Hi mod9s),

I have never had to wait before having a post put up after joining a forum. I can see why it would happen but I am in a limbo here with hard drive, USB caddie crap strewn about hoping I can get help

I can see your post. ;-)

The problem is that your external enclosure's firmware is configured with a 4KB sector size. When you remove such a drive from its enclosure and connect it via SATA inside your computer, you expose the drive's native 512B sector size. Essentially you now have a 4KN file system on a 512B drive.

You should be able to see, and recover, your files with DMDE.

https://dmde.com/

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you. I could not figure out how to run it in my Debian based Linux. So I will try the windows version. Thanks Again.
Actually, the software appears to be pretty powerful but perhaps not user friendly / newbie friendly. I am running it in windows. I hope on the correct part of the disk (it had some advice about that) I selected all file types.

attached screenshot is what it looks like

In the initial Partitions tab, you should have seen your original NTFS volume. D-clicking that volume should have presented you with your file/folder tree.

Was the NTFS volume damaged? There would have been a 4K indicator of some kind, and the Indicators column should have shown "EBCF".

It looks like you initiated a full scan. This should not have been necessary, unless the file system was damaged.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Attached is a screenshot of the initial screen after rebooting PC, powering down and back up the USB external drive (it is attached by USB).

I do no know what I am looking for or what to do.

Should we move these responses to the thread that I started for this issue even though nobody has or can help, apparently, it has been ignored.?
This thread was just begun to see how long it would be before that thread would get posted. I am really anxious, to get this solved.

Either there is data on the disk that is being hidden, so to speak by the block size change that you mentioned (somehing like block size change) or the disk has no data and I can format it.

i moved further along... by one step I think. Here is a screenshot of where I am at:
which I believe is the stage you described where the HDD directory is shown. please see attachment. There is a previous response or two with screenshot

Thanks for your help !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After you select Physical Disk 1, what is the first tab that appears?

Something like this ...

https://web.archive.org/web/20230522151849/http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks again.

are either of the attached screenshots what you are asking for ?

Now you've stuck the drive in an older USB enclosure that is affected by a 32-bit LBA limitation. That's why the reported capacity is 800GB.

3 TB - 2 TiB = 800.98 GB

https://www.google.com/search?q=3+TB+-+2+TiB+in+GB

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Hi,

Thanks again,
That is all that I have to try to read the drive.
I just don't know if there's any data on it or not. I'm not sure what my next step is. Do I need to buy another USB kit to attach it to?
Can we tell if there's any actual data on it at this point?

Attach the drive to a SATA port inside your computer.

Two of your previous screenshots indicate that there is an NTFS volume, but you won't be able to access all the data with this old USB enclosure.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thanks. I will try that. If I attach the drive internally to a Windows or Linux box via SATA it should all become clear - what is it isn't there ?

I only have a laptop so I need to find someone willing to let me get inside their computer... will take a little doing.

should I do this DMDE work inside of Linux or in Windows, ideally ? Linux has better file system support and will read more hard drive configurations, no ? I just want to find out if there is anything that I want on this disk, if not, I am going to format it to ext4 and drink a beer. This has sucked a little.

If you are feeling generous, please keep you eye on this thread. I will post again once I have been able to find someone willing to let me put this drive in their computer. I will let you know if all is well or if I am up a creek.

Thanks !!!!

for some reason even a new post without an upload has to be reviewed by mods. So, sorry, I may have posted a similar reply 2-3 times thinking that I had not done so or that it did not post correctly. Will see...

A new USB enclosure should work. You may even get lucky and find one that has a 4KB sector size, in which case your OS should see the file system.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Solved.
Thanks guys. I found a PSU that fixed the whole issue. I still had the bottom plate of the plastic external USB enlcosed. That plate still was intact so i plugged it into the drive. ran a USB cable to the laptop and plugged in the PSU that I had from another device and all is well. I am able to see the drive. Still can ONLY see data on it when I am running from the SATA attachment that was part of the origianl plastic housing.

So, In order to make this perhaps for useable I should consider moving the data to another drive, formatting this as ext4 then moving the data back ?