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Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

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prvnrk

Post subject: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 13th, 2015, 20:10

Joined: May 13th, 2015, 19:39
Posts: 5
Location: London

Hello Gurus,

I have a Seagate expansion 4tb usb 3.0 with NTFS partition (single) with lot of data. Today I suddenly received "You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It" error and Windows 7 asking me to format it.

I know few tools like Active Partition/File recovery but in my past experience it recovered files with different filename (file type wise - not of much use). As I need to recover the data along with file names (if possible, same folder structure) so I tried Parted Magic as explained here at http://fixit.litten.com/linuxfilecopy.html but it is unable mount my 4TB drive and fdisk -l shows partition size of ~500GB (same with Windows disk management).

Code:

root@partedmagic:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes, 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xb754b69a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     1050623      524288    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2         1050624   312578047   155763712    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 4000.8 GB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xbbc397f4

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1            2048   976752639   488375296    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
root@partedmagic:~# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error

       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail or so.
root@partedmagic:~# mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /mnt
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sdb1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sdb1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
root@partedmagic:~# 

Please advise, thanks in advance.

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 5:11

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia

prvnrk wrote:

I have a Seagate expansion 4tb usb 3.0 with NTFS partition (single) with lot of data. Today I suddenly received "You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It" error and Windows 7 asking me to format it.

If you put the drive back in its enclosure, your data should then suddenly reappear.

The firmware in the enclosure is configured for a sector size of 4096 bytes. When you remove the drive from such an enclosure and attach it to a SATA port on your motherboard, you expose its native 512-byte sectoring and render your data inaccessible. The partition table in sector 0 is still in the same place, but every other sector is out by a factor of 8.

Notice that the start and end of your partition are at sectors 2048 and 976752639, respectively.

976 752 639 x 512 bytes = 500.1 GB

976 752 639 x 4096 bytes = 4000.8 GB

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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prvnrk

Post subject: Re: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 8:36

Joined: May 13th, 2015, 19:39
Posts: 5
Location: London

Thanks Spildit & fzabkar for the replies.

@fzabkar - It's interesting and makes sense. Actually the problem is my drive was not at all being detected initially. As there're no physical damages, I thought problem could be with interface (USB to SATA converter of the enclosure) so I pulled out the SATA drive and used an external SATA-to-USB converter (not SATA directly as I don't have a desktop but only laptops) and it says to format the drive before using it.

So does it mean that Seagate enclosure's SATA-to-USB part/interface gone bad? if yes, can I get that alone replaced so I directly get ALL my data without needing for recovery?

Many thanks for all the help

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jermy

Post subject: Re: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 9:03

Joined: March 19th, 2015, 15:01
Posts: 1388
Location: isreal

prvnrk wrote:

So does it mean that Seagate enclosure's SATA-to-USB part/interface gone bad? if yes, can I get that alone replaced so I directly get ALL my data without needing for recovery?

if indeed the enclosure is the problem and nothing else
maybe you can even fix it by yourself (depends on your electronic/soldering skills)

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Amarbir[CDR-Labs]

Post subject: Re: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 9:19

Joined: August 15th, 2006, 3:01
Posts: 3522
Location: CDRLabs @ Chandigarh [ India ]

prvnrk wrote:

Hello ,
Could You Take Out The PCB And Click Some Pictures And Show Us .Also Its Powered By a Adapter Or By Direct AC Voltage

_________________
Regards
Amarbir S Dhillon , Chandigarh Data Recovery Labs [India]
Logical,Semi Physical And Physical Data Recovery
Website-> http://www.chandigarhdatarecovery.com

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fzabkar

Post subject: Re: Error:You Need to Format the Disk Before You Can Use It

Posted: May 14th, 2015, 15:20

Joined: September 8th, 2009, 18:21
Posts: 16960
Location: Australia

prvnrk wrote:

Actually the problem is my drive was not at all being detected initially. As there're no physical damages, I thought problem could be with interface (USB to SATA converter of the enclosure) so I pulled out the SATA drive and used an external SATA-to-USB converter (not SATA directly as I don't have a desktop but only laptops) and it says to format the drive before using it.

It appears that your replacement USB-SATA converter is configured with a 512-byte sector size, so it is inappropriate. That said, intelligent data recovery software should still be able to recover your data in such an enclosure.

Does the drive spin up in its original enclosure? Did you use the wrong adapter on it, eg your laptop's 19V adapter?

If you connect the original enclosure to your USB port on its own (without the HDD), can you see it in Linux with lsusb? If so, then this will prove that the USB-SATA bridge is not brain dead. Be aware that some bridges will remain quiet if they don't detect an attached HDD, so this test may be inconclusive.

Here are some examples:
http://www.linuxnix.com/2013/05/find-us ... mmand.html

As already stated, detailed photos of both sides of Seagate's bridge PCB would help.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

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