Iomega 1TB disaster

[bobhoskin]

Here again, open a new thread to reorder all the info my friend gave me about his HDs problem:

Story:
About 6 month ago he was trying to make a backup of it's PC on this external Iomega of 1TB (500GB+500GB), and for error he choose CLONE instead of backup, and he cloned exactly his PC Harddisk (I suppose with the OS etc...), after this big error he gave the Iomega to a technician that he tryed to make something for 2 weeks.... but he said he found just some data from one of the 2 HDs, and not the important data he desired.
Then somebody else tryed to make a recovery with some programs, and the electricity went off... then, one HD says uninitialized and the other it's in RAW and ask to format...
Just 2 weeks ago (after months sitting on a shelf) he sent me this 2 HDs without the original external case (Iomega). I have connect both directly on Sata and tryed something with Testdisk, and now I'm on R-Studio, and I found important files, but seems corrupted....???
(problem, I don't have another HD with 1TB of space to copy all for test, I can try only on a sector by now).

http://i.imgur.com/476mqfZ.jpg

If this can help some Guru, the 2 HDs in "View/Edit" (in order like on main window).
http://i.imgur.com/XcsGMnS.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YVU6DR6.jpg

Here the scan after 6 hours:
http://i.imgur.com/YH4J00o.jpg

The most important files to recover are the photos, and I found a lot of them, 15400 JPEG
http://i.imgur.com/8hsqcTu.jpg

I've recovered a lot of photos but all seems damaged, in wich way...? here 2 samples:
http://i.imgur.com/Cs498TH.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/lk13pr9.jpg

Give me please any advise

Thanks
Bob

[bobhoskin]

Need some help just for the photos

[l0ft1369]

taken down after I re-read his post haha. What OS did you use? and what controller are these disks hooked up too?

-L0ft

[l0ft1369]

At the risk of getting crap for a double post... For the love of god man go get AT LEAST a 1TB drive, but honestly I'd try for 2TB to work with. Maybe not an actual 2 or 3 TB drive. Probs some sort of array, but still you need space to work with. Having a good dumping ground is freaking KEY to having it work. THIS type of DR I've had pretty good luck with, but I've always had a space at least twice as large as the hard drive I was looking to recover.

-L0ft

[bobhoskin]

taken down after I re-read his post haha. What OS did you use? and what controller are these disks hooked up too?
-L0ft

Loft,
Yes, It's a disaster!
I've Win7 and hooked on Sata II.
I see if I can get next week through a 2TB good HD ....now, I've different HDs empty and working... but dimensions are about 250GB each, and I see on R-Studio on "Create Image", I can choose to make a "byte to byte" copy of every "Recognized" Area (except the "Extra found files"...??),
http://i.imgur.com/x2G1Sfm.jpg

I don't understand how it works,
it's not a good idea for trying? I need all the "recognized" area togheter because they work togheter?

And why the HD it's devided by "Recognized" sections?

[harddriverecovery]

Yikes. Looks like you've got a heck of a job ahead of you. Good luck!

[bobhoskin]

Yikes. Looks like you've got a heck of a job ahead of you. Good luck!

I need it!
I just see your website, if I were in L.A. I come to visit you ....with this 2 HDs
Please, suggest me something

[bobhoskin]

It would be easy if you manage to grab a working extrenal case equal to the one it used to be in, plug the drives in the same order and do the R-Studio scan on that. Most likely is RAID-0 so the data is divided on the 2 drives, and that explains the damaged photos, you are retriving part of the jpg from one drive and lacking the other pieces on the other drive. Try to re-create the RAID array with software if you can't get a external enclosure like the one it used to have.
Good luck.

I was thinking the same thing about the photos that are all "in tilt", but my friend tells me it's really sure that the drive was not in Raid0.... I'm in doubt now,
normally can pop up problems if I try to simulate a Raid 0 even if originally it wasn't?? .....sure, it's better first I find a 1TB to clone and make test.

[bobhoskin]

What i was saying is that most likely the Iomega 1TB case / drive will use the 2 500 GB drives as RAID0 internally, even if you friend is sure he just plugged the thing in using USB on windows whithout RAID.
In my idea the enclosure itself have used the drives in RAID-0 even if your friend is not aware of it.
Clone the drives first. Then work with the clones, even if you do more damage to it, at least you will have the original to clone again and try once more.

Hi Spildit,
Time passed, hope you remember my problem, I've now ready a new HD of 2TB, wich program do you suggest to use for cloning?
another question is, how I know what was the order of the 2 500GB HDs inside the original enclosure? ....or it's not important for the cloning...!!?

