HELP - Big time external drive failures

JJ_Egan

It might be worth connecting the drives to a proper pc not via usb mode as a last try .

jje

Pauls

Latest recuva deep scan has just finished, it's found a few more files but still not looking great. It's still ignoring 25k files for some reason

I think I'm going to have to bit the bullet and get the professionals in, I've been on the phone to disklabs.com earlier and they local guy lives just up the road. they're one of the specialists listed on the western digital web site. If they can't get it back it'll cost me nothing, if they do I'm looking at 400 quid but right now I just want to have the best chance I can of getting my data back.

Thanks for your input guys

closed

try the other drive

3rd party will only run software on them

http://www.runtime.org/

http://diskdigger.org/

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.HTML

Tippon

Pauls wrote: »

The 'shares' were the drive mappings I could see from my lappy, and were also define as 'shares' under the linux os on the WD drive

Pauls wrote: »

I have my backup drive connected to my lappy now with a USB cable, I can see the drive in windows explorer, but I can't see any files on it

If it's a Linux OS on the WD drive, I would assume that it would also format the second USB drive to a Linux format too. If this is the case, you're not going to see any files on your Windows laptop, as it doesn't know how to read the Linux file system.

Slow down, take a deep breath and try to relax, it may be ok

Download a Linux live CD and boot your laptop from it. Connect either of the two hard drives and you should be able to explore the file system and hopefully see your files. Depending on how many files you have and how big they are, copy them to another device, like a pen drive, just to be on the safe side.

If you get stuck, post back here:)

Pauls

I'm at work at the mo, but will try some of these other options when I get home.

Do I need to do anything special to conect the WD drive to the lappy, or is it simply a case of just sticking the ethernet cable in?? (I'm thinking mapping drives etc)

Tippon

Sorry, I had a bit of a brain fart and forgot the WD has an ethernet connection. If as you said, all the data is copied to both drives, it's not a problem though. Just connect the other drive through USB and make sure you've got a copy of your data, then if you do need to re-run the setup for the WD drive, at least all your data is safe

Pauls

Tippon wrote: »

Just connect the other drive through USB and make sure you've got a copy of your data, then if you do need to re-run the setup for the WD drive, at least all your data is safe

Unfortunatley, that's part of the problem, the WD drive has stuffed the data on both drives

debitcardmayhem

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Don't really know if it would help, but you have probably got *n*x formated disks, perhaps download systemrescued and burn it onto a CD or Usb stick and see if Gparted can read the drive vtoc , and if it can then maybe let the other guys help you and me . Look for it here http://www.sysresccd.org

Pauls wrote: »

DebitCardMayhem - I've had a quick look at that page, all looks quite heavy!

I take it you have used this yourself?? Is it a case of running something on my lappy that looks at my linux drive, or would I need to run it directly on the drive itself??

Hi sorry for not coming back , but been out a lot, however sysrecued can run either from a USB or a CD, you may have a problem connecting to the wd disk via ethernet only but leave it connected to your router, assuming iyou know what the IP address is. Sadly I am on the desire (dog and bone) and have fat fingers and small screen. Does the WD have a management scree with it? hence the IP address question.

Sysrescuecd is a very small linux implemention whic does what you need , but you will possibly need to help. There are lot's of guys on here who know linux too and may be able to help. When I get back home and if you are still on line I will try to help some more. THe guys here are probably going to get you sorted I get back home anyway.

tronator

Pauls wrote: »

I've not put anything new onto the external drives for a couple of weeks now, I did have to unplug everything earlier on today as we've had a move around at home, This has obviously caused something odd to happen on the WD drive...

It won't help you with your current problem, but in the future you shouldn't just unplug hard disks. There should be something written in the manual how to safely switch off the drive.

If the drive has a Linux filesystem on it, try connecting it to a PC and boot a Linux Live CD and run "e2fsck -f /dev/xxxx", where you need to replace xxxx with the right value for the partition. To list all partitions of all drives just run "fdisk -l" and chose the right partition.

Tippon

Pauls wrote: »

Unfortunatley, that's part of the problem, the WD drive has stuffed the data on both drives

But that's what I'm saying - it may not have.

If something's gone wrong with the WD drive, then the software on it may not show the content of the USB drive, even if it's there. Plugging the USB drive into a Windows PC won't show anything because it most likely contains a Linux file system, which Windows can't read.

Boot from a Linux live CD and plug in the USB drive, then just browse through it to see if your files are there. Don't run any programs or commands just yet, in case they corrupt any data. If you find your data, copy it onto another storage device before attempting to fix anything