Question Data or partition recovery software suggestion?

[QueBert]

I don't know what happened to my drive, but the data vanished on it, I have it back up weekly, but I stupidly had it set to do 1 backup, so it backed up after the partition table got corrupt, or whatever happened and the backup is also hosed. I don't believe it was due to a physical failure, there are no click of death or any symptoms I've seen with a HD that's failing. I can't find reviews for software outside of sites that look like sponsored ads. I ran chkdsk and it said "volume does not contain a recognized file system" Now I don't know 100% the drive's okay physically, I'm assuming something happened to the partition table and I should be able to buy a software to recover the files or the partition table. It's an external HDD, so it's not my system disc. Anyone have a suggestion for a software? I'm not sure if I what would be better, recovery software or one of the partition recovery programs I'm seeing. Both partitions are showing up, I just can't access either.

 

[SKORPI0]

Next time, please don't trust your important data to this enclosure. I wouldn't. Get something from Ugreen, Thermaltake or Startech.

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I have a Thermaltake USB 2.0 dock, too slow these days and limited to 2TB.
And thanks again to clueing me in on GetData Back. which I've used before but forgot about it.

Here's what I bought to replace the Wavlink and do the recovery/copy of the files. But not liking the tiny indicator lights.

https://www.amazon.com/RSHTECH-Aluminum-External-Duplicator-RSH-DS01/dp/B09NNJQKDJ/

 

[Tech Junky]

Wavlink has to be one of the worst companies when it comes to data.

Starlink does most of the heavy R&D and the others copy them. I will only use their cables though for data as they have never had an issue. Their other products though tend to be overpriced compared to the knockoffs. For NICs though qnap seems to be the best option without the Intel tax. USB Ethernet would be sabrent. For thunderbolt acasis. Drives WD. flash drives SanDisk.

 

[QueBert]

I'm SUPER impressed with Getbackdata, it found more than the other programs I tried, and it's able to recover the files with them working. I was pretty much certain I would be unable to myself to the point so I've been in contact with data recovery centers this week.

With that said, even with a level 3 scan, which took almost a day, I think there are still some files missing. But it found what looks to be almost everything, and so far everything recovered I've tried to open has opened. Looks like A LOT of the directories (like 1,000) got ghosted to \[lost and found]\[XXXXX]\ directories. So it's going to take me probably weeks to sort thru, but I'll gladly search each one and try to figure out where it goes to have my data back.

This software's beyond amazing, and it only costs $79 which is incredibly cheap for what it can do. Pretty sure if I had ended up sending my drive off to a recovery center it would have cost me maybe $1000. I know they charged based on the amount of data recovered, and I have like 3.7TB. The actual recovery of the files is taking a super long time (as expected) Once it's done and I've cleaned up the [lost and found] directories the best I can. I'm setting it to back up every night. I bought a 4TB drive (how big the original was) for $62 at Best Buy, there's no reason to not back stuff up. You'd think with my being on computers since the TRS-80 days I'd be smarter here and have had a backup in place lol. The original drive doesn't seem back, I initially cloned it to the new one and have been working on the original for a few weeks now, no bad sectors or clicking or anything. But once everything is restored off it, I think it's best I retire it lol.

Lesson learned, and anyone who finds this thread due to HD failure, follow what the others recommended and buy GBD.

 

[SKORPI0]

Managed to "revive" my dead 8TB Seagate (ST800DM004) and recover about 77 GB of mp3/flac files, surprisingly with R-Studio this time.
I did not have to scan the drive, just clicked on it and app "fixed" the MFT for viewing.

Last week I was looking at the main folders that showed empty, but looked at the FOUND folder, got some errors (drive gave that clicking sound). Just selected and copied them. But knowing the exact filenames and source where I originally got them, all I had to do was re-download the incomplete/missing ones, which wasn't a lot.

At his point about 498GB still to recover/redownload, which shouldn't be a hastle, at least I know what the files are.

Checked the warranty on this drive, I got early 2021 from Costco. Seagate says it is expired.

 

[QueBert]

This will be a huge YMMV but:


to summarize since I stated this thread: I'll star with TL;DR and go into detail

Data on external vanished one day - had worked perfect for a year on this laptop.
Bought another external enclosure for the drive, same problem. also tried 3 USB cables and different ports.
Found a software to recover it (Getdataback) that worked, but was a huge pain.
2 Days ago I plugged drive in the same external enclosure into a PC I just finished building, drive came up fine (and still does)
Lesson: if you have access to another computer try that before you waste a month like I did lol.

Detailed explanation:

1 day both partitions on my external HD became corrupted, there was no clicking, and none of the normal signs of a dying drive. Windows still detected the drive, and showed partitions, but not their names, and I couldn't access them.
I bought another external enclosure to test the drive in to see if it was the enclosure but had the same problem. So I thought the drive had to be the issue. I also tried different 3 USB cables and different ports.
I ended up buying Getbackdata and was able to pull the data off it, it was a huge hassle because a lot of the data had been moved to randomly named folders like [AJDKODHJ] or something. So I was having to look thru them 1 by 1, and there were thousands of folders.


fast forward many months, a few days ago I built a new PC. I wanted to pull some files off the drive, so I plugged the same external enclosure in. And to my surprise when Windows showed it found a drive, it popped up the partition name. It wouldn't do that on my laptop after the data on the partitions vanished. I clicked on the drive and everything was there. I had plugged it in my laptop like 100 times during the month I was doing data recovery and it never worked.

For whatever reason, the drive has been working fine since I plugged it in yesterday. I'm not just assuming the drive's good. I'll still get a another drive and back it up. I'll also probably ditch the enclosure (Wavlink) as 2 people responded telling me this is a junk brand. My only guess why the drive didn't work in the 2nd enclosure is maybe they use the same chipset and my laptop just had developed an issue with it.

 

[igor_kavinski]

And to my surprise when Windows showed it found a drive, it popped up the partition name. It wouldn't do that on my laptop after the data on the partitions vanished.

Probably some incompatibility with the USB chipset of the laptop and the controller chip used in the enclosure. The cheaper/unknown brands aren't just cheap in the type of materials they use. The engineering effort will be done by relatively inexperienced engineers who couldn't get a job anywhere decent. Since they didn't spend quality time working with other senior engineers, they don't get to learn from their mistakes and experience. So they would implement a spec and not validate it exhaustively. If some basic tests pass, it's good to go in their book. Engineers at a better brand would not only have an extensive battery of tests with different hardware configurations, they may also outsource the validation to a reputable third party to save time and money. They do this because they know the company's reputation matters. The cheaper brands, if things start going south, they will just close up shop and pop up in a different building with a different name and do marketing and fancy designs on their products to drum up interest in inferior products again. That's why the reliable brands are so few. They did the hard work in the beginning and reap the fruits forever and ever. The copycats just keep showing up in different places like God forsaken zits.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Do i need to run First Aid on a Mac partition if i have a disk error? Can it delete some data from my Mac?

You have a hard drive? Not an SSD? Then yes, it is possible for there to be data loss if part of the data resides in a bad sector and First Aid is not able to recover any data from it.

I would recommend (and this will not be easy for you) to get the HDD out and put it in a PC. Then run it through a full HDD Regenerator pass. That will improve your chances if there are soft bad sectors that will get healed temporarily enough to get the data out of them.

However, if it's just a file system error (due to improper shutdown), then there is less chance of data loss. But things may still turn ugly if First Aid is unable to determine if certain sectors belong to a certain file so that "orphan" data may get saved as gibberish files. You will have to open them up manually and see if there is anything you can salvage from those files.