[fzabkar]

how I know what was the order of the 2 500GB HDs inside the original enclosure?

This appears to be the first drive:
http://i.imgur.com/YVU6DR6.jpg

It is showing a Windows XP/2K MBR and a single NTFS partition (type 07) beginning at sector 63 (=0x3F) with a capacity of 0x74709843 sectors.

0x74709843 sectors x 512 bytes per sector = 1 000 210 466 304 bytes

http://www.google.com/search?q=0x747098 ... in+decimal

An Examination of the Win2K and Windows XP MBR (Master Boot Record):
http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/Win2kmbr.htm

Sector 63 should be an NTFS boot sector. It would look something like this:

A View of the NTFS Boot Record in a Disk Editor:
http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mb ... rHexEd.htm

An Examination of the NTFS Volume Boot Record of Win2K & Windows XP:
http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/NTFSBR.htm

Offset 0x28 indicates the size of the volume in sectors. It should be 0x74709842 (1 less than the size in sector 0).

There should also be a backup of this boot sector at the end of the partition. If you can find it, then this may help us determine the stripe size.

BTW, there are freeware tools (eg mdadm) that allow you to mount your 2 drives as a software RAID.

http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man8/mdadm.8.php

DMDE is another tool that has a RAID reconstruction feature.

DMDE - DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery Software:
http://softdm.com/

[bobhoskin]

It is showing a Windows XP/2K MBR and a single NTFS partition (type 07) beginning at sector 63 (=0x3F) with a capacity of 0x74709843 sectors.
0x74709843 sectors x 512 bytes per sector = 1 000 210 466 304 bytes
......................

Wow , in a fast view of the links you posted, I begin to come crazy.... but something I'm starting to understand
Like you say it seems there is a boot sector on the HD you mentioned (ST3500841AS3 : 3PG03ZKX)
http://i.imgur.com/6EvKTUk.jpg

The other HD, at sector 63 shows:
http://i.imgur.com/ksy01Si.jpg

This evening when I come home I'll check the backup of this boot sector at the end of the partition.
Thank you Fzabkar and Spildit

p.s. I was forgot to post this Scan Information, maybe can help...?:
http://i.imgur.com/blKoWsJ.jpg

[hhddrec]

It is showing a Windows XP/2K MBR and a single NTFS partition (type 07) beginning at sector 63 (=0x3F) with a capacity of 0x74709843 sectors.
0x74709843 sectors x 512 bytes per sector = 1 000 210 466 304 bytes
......................

Wow , in a fast view of the links you posted, I begin to come crazy.... but something I'm starting to understand
Like you say it seems there is a boot sector on the HD you mentioned (ST3500841AS3 : 3PG03ZKX)
http://i.imgur.com/6EvKTUk.jpg

The other HD, at sector 63 shows:
http://i.imgur.com/ksy01Si.jpg

This evening when I come home I'll check the backup of this boot sector at the end of the partition.
Thank you Fzabkar and Spildit

p.s. I was forgot to post this Scan Information, maybe can help...?:
http://i.imgur.com/blKoWsJ.jpg

this problem Is dificult to unthertand, but i can see will be dificult, i supose bad cloned, problems on any person who works in case. and we do not know what is the real problem. (probably data was stored in a RAID)

[hddguy]

p.s. I was forgot to post this Scan Information, maybe can help...?:
http://i.imgur.com/blKoWsJ.jpg

Try it as virtual RAID Set (set as RAID0) instead of Virtual Volume Set

[bobhoskin]

p.s. I was forgot to post this Scan Information, maybe can help...?:
http://i.imgur.com/blKoWsJ.jpg

Try it as virtual RAID Set (set as RAID0) instead of Virtual Volume Set

Ok, here with Raid0, and gives me this screen with the 2 HDs mounted in the order like Fzabkar suggested.
http://i.imgur.com/X7EkIDH.jpg
My problem now it's to determinate the block size, like you see on the right... 64KB it's ok?

Before this, I just have to clone both HDs on the 2TB HD, but I don't understand a thing, how to clone them correctly? I mean, I have to make 2 partitions of 500GB each and then clone 1HD at a time? or better to clone both togheter on a partition of 1TB automatically with a program?
I've "Paragon Backup & Restore", and here is the backup process:
http://i.imgur.com/7snwkER.jpg

Then, clicking on "NEXT" I've those other Advanced Option, that I prefer somebody of you to correct me if something it's wrong (I'm really carefully about, too much? )
http://i.imgur.com/xiquQgK.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pjOhMot.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/OMHmoyU.jpg

[bobhoskin]

Helppppp!!

[dick]

I know there are different Iomega setups floating about but I just recovered a 1tb Iomega nas with a single drive which turned out to be an XFS mirror raid 1.
I found the usual recovery softwares gave all sorts of conflicting erroneous results and as you don't know what the previous techie did with the drive you shoudn't presume anything.
I used the Nas Data Recovery and it instantly found all the parameters.
Download the trial from here: http://www.runtime.org/nas-recovery.htm
Though probably its all in vain and the data was overwritten!!!

[bobhoskin]

I know there are different Iomega setups floating about but I just recovered a 1tb Iomega nas with a single drive which turned out to be an XFS mirror raid 1.
I found the usual recovery softwares gave all sorts of conflicting erroneous results and as you don't know what the previous techie did with the drive you shoudn't presume anything.
I used the Nas Data Recovery and it instantly found all the parameters.
Download the trial from here: http://www.runtime.org/nas-recovery.htm
Though probably its all in vain and the data was overwritten!!!

Thanks a lot, I've tryed it, and gives a sort of confirmation that it's in RAID 0 (even if I'm without the Iomega enclosure)
http://i.imgur.com/upKYcSO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/pewa2bh.jpg
The only problem, when I click on "Finish", a new window appear where it should be all the data.... but it's empty.

What do you suggest guys for my ready 2TB HD, how I format or partition it? and what program is best for cloning?

[fzabkar]

@bobhoskin, can you explain a little better what actually happened?

Did your friend completely clone a 1TB drive onto the external Iomega 1TB RAID0, or did he stop before it finished? Has the clone been initialised, formatted, or otherwise modified since then? What capacity was the PC HDD?

Are you trying to recover the original data on the Iomega, before the cloning operation, or are you trying to extract newly cloned data from the PC HDD?

BTW, the original Iomega box cannot have been a NAS because it makes no sense to clone a physical drive to a network drive. You could clone a physical drive to an image file, and then write that image file to your NAS, but that doesn't appear to be what happened in this case.

If you want to see the data on your two drives in its present form, then mount them as a virtual RAID0 with a stripe size of 64KB (= 128 sectors). Then try to clone the RAID onto your 2TB drive.

For safety's sake, you might like to clone each drive, sector by sector, using ddrescue. Clone drive 0 to your 2TB drive by setting the 1TB point as the starting sector on your target. Then clone drive 1 using the 1.5TB point as the starting sector on the target. You need to ensure that the images don't overlap.

[microsoftengineer]

HI
Dr.Kiev is the Person who can Help you Contact him thanks.

[bobhoskin]

@bobhoskin, can you explain a little better what actually happened?

Did your friend completely clone a 1TB drive onto the external Iomega 1TB RAID0, or did he stop before it finished? Has the clone been initialised, formatted, or otherwise modified since then? What capacity was the PC HDD?

Are you trying to recover the original data on the Iomega, before the cloning operation, or are you trying to extract newly cloned data from the PC HDD?

BTW, the original Iomega box cannot have been a NAS because it makes no sense to clone a physical drive to a network drive. You could clone a physical drive to an image file, and then write that image file to your NAS, but that doesn't appear to be what happened in this case.

If you want to see the data on your two drives in its present form, then mount them as a virtual RAID0 with a stripe size of 64KB (= 128 sectors). Then try to clone the RAID onto your 2TB drive.

For safety's sake, you might like to clone each drive, sector by sector, using ddrescue. Clone drive 0 to your 2TB drive by setting the 1TB point as the starting sector on your target. Then clone drive 1 using the 1.5TB point as the starting sector on the target. You need to ensure that the images don't overlap.

Ok, I've just ask him, and remembering... instead of making a backup, by error he completely cloned 50GB (48.8GB) of a partiotioned 80GB HDD. The remaining 30GB, he said not.
Program used to clone was macrium reflect.
((( Plus to consider that another friend of him have tried a recovery ...not clear what, difficult remember (happened last year) only the bad accident of power went out when he was using Recuva, then another guy seems help him to do something ........and at this point I think it's better to figure it out by my self, because there are too many passages )))

He said most important it's to recover this cloned 50GB, where was all photos etc... plus then other some important files on the rest of the 1TB, if possible.

Tomorrow morning I start DDRescue, and update here.
It's ok this guide? http://techmuck.blogspot.it/2012/03/data-recovery-with-gnu-ddrescue.html
....I don't understand, why I've to clone starting from 1TB point and not from the beggining of the HDD? ...I just like to learn.