HI-

I was hoping someone could help me. I'm quasi-noob but can handle myself alright I suppose.

Here is the situation. I have a 1TB Ethernet Big Disk. The shares were deleted and the data is now inaccessible. I know the files are there because I've run a couple of demo software programs and I can see all the files (including preview with RecoverMyFiles). My goal is to recover the data and maintain the folder/subfolder structures. I have access to Mac, Windows and Linux. The 1TB consists of 2 500GB seagate drives I believe configured as JBOD spanning.

My first question is do I need to rebuild the RAID to maintain the folder/subfolder structures? Is maintaining these structures even possible?

Second, I am using Raid Reconstructor (RR) which I intend to follow with the GetDataBack software to recover but I am having a hard time rebuilding/analyzing the RAID in RR. Does anyone happen to know what "Start Sectors to Probe", "Block Sizes to Probe" and "Number of Sectors to Probe" inputs I should be using in RR. I use the defaults but I get an error about insufficient data to analyze. I am sure I have the order of the drives right (129/130) with 129 having addition file system partitions on it.

It's driving me nuts because I KNOW i can do this myself with software rather than having to take it in to a data recovery service that will ding me $500 to start.

Please help---I hate to beg but I will

I guess the final question is, taking a step back---what is the right way to go about this? Is there a better Linux or Mac based solution?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If it's easier to call I am at 303 221-0345.

Thanks in advance....Miles C.

You should start with imaging those drives to new ones.

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www.datarecoveryne.com

What's the best tool (free) for imaging (Mac PC or Linux)?

this might help.. http://forum.hddguru.com/seagate-500-gig-issues-t17706.html#p118766

I am fairly certain this isn;t a hardware issue but I could be wrong. I ran testdisk in ubuntu and got this:

Disk /dev/sdd - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63

The harddisk (500 GB / 465 GiB) seems too small! (< 1000 GB / 931 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...

The following partition can't be recovered:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
Linux 125 0 1 121602 63 58 1951532032

That is one of the partitions on one of the two disks (I believe the first disk in the array). My guess is that the problem in this partition that is preventing me from accessing the data on the rest of the drive.

My question is using ddrescue do I image the two drives individually or the JOBD spanned drive as one image? Same question with the data recovery---I assume I have to do the whole spanned mount because I've heard that if the disk was more than half full, which it was, that some of the data will be split across the two drives.

So my plan is this? Image the combined drive in ddrescue then try to recover the data off the combined drive also using ddrescue?

That partition that I got the testdisk report on was one of the small partitions at the front of the first drive.

Hi folks.

I'm attempting a data recovery on a damaged Seagate hdd using getdataback, and I have a limited grasp of what's actually going on.

I attempted the first few steps of the process last night and (almost) immediately had success. I got to step 3 wherein the file tree of the drive was displayed and everything looked to be there. So I attempted a copy of a file from the damaged drive to another external hdd. It worked fine initially but upon hitting the 20% mark the transfer froze and while I left it for a few minutes, I decided to close the program and run it again more prepared.

Unfortunately, as I was new to the software I pinned the tail on the donkey first time round as far as the options went and as such didn't remember every step I took. My initial scan took 10 to 15 minutes. This one is taking an estimated 24 hours.

It's a 1TB external drive so I know that's not uncommon, but what did I do the first time to speed the process up?

Incidentally, the initial transfer was of a media file, which played normally for 15 minutes or so until it naturally hit the point where the file transfer failed.

The fact that I found the files initially gives me some hope, but the fact that I don't really know what I'm doing far outweighs it. Any advice would be extremely welcome.

Read more: Seagate FreeAgent 1tb external hd issues - Tech Support Forum http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/ ... z1Fk2wMrmw

IMHO you should really have started a new thread, as your issue is not related to that of the OP. Anyway, comments below...


That is a fundamentally flawed approach - copy individual files from a "damaged" disk, unless you are prepared to take the risk that things will get worse and/or that the s/w being used won't cope with such a disk. That seems to be the situation here .

It would help if you explain your analysis as to why & how that drive is "damaged". Do you mean it has been physically damaged e.g. dropped or something else?


Likely that the s/w encountered slow or unreadable sectors, which caused the "freezing".


I'm not in front of your system, so I have no idea... This is another problem with DIY - inadequate logging of process, so unable to explain it to other later on. My guess is that you might have done nothing different, and the change in behaviour is due to deterioration in the source disk drive itself.


Consider carefully if you have the skills to carry on, and whether you want to take the risk of further deterioration. Your attempts could be making successful recovery more difficult (= more expensive) or potentially impossible, if significant damage is being done to the platter(s).

If you want to continue (i.e. data not worth recovery cost, and you are prepared to lose everything), then search for recent posts here on cloning software. I personally wouldn't use Windows cloning software (*nix s/w, while less friendly, is more usable IMHO, but it still needs skill & experience to get the best results). The best cloning results are typically with the source (faulty) disk direct attached via SATA (the target can be USB attached, if desired). Then attempt to clone the whole source (faulty) disk to a new (target) disk of the same size or larger. Then you may need to use data recovery s/w to extract data from the target disk, if the filesystem on that target disk is badly damaged, due to there being unreadable filesystem metadata on the source.

Using getdataback at that stage, on a fully working disk (but perhaps with filesystem corruption), would be one option.

That's a typical DIY process, but as I said, there are risks and your story so far raises particular concerns that the drive might be deteriorating. Alternatively, you may want to consider getting pro help. I hope those suggestions are useful, but I'm not promising to hand-hold through the whole process.