on that copy.
If you shag up the copy, you can just copy it again. If you shagged up the image, you'd have to read it from the dodgy drive, and it might not put up with that kind of treatment.
If you work directly on the drive and you shag it up, then it's game over. Assuming it even possible to write to the drive reliably, which it may well not be.
>>964745
considering I barely had enough space to move the working stuff off the drive, that's not going to happen
I'll make a copy of the remaining space, I have enough space for that
sounds like you have bad sectors, so any file recovery software you run is gonna take forever, like several days, to finish. the delays are created by the HDD itself, so no software can help you. what you can do is use a more sophisticated recovery program like Active@ File Recovery, which lets you tell it where to scan. so if it gets stuck at sector 1000, you can scan sectors 1-999, then 1001-onwards. and when it gets stuck again, stop it and skip over the next bad section.
this technique helps but it's still an awful job. so next time buy some DVDs and make proper backups. people have forgotten about this great cheap reliable medium. coz they're faggots, basically.
>>964810
I'm trying some things at the moment
test disk was actually able to complete a movie I couldn't get before....I'll see what I can get
>>964649
Burn Hiren's Boot on a dvd, boot with that, repair hdd, profit.
update: trying different software, I managed to get about 15GB off....I'm beginning to think there wasn't actually 60GB left, I cannot think of what else might have been taking up the extra space (I am confident about 40-50GB)
I'll keep trying for a bit longer, but otherwise I'll just have to re-find the rest
Anytime you have a drive with bad sectors you need to get a mirrow of that filesystem up and running asap.
Boot up linux with your bad disk and a clean disk of the same size and make, or larger disk
Run ddrescue with the -r switch set to 0 and have it copy from your bad disk to your new one and specify a log file. Once it completes then increment -r a couple digits to allow it to retry the blocks it missed the first pass through. If any of the previously unsuccessful blocks are now read they'll be copied onto the new disk. Once you get two passes set it to -1 and put it in a loop until the drive completely fails or you get bored.
Now you have an image of your bad disk on a good drive to muck about on. And do all the recovery attempts on.
>>965586
when they get cheap enough I can afford to have a few extra TB drives, sure, I'd clone it first
I even just tried to copy whatever wasn't free space, but it ended up going way over what room I had
I'm just formatting it....I guess I should look for a replacement
>>965727
So what, you're planning to just get by with less capacity?
The drive's toast; you're going to be replacing it; you might as well replace it before your data turns into dust on the inside of the can.
>>965752
less? it has the same it had before
as long as it is still seen and can be accessed by windows, it's not dead....I won't be keeping anything I cannot replace on it, but at the moment, it's what I've got
Spinrite is good and you can usually find a torrent. It's tiny so burning to cd is quick and easy.
>>965771
if you're cheap or broke, try the thrift store. i got these 5 externals over the course of a few months. average price $6, average size 120G. three of them had noodz of the owner or his GF. they were deleted but recovered.
another source of cheap HDDs are used TV PVRs like the Explorer 8300HD. typical price is $7 for a unit containing a 160G or 320G.
>>965783
I remember using it before, but of course I read something saying not to use it....
>>965784
seriously? nice finds
(I bought a new 1TB a few months ago, after rebate and cashback, it was a good deal...but that one received the clone of my prior 500GB drive)
I plan on going to garage sale when they start up again....I wouldn't be surprised if people might have smaller ones to sell....if not then crappy desktops with drives to salvage
>>965788
It's a last resort tool and not guaranteed to work especially if the platters are degrading or the drive is failing more as it warms up.
My first act is to clone the drive using Linux DD and after that try various utilitiesincluding Spinrite to recover anything missed.
Sometimes the bubble is ok and you can just swapout the controller board with one from an identical drive. I once borrowed a mates radioactive material (don't ask!) handling cabinet as a mini clean roomto try and sort out a drive but it didn't work.
tl;dr take multiple backups of valuable data.
>>965803
at this point I'm not putting more time into trying to fix it....I likely got what I was going to be able to get without doing more damage
I do have computer backups, obviously, and some smaller drives....I keep important stuff on flash drives and copy those much more frequently
