0

My year old 3TB Seagate drive stopped working. The drive had 3 ext4 1TB partitions which hold almost 2 years of accumulated data. I was using it in a ubuntu server when the mounted partitions stopped showing folders. On reboots, partitions would always mount but not show any data or show some folders with some data.

I took it out and attached it to a windows laptop via USB-to-SATA adapter. In AOEMI Partition Assistant Pro, the drive would show up but show weird partition scheme and sizes. Using the "Partition Recovery" option would also not work as it would be unable to find partitions:

enter image description here

I also tried using testdisk:

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

testdisk seems to locate 3 Linux partitions but its "Quick Analysis" feature returns the partition as FAT16 and something about "it can't be recovered because size is too small". This is my first time using these recovery tools so I have no idea what they mean. I did not do anything permanent for the fear of nuking all data. If anyone has an idea whats going on, please let me know.

Improve this question
1
  • this review doesn't seem to think AOMEI can handle ext4
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Mar 13, 2015 at 16:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

NEVER USE WINDOWS TOOLS TO TRY TO RECOVER LINUX FILESYSTEMS!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for shouting, but you may have actually made matters worse by doing as you did. Windows doesn't understand Linux filesystems (although some tools can at least identify them, and in some cases you might be able to mount them by using appropriate drivers). Furthermore, using a USB adapter on an over-2TiB disk is also likely to cause problems. Many such devices will corrupt existing data on such a big disk. Some will be OK when the disk is used via the adapter from the start, but switching back and forth between the USB adapter and a direct SATA connection to the motherboard is likely to create new problems. The warnings in your screen shot to the effect that your disk seems smaller than it should are an indication that your USB adapter is incapable of handling your disk. If you wrote any data to the disk via that adapter, you've probably created new damage.

It's unclear if your original problem was caused by damage to the partition table or to your filesystems. Partition table damage can be fixed by proper use of gdisk, parted, or GParted; or in extreme cases by use of TestDisk. Filesystem damage can often be corrected by use of fsck or its filesystem-specific variants, such as e2fsck.

My recommendation at this point is to return the disk to its original computer and attempt recovery there. If you can't boot your original OS, use a Linux live CD. Use gdisk or parted to check the partition table and see if it's intact. I wrote a Web page on repairing GPT disks with gdisk that may be helpful to you. If your partition table looks OK, move on to filesystem repair.

You should seriously consider doing a low-level backup (using dd) to a disk of equal or greater size before you do anything else. Many repair procedures can actually make matters worse if they're applied inappropriately or if they go wrong. If you encounter such a problem, you'll be able to use a low-level backup for recovery.

Improve this answer
8
  • The problem is, linux does not recognize the drive. Here's the dmesg output under ubuntu: pastebin.com/r3emUk3n
    – koogee
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 2:25
  • Also I have not written anything to the disk in windows.
    – koogee
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 2:28
  • If the drive is no longer being recognized in Linux, then that suggests a hardware failure. If you're lucky, it's a bad cable. If not, your motherboard (or at least its disk controller) may be damaged. You can use another computer, but be sure to use a SATA interface (or whatever the disk uses natively), NOT a USB adapter, to do the repairs. As I said, using Windows is also inadvisable. Using a USB drive and Windows in your case is like using a sledgehammer to fix your eyeglasses because you lacked a fine set of screwdrivers.
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 13:57
  • I get it sir, im a noob :)
    – koogee
    Commented Mar 14, 2015 at 14:00
  • OK. I inserted the disk back into the server and booted it up and wallah! everything came back. but the disk is slow. i58.tinypic.com/pb3r.jpg
    – koogee
    Commented Mar 15, 2015 at 7:53

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .