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The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Alternative Operating Systems => Topic started by: XDelusion on July 25, 2014, 02:34:21 PM

Title: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 25, 2014, 02:34:21 PM
Not sure where to post this, so I'm posting here:

 A while ago I was going to format a USB stick with the HP Format Tool, and chose the wrong drive (a 4Tb drive will ALL my musick, apps, games, vintage, etc. on it from over 20 years of collecting).

 The Tool said the drive was in use and it could not be formatted. "Pheewwwww" I thought, as I realized what I had done.

 Well regardless of what it said, it formatted it, as it is no longer readable by any OS, so I ran the Easus Data Recovery sofware on it before doing ANYTHING else to it. It took about a week, but it recovered the drive to another 4Tb which I was forced to order. The space used ended up about the same, but....wtf...

...folders are missing the entire contents, folders which I accessed the most like my Applications folder for restoring and setting computers after a fresh install. All my work tools, Amiga programs, MP3's/Flac's etc.
 Everything MOST important, MISSING.

 Why would this be? And if it is missing, then why does the hard drive reflect that that space is still used?

 THere are lost folders and files in root, but I'm not seeing the stuff I"m looking for. This is odd and I'm wondering if I should not use Easus and use something else instead?
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Thomas on July 25, 2014, 03:01:39 PM
I would try a chkdsk on the destination disk.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: zipper on July 25, 2014, 03:19:01 PM
Try Recuva (it's free) in Deep Scan mode - no idea if it gets a better result and it will also take a long time to scan.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: amiman99 on July 25, 2014, 03:23:44 PM
Did you do FULL FORMAT or QUICK?

I did full format once by mistake and I could not recover anything, but quick format IS possible.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Plaz on July 25, 2014, 03:28:54 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;769715
Why would this be? And if it is missing, then why does the hard drive reflect that that space is still used?


Possible the tool you used didn't recognize all the different file types you had saved so didn't know how to properly recover them. You may have to use more than one tool and do separate passes with each to pick up all the different types.

Here's a free one I ran across that might be worth a try.
Though it doesn't know native Amiga files, it may do well on most everything else and does say it has unformat ability.
 http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Have a look at this review first too.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9224577/6_data_recovery_tools_for_SD_cards_USB_drives_and_more?taxonomyId=150&pageNumber=2

Good luck.

Plaz
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 25, 2014, 04:48:19 PM
It was a quick format, and the drive had only been formatted to NTSC one time since I first bought it.

 Will test PhotoRec as well as the free TestDisk which I am reaing is supposed to be exceptional
 If both fail, I will then try Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery which is also rumoured to be exceptional somehow.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: amiman99 on July 25, 2014, 05:32:15 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;769723
...and the drive had only been formatted to NTSC ...
You have been saying "formatted to NTSC", what do you mean? Is is for PC, Amiga? (NTSC is a N.A Video Standard)

Quick format should be easy to recover from mentioned tools, just try not to write anything to the drive.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Pentad on July 25, 2014, 05:42:53 PM
I think he means NTFS, not NTSC.  I was confused at first too.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 25, 2014, 06:14:00 PM
Quote from: Pentad;769727
I think he means NTFS, not NTSC.  I was confused at first too.


No no, I meant PAL. ;)
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Pentad on July 25, 2014, 07:39:42 PM
Quote from: xdelusion;769732
no no, i meant pal. ;)


:-)  lol!
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: amiman99 on July 25, 2014, 08:01:59 PM
Quote from: XDelusion;769732
No no, I meant PAL. ;)
Now, that make sense now! :hat:
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Ilwrath on July 25, 2014, 09:15:31 PM
I would second the suggestion of trying Recuva.  It's a dumb name, but it's free, and has had very good results for me in recovering damaged partitions.

A 4tb drive can be running into a lot of issues, regardless, though.  Certain controllers and NTFS block sizes can cause serious chaos.  Make sure your controller and OS support partitions of the size you're working with.  

Make sure you don't write anything to the original drive, and double and triple check your steps.  There is a lot of peril there.

If you totally fail, there's always OnTrack.  You'll have to send the drives to them.  And they cost some money.  But they're like dark magicians at data recovery.  They can do unholy things.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 25, 2014, 10:15:14 PM
Quote from: Ilwrath;769738
I would second the suggestion of trying Recuva.  It's a dumb name, but it's free, and has had very good results for me in recovering damaged partitions.

A 4tb drive can be running into a lot of issues, regardless, though.  Certain controllers and NTFS block sizes can cause serious chaos.  Make sure your controller and OS support partitions of the size you're working with.  

Make sure you don't write anything to the original drive, and double and triple check your steps.  There is a lot of peril there.

If you totally fail, there's always OnTrack.  You'll have to send the drives to them.  And they cost some money.  But they're like dark magicians at data recovery.  They can do unholy things.


Unholy things you say? Well if worse comes to worse, I may just goto them.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Duce on July 26, 2014, 01:26:56 AM
I've had pretty good luck with Recuva.  For actual drive integrity problems and drive maintenance, I swear by Spinrite.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 26, 2014, 02:12:15 AM
Quote from: Duce;769745
I've had pretty good luck with Recuva.  For actual drive integrity problems and drive maintenance, I swear by Spinrite.


Spinrite added to my list of programs to try. I might as well make a comparison while I'm at it, unless of course during my testing I just find one that is PERFECT, then I'll quit and declair a king. :)
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Plaz on July 26, 2014, 06:18:49 AM
Quote from: XDelusion;769746
Spinrite added to my list of programs to try.

