Nuked external drive ?

KingL

I think I've nuked an external HDD, but just want to check before it goes in the bin. I have the data backed up, but I'd like to salvage the drive if possible.

Previously, it was whirring along nicely - a 320GB Lacie (Seagate), NTFS, with a 300GB Truecrypt (standalone) container housing all my data. I decided to get rid of the encryption, so deleted the container, used Eraser to clean the disc and then reformatted in Windows.

Windows wouldn't complete the format.

I tried it from the UI and command prompt, but:

The first NTFS Boot sector is unwritable
All NTFS Boot sectors are unwritable, cannot continue.

Its too big to format as FAT.

I have tried (twice) to rebuild the NTFS boot sector with TestDisk, but it stops at:

Search mft 196608/625137282

....and a blinking cursor
(I have left it to blink for a week, with no resolution)

Any other options ??


thanks


OS: Windows. Tried variously with XP, 8.1 and 10

enfield_freddy

use some sort of external disk management


eg: mini partition tools http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html this should see your drive , delete the partitions then allow you to create a new one

System

Use diskpart (built in) to clean the disk (remove partitions) and then create a new partition

Or you might be able to delete the volume through disk management

enfield_freddy

diskpart is ok , but dangerous to use for a novice ,


hence the reason for suggesting a free propriety product with a GUI

GunJack

MiniTool is very useful, and either that or a linux distro (better disk recognition) may possibly work...

KingL

OK, so I've used minitool to delete the only reported partition (which was "raw" format). Now neither windows nor minitool can see the disk at all.

What do I do now, please.

Fightsback

KingL wrote: »

OK, so I've used minitool to delete the only reported partition (which was "raw" format). Now neither windows nor minitool can see the disk at all.

What do I do now, please.

Activate the disk from here:

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/disk-management-windows-7.htm

KingL

windows (including disk management) can't see the disk

Fightsback

KingL wrote: »

windows (including disk management) can't see the disk

Check using Linux as above, drive may be failing. Crack the case and plug in directly if you have a desktop to check it. No idea about the model is it 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch and how old is it ?

On a side note I remember the old Big Lacies used to ship RAID 0 as default, nasty things, a big no no. Lots of people experienced catastrophic data loss.

KingL

Unfortunately, I don't have a Linux machine or a desktop.

I had a crack with diskpart.

To use the command line to bring a disk online, create a partition, and format it, run the following commands:
C:\> Diskpart
DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk (id)
DISKPART> online disk (if the disk is not online)
DISKPART> attributes disk clear readonly
DISKPART> clean
DISKPART> convert mbr (or gpt)
DISKPART> create partition primary
DISKPART> select part 1
DISKPART> active (if this is the boot partition)
DISKPART> format fs=ntfs label=(name) quick
DISKPART> assign letter (letter)
DISKPART> list volume

from here

It can see the disk, but can't do the "convert mbr" step. ("The disk you specified cannot be converted to MBR. Please select an empty GPT disk to convert.) and apparently, without the MBR conversion, the "format" command is not available later on.

Any other options?

(it is 3.5", and about six years old, btw).

.

Fightsback

KingL wrote: »

Unfortunately, I don't have a Linux machine or a desktop.

Just download a live version and run from USB or DVD:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

This does not install to your HDD or overwrite windows.