OK here we go...

First, my laptop drive. I run Linux on my guy and I was doing a re-install. To do so, I was re-setting partitions. Yes yes, I know, I should have backed-up...well I did a couple months prior. If, God forbid, something were to happen, I was fine with losing the last two months as I hadn't done much and I was in a hurry to get my install. Well, computer crashes out in the middle of resizing/moving partitions. I turn computer back on and, well what do you know, the drive is not recognized and it instructs me (since the partition in question here is NFTS) to plug it into Windows and run chkdsk /f. I do, and the drive becomes recognizable on Ubuntu Live. However, and this is the frustrating part, some of the files just don't work. It has the whole directory back and there...but when I go to a good number of jpgs or docs, they do not open up...though the file is recognized as a jpg or doc.

On to the second. I decide, well then, I will just restore from my back-up drive. Plug that sucker in, three clicks and a spin down. "You have got to be kidding me". Turn it off and on again, "click, click, click"...and it stops spinning...

I would much prefer to restore the first drive. Please tell me what to do/what is possible.

Thanks for the help

For the benefit of other readers, your previous thread about the backup (500GB) drive problem is here:

500-wd5000aaks-clicks-and-spins-down-t21815.html

Based on what you've said so far, here are my thoughts. Other people may have different views, of course.


Considering the PC was interrupted during partition / filesystem changes on that drive, and then had chkdsk run on it (it's a common misconception that chkdsk makes things better), your wish to get that filesystem back into a usable state (instead of trying to recover files out of that filesystem) is not trivial and is likely beyond what can be done via a web forum IMHO.


If you are intent on taking the risks of DIY recovery attempts, and if you accept all the risks of doing that (i.e. you could make things worse or even totally unrecoverable), then you could make a full, raw (sector-by-sector) clone of this original drive (which will also show whether all sectors are readable) and attempt either filesystem-based or raw recovery (file carving) using free software like TestDisk, and/or commercial packages like GetDataBack, R-Studio, ZAR etc. etc. (you'll need more storage to hold any files recovered from those programs - no guarantee that such recovered files will be uncorrupted, depending on how mangled the filesystem is, and how fragmented the files were). I think that's the limit of what you can do, and you may need more help to try this.

Beyond that, IMHO either you need expert filesystem help on that first drive, (no guarantee of success), or you need expert help with the (external) second drive (as already explained - see previous thread). I don't see other realistic options.