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 Post subject: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggestions
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 1:28 
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A month ago, I sent in an old 4TB Seagate drive I had gotten a warranty replacement on. Before transferring my data from the old to the new, I ran a Seatools DOS check that passed, and copied over some generic windows folders/files (from an older 2TB Seagate drive I had recently reformatted, installed Windows on, and was going to use as my boot drive) for when I copied my data over. The data transferred over fine, and I was able to access the data from the old drive (running windows) onto the new with no issue. However, I didn't back up any of my data on another drive.

When I went to access the new warranty replacement drive from another drive with Windows 10 installed on (an older 2TB Seagate drive I had reformatted recently), none of my data from the drive I had sent in was showing up- just the files and folders I had transferred from the 2TB drive. However, all of the data I had transferred from the old to the new drive was showing up as occupied space under HD properties. After I reset it again though, all of my files/folders showed up- but for only several minutes. They soon became inaccessible again, and only showed up on the side pane or in recently viewed files. Through all this, the drive works fine, I can save files and more on it- the only issue is that every single piece of data I transferred over from this old drive of the same exact model will not show up through normal means. I've spoken to and tried troubleshooting with Seagate tech support, Microsoft tech support, and a fair number of other people- nobody knows what caused my issue or how to get the files/folders to show back up without recovery software. I have run Seagate Recovery Suite on it, and all of my files/folders show up with good integrity and working previews. I've even run some brief scans with Recuva and recovered a few test files with no issue.

I have no problem using recovery software, but I'm really not sure what to go for. I had someone recommend against Seagate, saying no recovery lab uses their software (not even Seagate themselves), and the reviews for it aren't very good (or for their data recovery in general.) I've been hoping to find free recovery software that can retain modification dates, which is extremely important to me, but I've looked at about a dozen programs so far and none of them support this feature. Any ideas on any free software that has this feature? If not, what payed recovery software would you recommend?

And if anyone has any idea on how to get my files to just show back up, or at the very least, why this happened to begin with, would be greatly appreciated. (Also, editing all types of user permissions and trying to access the drive from another computer had no effect.)


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 15:25 
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What!?!?! You think that sending in your drive for warranty meant they were going to pay hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars for data recovery and put that data on a new replacement drive for you?

I've got news for you. They don't warranty your data, just the hardware. When they received it all they did is verify that it was broken, throw it in a shredder, and send you a blank replacement drive. Your old data isn't on that drive because it was NEVER on that drive in the first place.

Or am I misunderstanding your story?

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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 15:40 
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AIUI, the OP received a 4TB replacement drive under warranty from Seagate, in advance of returning the faulty one. The OP then backed up the original data (plus some OS files from a 2TB drive) to the replacement drive. Now the original data are not visible to the OS, but the files are occupying the expected amount of space. Data recovery software can also see and access these files without error.

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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 15:52 
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Alpstin wrote:
I have no problem using recovery software, but I'm really not sure what to go for. I had someone recommend against Seagate, saying no recovery lab uses their software (not even Seagate themselves), and the reviews for it aren't very good (or for their data recovery in general.) I've been hoping to find free recovery software that can retain modification dates, which is extremely important to me, but I've looked at about a dozen programs so far and none of them support this feature. Any ideas on any free software that has this feature? If not, what payed recovery software would you recommend?

I believe Seagate's software is an OEM version of R-Studio.

DMDE is a good commercial tool. It's full version costs around US$20. The free version can show you the file/folder tree and will recover 4000 files.

Have you tried Recuva?

That said, ISTM that you may have some kind of permissions issue. Can you see your files from a Ubunto Live CD?

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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 18:37 
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@data-medics, I think he means he copied data from one of his backups to a new disk, and it doesn´t appear. But his description is really confuse.

@Alpstin, are these disks from a desktop computer or a notebook ? If you are going to remove the disk from a windows 10 computer , connect it to another and them copy the data, you could give the command for it to restart, then when it shows the motherboard logo, turn off the computer.
I have seen this behavior with windows 7, 8 and 10 when hibernation was involved, or, in the case of win8 & 10, due to the way it closes to allow for "fastboot". After copying data in another computer and booting to the installed windows, files would not appear.

You could also connect the disks to different computers, and transfer the files through the network.


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 19:33 
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fzabkar wrote:
AIUI, the OP received a 4TB replacement drive under warranty from Seagate, in advance of returning the faulty one. The OP then backed up the original data (plus some OS files from a 2TB drive) to the replacement drive. Now the original data are not visible to the OS, but the files are occupying the expected amount of space. Data recovery software can also see and access these files without error.


Yes, this is exactly what happened. The HD I transferred the data off was the one I sent back. It was not readily failing, but I think it was having issues, and I wanted to get a fresh drive before the warranty expired. I'm sorry if I caused any confusion.

Regarding DMDE, if it can only recover 4,000 files at a time, that would be incredibly inefficient. I have about 1.5 TB of data locked on this drive (most of it music).

It seems like a toss-up between some sort of bizarre permission issue and a corrupted directory. Never heard of Ubuntu Live CD (also, not sure what ISTM is an abbreviation for.)

@rogfanther: These are desktop drives. I don't understand your suggestion- I can't copy the data because it's not visible at all under normal means.


