Fixing a drive that is now detected as RAW with TestDisk

[firehawk12]

So I may have suffered some kind of hiccup or power failure that caused an issue with the USB ports on my computer or hub. Regardless, I ended up with the issue where the drive is now detected as RAW and unable to be detected by Windows - it gives both the “Parameter is missing” error and asks me to format.

PhotoRec is able to recover files, so at the very least I know the files are still there, but I’d really like to be able to recover the disk entirely to be able to get the files out in the original context.

It’s my first time trying TestDisk, but I read some tutorials/instructions but was kind of stuck.

I did Analyze, and found the partition:

[IMG alt=“3KhGJtJ.png”]https://i.imgur.com/3KhGJtJ.png

But when I try to list files, I get this error:

[IMG alt=“ihvin4u.png”]https://i.imgur.com/ihvin4u.png

I saw elsewhere that you can go to Advanced options to try to fix the boot sector directly by recovering from a backup, but the option doesn’t appear:

[IMG alt=“KMsGgcq.png”]https://i.imgur.com/KMsGgcq.png

It does appear when I select a working drive (and I’m also able to view the files as well).

What do I need to try next? Do I need to do a deep scan in order to see the “Backup BS” (boot sector) option? It’s an 8tb drive so it’ll take forever, but I don’t mind if that’s really the only option I have.

Or is there something else I can try?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you.[/IMG]

[Rustys]

When I have a disk that is not accessible by windows I use Linux.

You can also try this

https://www.easeus.com/ad/partition-recovery.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0-6ABhDMARIsAFVdQv99UzhgH9TAbalRe7TeWxORgT_SyhgMeSo_7NsJ3rIatKQKd2BtpwcaAp1WEALw_wcB

https://www.diskpart.com/windows-10/recover-lost-partition-windows-10.html

PhotoRec is able to recover files

Can you tell the program where to put the files? Like to a different drive.

[firehawk12]

When I have a disk that is not accessible by windows I use Linux.

You can also try this

https://www.easeus.com/ad/partition-recovery.htm?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0-6ABhDMARIsAFVdQv99UzhgH9TAbalRe7TeWxORgT_SyhgMeSo_7NsJ3rIatKQKd2BtpwcaAp1WEALw_wcB

https://www.diskpart.com/windows-10/recover-lost-partition-windows-10.html

Can you tell the program where to put the files? Like to a different drive.

I’ve actually installed EaseUS DRW to see if it could detect some of the files and it can, but they only seem to offer the option to retrieve files from RAW hard drives rather than to try to repair them.
As a bit of a last resort, I may use it because it is able to preserve some file names (PhotoRec is not) but I was hoping to recover the drive entirely by fixing the boot sector if possible.

The partition shows up in DiskPart as RAW:

[ATTACH type=“full”]7550[/ATTACH]

So it’s not that it’s hidden, just completely inaccessible because Windows thinks it’s RAW (which I’ve read is due to a corrupted boot sector). If there’s a way to recover this using a Linux tool other than TestDisk, I would love to give it a try at least.

Thank you for your help.

I’ve also attached my testdisk log file, if you may be familiar with that program and the log might be helpful.

[Rustys]

Linux is an OS that can be ran off a USB drive no need to install.

What happens when you try to retrieve a file can you open it.

https://www.easeus.com/resource/raw-usb-drive-recovery.htm

[firehawk12]

Linux is an OS that can be ran off a USB drive no need to install.

What happens when you try to retrieve a file can you open it.

https://www.easeus.com/resource/raw-usb-drive-recovery.htm

Oh yeah, I know. I’m booting the Alt Linux Repair suite to use TestDisk. I know about using ddrescue to clone, but I’m not sure if there’s anything I should try to use for recovery.

With EaseUS I actually didn’t try to see if I could read the files because of the size, just the file listing. With PhotoRec the files did open at least, so I think they should be fine.

[firehawk12]

Just thought I’d update in case it may be helpful to someone else - I wasn’t able to use Testdisk to recover the partition and ended up using DMDE and R-Studio Recovery to view the files on the RAW drive to retrieve the files.

Thanks Rustys for the help.

[Rustys]

Not a problem glad to hear that you got the files recovered and thank you for posting the solution to help others.