Convert raw to NTFS

[oldfred]

I am sure you now are doing a low level scan, something like what photorec does. I used photorec on a much smaller drive and it took overnight to complete, so it may take that long.

We have seen one or two users who did not partition drives and just started storing data to them. It works more as an old floppy drive, but without partitions none of the normal system tools work. Did you have partition?

Intel would normally be correct if partitioned with MBR(msdos). I have a couple of gpt partitioned drives and use the second entry for UEFI/gpt even though I do not have UEFI for those drives.

Very large drives over 2TB would normally use gpt. Ubuntu installs to empty drives over 1TB with gpt partitions. Ubuntu will boot from either gpt or MBR with either BIOS or UEFI.
But Windows only uses MBR with BIOS mode unless booting with UEFI, then only works with gpt partitioning regardless of drive size.

[AAEIV]

I am sure you now are doing a low level scan, something like what photorec does. I used photorec on a much smaller drive and it took overnight to complete, so it may take that long.

So ii is typical! Relieved to hear it!

We have seen one or two users who did not partition drives and just started storing data to them. It works more as an old floppy drive, but without partitions none of the normal system tools work. Did you have partition?

No I don't... This drive is actually new. I have only used it 3 or 4 times. It was on schedule but I never partitioned it... But I believe partition is for precaution reasons, isn't that right?

Intel would normally be correct if partitioned with MBR(msdos).

How can I check that?
The thing is, that when I was running testdisk, I was getting the message that there is no partition, so I thought of choosing "no type" instead of "intel" in case there was an issue with tpye...

I have a couple of gpt partitioned drives and use the second entry for UEFI/gpt even though I do not have UEFI for those drives.

Unknown words, sorry...
GPT is a specific(GUID) partition table. I suppose that my HDD has the aforementioned partition table. But to be honest I don't know how to check that.

What do you mean second entry?

UEFI is an interface which actually controls the HDD? I thought that I control my hardware from the OS. The only interface I have for my HDD is a seagate's utility called "Seagate Dashboard" which is actually a tool for creating back up etc. I don't thing it is that sophisticated to make a partition table with that...

Very large drives over 2TB would normally use gpt. Ubuntu installs to empty drives over 1TB with gpt partitions. Ubuntu will boot from either gpt or MBR with either BIOS or UEFI.
But Windows only uses MBR with BIOS mode unless booting with UEFI, then only works with gpt partitioning regardless of drive size.

This is nice info! Probably I miss something there... How can this help me? Are you implying to bot from my external HDD in order to check something?\


Sorry for my ignorance

[oldfred]

I was trying to explain the various ways drive could be partitioned - no partitions, MBR(msdos) or gpt(GUID).

It sound like if it is a new drive and you did not specifically partition it with gparted or Windows tools, it does not have either MBR or gpt partitioning, but nothing and that eventually leads to issues as you have found. It then intially behaves somewhat like an old floppy drive which was not partitioned.

MBR(msdos) only has the one partition table in the MBR. One advantage of the new gpt partitioning is that it has two, a primary and a backup partition table. The backup is usually at the end of the drive. Gpt also has one one type of partition essentially all primary, so no 4 primary partition limit.

[AAEIV]

I wasn't aware that I should have created a partition table when I bought my drive...

Apart from what I am doing now(the low level scan) is there anything to be done? Can I for instance partition it?
Or perhaps to format it?

I cannot format it from disk utility because whenever I try to I get a message

[oldfred]

I have seen users have issues with large drives using either Disk Utility or Windows. Best to use gparted or parted.

Or if you want the newer gpt, use gparted and select under device, advanced and change to gpt. With gpt you can also use gdisk which is the fdisk for gpt drives. fdisk does not work on gpt partitioned drives. gdisk is in the repository.

gparted & fdisk instructions:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/In...gANewHardDrive
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ho...sAndPartitions


GParted partitioning software - Full tutorial
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html
Screenshots of using gparted
http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

[AAEIV]

The thing is that gparted cannot see the HDD.
Only disk utility can and I don't know why...

[oldfred]

With MBR the very first sector is the boot code & the partition table. If you wrote some data into the MBR all partition tools may have issues.

If you have backed up all data, you can zero out the MBR.

I rarely suggest dd as its other nickname is Data Destroyer. Any typo and you may erase the wrong thing and there is no way to recover. Boot code is in first 440, entire boot sector including partition table is 512.

Confirm drive is sdb, as wrong drive erases partition table. if= is from, of= is to, do not ever mix them up.

sudo fdisk -lu

Zero out MBR only of sda Use 440 if windows as serial number is between 440 & 446. Use 512 to include entire sector:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1

Some of info above is for reference in case someone else reads thread later.
Powerful command, but often misused and then nicknamed "dd" Data Destroyer
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ommand-362506/

[AAEIV]

If you have backed up all data, you can zero out the MBR.

Well, this problematic drive is my back up! That's what I've been trying to do in the first place. To gain my data back!
I suppose I shouldn't run dd because I will officially lose my data...

What can I do though?

[AAEIV]

I probably forgot to mention that an MBR does exist.

Secondly I would like to mention that probably my HDD while is plugged in, its address keeps changing all the time.

This image shows sdg, which means that there was a sdb, sdc,sdd,sde before! Why is this happening>

[oldfred]

That drive is configured for MBR should mean the first sector is the MBR, but then the partition table is empty or that part of partition table is corrupt.
Do not know enough about details that if you just start writing to drive if sector 0 is written into or if reserved for MBR. It may be just opening Disk Utility or gparted is assuming MBR because you have not specified otherwise and that is default.

If it is a USB connection everytime you unmount it and mount another drive it gets a new device. It does not know it is the same device. So be sure of drive.

Change sda to whatever your current drive is.
sudo hdparm --read-sector 0 /dev/sda

Last line should end with aa55 which says it is the end of the MBR
From my sda:
ffff fe0b ffff ce4b 06df 1676 0271 aa55

If you run this command with your drive in place of sda does it output anything? Post contents of PTsda.txt
sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > PTsda.txt