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 19:41 
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Also, the person who recommended against Seagate's software recommended R-Studio over them. Do you know of anything about the reliability of Seagate's software and how R-Studio compares?


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 16th, 2017, 23:03 
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Joined: March 16th, 2017, 1:15
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I'm sure I posted this before my last post, but it wasn't approved. Or maybe I just didn't actually post it. If I did post it, please approve that instead of this.

fzabkar wrote:
AIUI, the OP received a 4TB replacement drive under warranty from Seagate, in advance of returning the faulty one. The OP then backed up the original data (plus some OS files from a 2TB drive) to the replacement drive. Now the original data are not visible to the OS, but the files are occupying the expected amount of space. Data recovery software can also see and access these files without error.


Yes, that is what happened. I used a warranty replacement to get a new drive of the same model that had been giving me issues, and also to take advantage of getting a fresh drive before the warranty ran out. I apologize for any confusion.

If DMDE only allows for 4k files at a time, that would be incredibly inefficient and not worth it at all. I have about 1.5 TB of data (mostly music). I have tried Recuva a bit, but I don't plan on using it because it does not preserve modification dates. That is key for me, and I'm so far not finding any free programs that have this feature. If anyone knows of any, let me know.

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu Live CD at all, and really don't know what that would entail. Not sure what ISTM means, but I initially suspected it was some kind of bizarre permissions issues, but others have suspected it's some kind of "corrupted directory"- what kind of corrupted directory and why, nobody seems to know.

@rogfanther, these are desktop drives. I don't know what you mean by "copy the data" and such, because I cannot access this data at all through normal means.


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 17th, 2017, 12:57 
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The point of booting from a Ubuntu Live CD would be to start your machine from an OS that doesn't care about Microsoft's permissions.

ISTM = It Seems To Me

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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 17th, 2017, 13:05 
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fzabkar wrote:
Alpstin wrote:
I have no problem using recovery software, but I'm really not sure what to go for. I had someone recommend against Seagate, saying no recovery lab uses their software (not even Seagate themselves), and the reviews for it aren't very good (or for their data recovery in general.) I've been hoping to find free recovery software that can retain modification dates, which is extremely important to me, but I've looked at about a dozen programs so far and none of them support this feature. Any ideas on any free software that has this feature? If not, what payed recovery software would you recommend?

I believe Seagate's software is an OEM version of R-Studio.

DMDE is a good commercial tool. It's full version costs around US$20. The free version can show you the file/folder tree and will recover 4000 files.

Have you tried Recuva?

That said, ISTM that you may have some kind of permissions issue. Can you see your files from a Ubunto Live CD?


Frank,
i too think its simplified version of R-studio only :)

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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 17th, 2017, 17:00 
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fzabkar wrote:
The point of booting from a Ubuntu Live CD would be to start your machine from an OS that doesn't care about Microsoft's permissions.

ISTM = It Seems To Me


So Ubuntu Live CD would entail burning the program to a CD or using it off a USB? Is this a good detailing of how it works? https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Do you also know if Ubuntu will retain modification dates on files?

@Amarbir, What is Seagate's software lacking compared to R-Studio, especially when it's more expensive?


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 17th, 2017, 18:13 
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@Alpstin :

Your telling of the history of the files and drives got a little confuse, so please check if this is the correct :

You had a 4TB drive with problems, then you copied your files from it to another drive ( let´s call it hddA ) .
After receiving the new 4TB drive from warranty ( let´s call it hddB ), you copied the files from hddA to hddB. And them these files do not appear when you boot the windows that you have installed in hddB. Is that ?

And you still have your files in another drive.( hddA ).


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 17th, 2017, 21:26 
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rogfanther wrote:
@Alpstin :

Your telling of the history of the files and drives got a little confuse, so please check if this is the correct :

You had a 4TB drive with problems, then you copied your files from it to another drive ( let´s call it hddA ) .
After receiving the new 4TB drive from warranty ( let´s call it hddB ), you copied the files from hddA to hddB. And them these files do not appear when you boot the windows that you have installed in hddB. Is that ?

And you still have your files in another drive.( hddA ).


I copied my files from the 4TB with problems to another 4TB- of the same exact model that I go through a warranty replacement. The files I transferred from that drive specifically do not show up in Windows on that drive. They're only accessible through a recovery program. The drive however is undamaged and usable.


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 18th, 2017, 14:27 
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Alpstin wrote:
The files I transferred from that drive specifically do not show up in Windows on that drive.


It would be easier if you give names to each hdd.
Even then : you mean you still have your files in another 4TB disk, right ?

ONLY IF THAT IS TRUE, and the other 4TB disk is safely stored away, out of the computer, etc, try running chkdsk in the affected drive ( from the windows installation that is in it ). Maybe it will fix the situation, or at least return the space as free, so that you can copy again the files from the other 4TB disk


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 Post subject: Re: Data on working HDD not showing up, looking for suggesti
PostPosted: March 18th, 2017, 16:13 
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Alpstin wrote:
So Ubuntu Live CD would entail burning the program to a CD or using it off a USB? Is this a good detailing of how it works?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

That seems like a very comprehensive tutorial.

That said, your drive and its file system are probably not damaged enough to warrant a "data recovery". I suspect that if you mount your drive's partitions in Ubuntu, then your data will most likely be visible. If so, then you could simply copy your files to another drive.

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