External Seagate Ultra Touch HDD lags computer and can't be mounted correctly on Linux or Windows 10

Question

On Windows 10 it at least (sometimes) shows the overall directories on the HDD, but Linux can't even do that anymore.

I'm fairly sure that up until a couple weeks ago my Linux PC could read the drive. Anyway, I've been able to confirm that it's formatted to NTFS and I've read that that can be a problem for Linux.

So my end goal is to save the data on the drive and format it to ext4, but for now the problem is that I can't get either OS to access the files.

This is because when I plug in the drive into either PC it lags out the whole system. When you then unplug it again, it's mostly back to normal. I know that doing this repeatedly isn't good for the drive but there don't seem to then be that many options.

I'm currently running a scan of the drive with "EaseUS Data Recovery", but it's been at 0.00% scanned for the past few minutes, so I'm not sure if that'll work.

I'd really love to get access to those files one last time, but what are my options here? In case I could get Gparted to see it would that be my best bet to reformat?

Or could this be an indicator that something's broken on the drive? That's also an answer I've seen in similar threads.

Answer 1

HDD lags computer and can't be mounted correctly on Linux or Windows 10

If it's lagging the PC then it's unlikely this is a file system issue. More likely: surface damage and/or weak or damaged heads (assuming we're talking about a spinning drive).

I'm currently running a scan of the drive with "EaseUS Data Recovery", but it's been at 0.00% scanned for the past few minutes, so I'm not sure if that'll work.

It's stressing the drive and will push a failing drive closer towards point of failure. You should stop it if you care about the data on the drive.

Ideally you'd clone such a drive to another drive or disk image file using ddrescue (example here: https://youtu.be/kfwSE9GIpxM). Then recover data from the clone / disk image. Some times you'll be able to mount it (the clone / disk image) now that the physical issues no longer hamper disk access. Some times you'll need to use file recovery software.

If the drive is in really bad shape you do not want to even image / clone the entire drive but resort to targeted disk imaging. Only thing that can do this on a DIY level is using HDDSuperClone in tandem with for example DMDE (example here: https://youtu.be/jiwz77qVsWU).

At this point, or perhaps even sooner you may consider contacting a pro depending on the value of the data.

If this about fixing the drive first take a good look at SMART, then run a service scan and look at SMART again. Chances are that conclusion is it's best to bin the drive.