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[Carpathian]

I've had my 2TB Expansion drive (9SEAD2-572) working perfectly since March.

Today I booted up my XP PC as normal and the drive letter normally showing as the drives name now just had the generic "Local Disk" instead and no files or folders show.

Tests using SeaTools show as passes and moving the drive to use elsewhere, ie plugged direct into my TV's USB multimedia player, shows every file on there and working/playing fine. It seems therefore that no data has actually been lost from the unit.

When viewing the drive back on the PC in Disk Management it shows as "Disk 1" and "Healthy" but without either NTFS or FAT32 after the disk size. On right-clicking and checking it shows as "RAW". I've attached a screen grab of the Disk Management details.

As I know all the files are still there by using a non-Windows device is there anything I can do get the unit working? I don't have anything big enough to recover the amount of data to so it's pretty vital I get this working again.

Any help appreciated!

[silence711]

RAW partition = Corrupted.

Solution?

Reformat and begin again...

[Carpathian]

Thanks for the reply.

What I don't understand is that when I plug the drive into something else non-Windows (ie my TV's multimedia hub as mentioned) all the files are there, playable and seemingly perfect. Nothing is missing.

Any insight into that side of things?

[kenji57]

Yes, all your data is still there, it is just that windows has lost the map to find it. I had the same issue once.

For me, silence711's advice was the easiest solution; reformat the drive and start again. But if you don't have a backup of the data that isn't the best for you. Data recovery software is also not much use if you don't have another drive big enough to save to.

Since the drive is readable by other non-windows devices, you might be able to fix it using Linux. Check out this page Using Linux to recover your Data 

The bit about chkdsk isn't any use if a drive letter isn't assigned. But the part about booting Linux from a Live CD and fixing up the external HD may be worth a shot.

good luck!

[Carpathian]

If I can get some of it back, or transfer some of the vital stuff over bit by bit then anything is a bonus.

I have a Live CD knocking around so it's got to be worth a try.

Thanks for the idea!

[kenji57]

If you have played around with Linux before then that is a big plus.

If you don't find your Live CD, it's easy to get another one. The distribution suggested in the link I posted before SystemRescueCd_Homepage looks quite handy.

Don't forget to post back here if it works out for you.

[Carpathian]

Looks like you deserve some applause, kenji57!

Booted my PC from a 10.10 Ubuntu Live CD, plugged in the damaged drive and it's showing perfectly. Every file, folder and even volume name. Everything untouched, uncorrupted and (hopefully) now un-lost.

I've chosen a folder and copied it over to my local PC hard drive then left Ubuntu and checked it. All as it should be.

I now know I can get everything of the drive, even if it gets done once I have somewhere to put it.

From reading around other docs your idea led me to, once all data is copied elsewhere, I can then risk trying to recreate the MBR.

I assume I'm right that this is what may be overwritten or lost on the Seagate, seeing as the contents are intact?

[kenji57]

I'm happy that it worked out for you and thanks for posting back.

To be honest I'm not sure how the MBR fits in with the newer GUID partitioning, but I suspect Windows still relies on it. Linux doesn't seem to care  about the MBR, which is why it can still find all your files with no trouble.

It should be safe to overwrite the MBR. It won't affect the data on the drive, it is just a link and when the link is broken the target files aren't affected. The worst that can happen has already happened - you won't be able to read the drive in Windows.

On the other hand, you are also right that it is safer to quit while you're ahead and stop tinkering until you have backed up your important files somewhere else, if that is an option.

cheers

[Carpathian]

I have just one final question - I'm asking it on here as others may have similar issues and can then read through to solutions to make life easier for them (as well as me!) Is there an easy way to get the 2TB drive back to exactly how the factory default settings are? I realise I can just use various tools to reformat it or whatever but with so many options for file type, partition size, bootable or not etc etc some means to go back to the it way it was out of the box would be ideal. Is there a tool or specific set of choices for these type of 2TB Expansion drives? Thanks for this final thing!