«

On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:26:31 +1200, John S <>
wrote:

>On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:13:33 -0700 (PDT), Squiggle wrote:
>
>> On Apr 20, 10:52*pm, John S <gorbli...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>>> Today I lost the contents of a 500 GB external usb HDD which I have been
>>> using to store images of partitions of several computers.
>>>
>>> Not certain, but I suspect the drive was corrupted because of a faulty usb
>>> socket on the computer it was connected to.
>>>
>snip
>>
>> Step 1a) Make a sector level backup image of the corrupt drive before
>> you do anything else. I suggest not using one with a stuffed USB
>> port
>> Step 1b) Make another copy...
>>
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk is worth a go, it's saved
>> files for me in the past.
>
>Thanks for the tip.
>
>Will give it a go.
>
>(See my reply to Peter Huebner).
>
>Cheers,
>
>John S



Just restore the masters boot record., MBR other wise I thing you are
just wasting your time

On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:23:13 +1200, John S <>
wrote:

>On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:59:28 +1200, Peter Huebner wrote:
>
>> In article <fgdztz4e9anc.chbo4gobl368$.>,
>> d says...
>>>
>>> Today I lost the contents of a 500 GB external usb HDD which I have been
>>> using to store images of partitions of several computers.
>>>
>>> Not certain, but I suspect the drive was corrupted because of a faulty usb
>>> socket on the computer it was connected to.
>
>snip
>> Google "Photorec". Great piece of software that does not rely on file system
>> information to recover files but actually searches sectors on disk. I've
>> successfully used it in the past to pull documents off a trashed harddrive.
>> Lil' bit of a learning curve (I used the linux version), but hey ...
>> I understand there's a MS Windows based version around also, which will be
>> easier to use if you're not familiar with commands for root access, mounting
>> drives, setting write permissions, and all that jazz in linux.
>>
>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
>>
>> h.t.h. -P.
>
>Thanks,
>
>I've had a quick look at the explanation on the above link, and downloaded
>the two utilities (Test Disk and PhotoRec).
>
>Will need to do a bit of reading and thinking as it looks a bit
>complicated.
>
>I have the Terabyte BING software and will see if I can make an image of
>the drive first and work from that (assuming that the recovery software can
>understand the image file type created by BING).
>
>Eventually will report back on what happened.
>
>Cheers,
>
>John S

I have not been reading nz.comp for a few days, so I missed this. If
you still need help recovering the drive, and are willing to pay a
little, take a look at:

http://www.dfsee.com

When you buy a license for DFSee, you get one free fix from the author
as part of the deal. You run the DFSee script that scans your disk
and send him the report. He sends back a script that fixes the disk.
I have done this twice now with corrupt NTFS disks where it was
partition table damage and he sent back a script pretty quickly both
times that just fixed it. Well worth the money.

On Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:35:42 +1200, Stephen Worthington
<_numbers> wrote:

>On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 10:23:13 +1200, John S <>
>wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:59:28 +1200, Peter Huebner wrote:
>>
>>> In article <fgdztz4e9anc.chbo4gobl368$.>,
>>> d says...
>>>>
>>>> Today I lost the contents of a 500 GB external usb HDD which I have been
>>>> using to store images of partitions of several computers.
>>>>
>>>> Not certain, but I suspect the drive was corrupted because of a faulty usb
>>>> socket on the computer it was connected to.
>>
>>snip
>>> Google "Photorec". Great piece of software that does not rely on file system
>>> information to recover files but actually searches sectors on disk. I've
>>> successfully used it in the past to pull documents off a trashed harddrive.
>>> Lil' bit of a learning curve (I used the linux version), but hey ...
>>> I understand there's a MS Windows based version around also, which will be
>>> easier to use if you're not familiar with commands for root access, mounting
>>> drives, setting write permissions, and all that jazz in linux.
>>>
>>> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
>>>
>>> h.t.h. -P.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>I've had a quick look at the explanation on the above link, and downloaded
>>the two utilities (Test Disk and PhotoRec).
>>
>>Will need to do a bit of reading and thinking as it looks a bit
>>complicated.
>>
>>I have the Terabyte BING software and will see if I can make an image of
>>the drive first and work from that (assuming that the recovery software can
>>understand the image file type created by BING).
>>
>>Eventually will report back on what happened.
>>
>>Cheers,
>>
>>John S
>
>I have not been reading nz.comp for a few days, so I missed this. If
>you still need help recovering the drive, and are willing to pay a
>little, take a look at:
>
> http://www.dfsee.com
>
>When you buy a license for DFSee, you get one free fix from the author
>as part of the deal. You run the DFSee script that scans your disk
>and send him the report. He sends back a script that fixes the disk.
>I have done this twice now with corrupt NTFS disks where it was
>partition table damage and he sent back a script pretty quickly both
>times that just fixed it. Well worth the money.


No No just restore the MBR.

On Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:52:52 +1200, John S wrote:

> Today I lost the contents of a 500 GB external usb HDD which I have been
> using to store images of partitions of several computers.
>
> Not certain, but I suspect the drive was corrupted because of a faulty usb
> socket on the computer it was connected to.
>
> Connected to another computer, Windows recognises the HDD and its two
> partitions are given drive letters, but windows says the drive needs
> formatting before it can be used.
>
SNIP

Just following up my original post to say thanks again for the helpful
replies, and that the problem is now fixed.

Testdisk did the trick, (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk) but there
was a fair bit of luck involved, as I didn't know how to use it properly.
Despite downloading the documentation from the internet, I found that the
responses I saw on screen didn't quite match the tutorial illustrations.

I kinda bumbled around and eventually saw a message telling me to re-boot.

When I re-started the computer, Windows XP at bootup time showed some text
on screen which went be too fast to read, but it was to do with fixing file
problems. Then I found that the directory structure on the disk was back
again, and the files apparently all OK.

Happy ending, and very much due to your great and helpful advice which is
much appreciated.

Cheers,

John S