Hello all,
This external HD apparently has a myriad of issues dealing with how the USB/IDE interacts with Windows. I think essentially, it results in corrupted MBR and/or file partition tables. It's widely reported but it's unclear how the problem develops. ? pulling the USB plug unsafely?
Some other forums I've found:
http://www.yan-ke.com/maxtor_corruption.htmlhttp://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/mes ... ing&page=5Symptoms:
Windows will display the drive letter, but no info on the disk (capacity). It registers as a RAW drive. Trying to access the drive results in a "Disk is not formatted. Do you want to format?"
I know the super-experts here will just shake their heads at my foolishness, but this is what I did to it. The data was not critical, so I played with the fates and this is my "reward."
1. Followed the instructions from the first link earlier. Testdisk showed that I had 2? invalid boot partitions. Looking at testdisk's wiki, I used testdisk to rebuild the boot sector. The backup boot sector was intact, so this was copied.
2. Still was not showing disk size in Windows
3. Panicked/gave up, and ran chkdsk /f
4. Restored readability and recognition in Windows, but lost practically all the data
Questions for the experts:
1. Proper way to go at step 2? Is chkdsk like a kiss of death? I'm assuming chdsk rebuilt the MFT. Should I have rebuilt the MFT using testdisk?
2. Any way to undo what chkdsk has done?