I've only used spinrite on hard drives, never a usb stick. Not sure it works on those.  It's commercial and made to recover from data loss due to physical problems like bad sectors, not so much undeleting or unformatting. I agree though, it is one of the best at what is does. If spinrite can't recover your data from a bad drive, I think the only option left is to ship your hardware to a place like ontrack.

Plaz
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 26, 2014, 11:16:02 AM
Quote from: Plaz;769751
I've only used spinrite on hard drives, never a usb stick. Not sure it works on those.  It's commercial and made to recover from data loss due to physical problems like bad sectors, not so much undeleting or unformatting. I agree though, it is one of the best at what is does. If spinrite can't recover your data from a bad drive, I think the only option left is to ship your hardware to a place like ontrack.

Plaz


First off, this is an external 4Tb USB drive, not just a USB Memory Stick. Secondly, it sounds like because of the size of my drive that Spinrite may not be able to work with it, and I didn't see anything about RAW support, as this drive never successfully re-formatted.

Again though, if all else fails, I'll at least give it a try. :)
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: iondy on July 26, 2014, 10:53:53 PM
Try Testdisk (same people as photorec) on a clone(!!) of your drive, it will scan the drive for MFT's (index) and may find something which you can then write back to the drive. It also has a bunch of other options worth learning and trying.

If that fails then try GetDataBack for NTFS and/or UFS explorer which will let you scan for partitions and do a raw scan.


You should always work on a clone of your drive unless you are feeling brave. ;)
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: LoadWB on July 27, 2014, 07:35:15 AM
GetDataBack from runtime.org is not free ($80) but VERY good at recovering filesystems.  I used GDB Simple to recover data from a bad RAID set for a Hyper-V server with full results, as well as a number of other desperate jobs.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: psxphill on July 27, 2014, 09:26:52 AM
Quote from: Plaz;769751
I've only used spinrite on hard drives, never a usb stick. Not sure it works on those. It's commercial and made to recover from data loss due to physical problems like bad sectors, not so much undeleting or unformatting.

I believe drives have the equivalent functionality of spinrite built in these days, but he keeps managing to sell it.
 
It's a hotly debated topic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ASpinRite#Disputed.3F (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ASpinRite#Disputed.3F)
 
They claim that it can disable sector remapping on your hard drive during recovery, but there isn't a standard IDE command to do this. It's possible that it manages to do this on one drive (probably the one the programmer used) but as it was released in 2004 it's unlikely that it will do this on your hard drive.
 
I think it's unlikely that spinrite has a secret way of doing this that has really worked since 2004, that nobody (including the drive manufactures) knows about. If a technology like that existed then it would be in some open source software by now.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Duce on July 27, 2014, 08:42:47 PM
Like I said, I swear by Spinrite.  I use it extensively and am still surprised at how well it works.  That being said, it's not a data recovery program like Recuva.  I recently used it on a bunch of SSD's (level 2 mode, never any higher on an SSD with SpinRite) that were showing some signs of slowing down.  Worked great.  And yes, it will work on USB sticks/drives as well.

I don't know how SR works exactly, but I can tell you this - I've had it bring seemingly dead drives back to life long enough to pull the full contents off the drives before all was lost, and it paid for itself in the first week I had it.  I've likely used it on well over 100 drives over the years and with the exception of the one time I had to put a very mangled drive in the freezer while SR was running, it's worked flawlessly for me.  I use it so often I have a copy on USB key and CD right beside my Lian Li PC-T60B test bench machine.

Even had it bring my old 1 TB drive that croaked in my SAM when I first got it back to life.

Warning:  SpinRite is slow.  Very slow.  I'm extremely happy with it, though.  Some people have differing opinions, and that's why GRC has a 30 day money back guarantee on it.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: XDelusion on July 29, 2014, 12:04:35 AM
Well, I got tired of my slow laptop, and since installed a SSD in my fastest machine, so I stopped verything, migrated to the other machine and to USB3, finished the job in less than a day and GetDataBack seems to be the golden application. It found EVERYTHING and put it where it should all be.

 I'd still like to take a stab at the free command line programs before I format the drive, just to see how well it does considering it is free.

 Thanks all!
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Lurch on July 29, 2014, 08:17:21 PM
getdataback ntfs has recovered data many times for me, formatting doesn't actually clean the disk and the file table is still there.
The only two ways to erase data from a HDD is to use a program to write 0,1 all over it several times or pull the hard drive apart and melt the platters in a furnace. Or with most laptop HDD's have glass platters which you can smash with a screw driver :-)
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: psxphill on July 30, 2014, 07:59:20 AM
Quote from: Duce;769822
I don't know how SR works exactly, but I can tell you this - I've had it bring seemingly dead drives back to life long enough to pull the full contents off the drives before all was lost, and it paid for itself in the first week I had it.

 I can see you have faith in it but I can tell you that I've performed similar miracles without spinrite.
Title: Re: Data Recovery (formatted NTSC drive)
Post by: Duce on July 30, 2014, 05:18:05 PM
I've tried other recovery/integrity software that wouldn't even touch problems that Spinrite had no issues at all fixing.

I do this for a part time living, so all that matters to me are results.  Given the other option, which is sending drives away to a professional data recovery service, I find Spinrite a very good, cheap option that's never steered me wrong.