external HDD stuck "scan and fix" windows issue

[indianwala]

Hello Friends,

I have an 80GB external hard disk with 75 gb of data, when connected to windows prompt for "Scan and Fix" i did contiue with out fix but it irretated and Hit the Scan and Fix now Ext-HDD drive is not accessible able to see the drive with letter and trying to access prompt for formate i avoid and google a lot got lot of confusion.

before u answer let me expalin my trails.

1. chkdsk m: /f
shows raw formate

2. testdisk done analyse and search after that run chkdsk m: /f says ntfs but not catagoried

3. intall ubuntu and tried accessing no success

vinod@vinod-PI945GCM:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0b750b75

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 206847 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 206848 102885375 51339264 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 102887422 207732735 52422657 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 207732736 312578047 52422656 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda5 102887424 203540479 50326528 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 203542528 207732735 2095104 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x44427a94

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 2048 204802047 102400000 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2 204802048 414517247 104857600 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb3 414517248 624232447 104857600 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb4 624232448 976771071 176269312 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdd'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdd: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 156301487 78150743+ ee GPT


/dev/sda first harddisk
/dev/sdb sec hardisk
/dev/sdd thrid external 80 gb harddisk

4. run gprated and shows the attached screen.
with two partitions one FAT32 with EFT Lable and second NTFS with out no lable but data space 75gb which i want my data back.

please help me to get the data safely.

[trevm999]

Was this hard drive originally used with a Mac then reformatted using Windows?

[Mark Phelps]

In guess my first question is HOW an 80GB drive got formatted using GPT!! I can see a 3TB drive formatted that way, but 80GB drives are OLD .. and they would (by default) be formatted using MBR.

IF you really want to recover the files, then you need to consider using Windows data recovery apps. You will need to connect the drive to a Windows PC to do this. You could try Recuva -- which is free. But, you would probably do better using RecoverMyFiles from Runtime Sofware, which is free to install and try, but you have to purchase a license online to do the recovery.

[dannyboy79]

before you continue on with anything at all I would use ddrescue and make a backed up image of the drive and save that somewhere safe, that way as you're playing around with the drive and you really screw something up you at least still have a copy of the drive somewhere.

can you clarify, did you install ubuntu onto the 80GB hard drive or do you mean you tried accessing the 80GB hard drive from within ubuntu?

[indianwala]

Was this hard drive originally used with a Mac then reformatted using Windows?

Yes, I tried iAtkos Mac and after that reformatted in dos mode.

[indianwala]

I tried with two types of Recovery software's none worked well or recovered files. So i installed ubuntu on my 160 GB HDD second partition and connected the 80 Gb HDD. I haven't get auto detect the connected drive so i checked with sudo fdsik -l and i found 80GB is detecting with /dev/sdd1 but shows as GPT.
when i check in windows and run the command chkdisk /f it says raw format. I tried with Test Disk and attached the screen shots and after that run the command chkdisk it says NTFS but not opening.
for you informatoin my hdd is showing but asking for format before i do it I am trying with Test Disk noting is help full.
I also added the attachement of Gparted it shows two partitions in Ubuntu.

Please help

[Mark Phelps]

It's unlikely that any Linux utility is going to work. I already told you what you need to do back in post #3.

[trevm999]

Ok first we need to make an exact backup. You will need to install ddrescue in ubuntu and and have enough space to store an 80GB image, or another hard drive 80GB or more to be the backup.

sudo apt-get install gddrescue
sudo apt-get update

Now that ddrescue is installed, let's double check our drives with

sudo fdisk -l

According to your previous run of fdisk, the 80GB drive was at /dev/sdd also take note that the drive has 156301488 sectors. If you connect another drive for the image, it might be located at /dev/sde

If you want to make an image and save it to your 500GB drive you will want to mount that drive then switch now to that drive i.e

cd /media/sdb4

this may be different so make sure you check the mount point of your drive.

To make a backup as an image run this command (as long as the drive is still /dev/sdd)

sudo ddrescue -n -v /dev/sdd imagename.img logfilename

imagename and logfilename can be changed to whatever you want

if you want to clone it to a HDD use this command

sudo ddrescue -f -n -v /dev/sdd /dev/sde logfilename

sdd and sde will change depending on where your drives are installed, so double check fdisk and double check your command. The first drive is your source. If you get it backwards your data will be overwritten.

Assuming the backup completes without error, we will be able to continue. If if does indicate an error let it complete and I can give you further commands to try and get a complete clone.

Sometimes ignorant software will reformat a drive as MBR NTFS, yet leave the GPT sectors alone. This really confuses Ubuntu. However, this does not really explain why Windows wanted to scan and fix your drive in the first place, since after this happens Windows usually just sees the drive as MBR NTFS. To get rid of GPT and allow Ubuntu to see the drive properly, we have to rewrite sector 1 and the last sector of the hard drive, which is sector 156301488 in your case.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=1 seek=1
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdd bs=512 count=1 seek=156301488

Now run fdisk and see what Ubuntu says about your drive.

Please note that this assumes that you reformated the drive with a MBR partition table.

[Mark Phelps]

trevm999:

Sorry to tell you this, but fdisk does not work with GPT formatted drives. I believe there is something know as gdisk that does, but I'm not sure.

[trevm999]

My use of fdisk here is just to find the drive location. But yes, it wouldn't be very useful if there were two or more GPT drives connected and they were the same size.

This would be a more appropiate command to run in such a situation:

lsblk -o name,label,size,fstype,model

My assumption here is that the drive is supposed to be MBR and not GPT, therefore what fdisk says at the end is relevant. It is possible the MBR may need to be repaired afterword,

If my assumption is wrong, they you are right that the best option is data recovery software, preferably use on a clone of the drive incase the drive is failing and that is what caused part of the problem. Recuva is a good free option, but taking it somewhere that has RStudio would probably provide better results.