Any Way To Recover A (New) Full External Drive From Missing GPT?

Discussion in 'Windows 10' started by DeathStalker77, Aug 5, 2023.

  1. Dude Guyman

    Dude Guyman MDL Senior Member

    Jun 20, 2017
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    Probably the "sectors" are not actually bad, but the actual hardware to access them failed. The SSD controller chip or the actual HDD motor or reader arm thingy. Think like trying to play an old vinyl record when the stylus/needle has fallen out of the record player.
     
  2. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Usually broken USB/SATA converters don't show any media attached at all

    Obviously everything is possible, but still think that the metadata flash/SSD may be the culprit.

    Whatever.... the linux fdisk test can tell us something, if the controller is faulty will be impossible to write the partition table.
     
  3. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    #44 DeathStalker77, Aug 10, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2023
    (OP)
    <edited>

    --- DS

    (Kind of strange that it shows up with no issues in Device Mgr - even the HAS ERRORS selection indicates False .....)
     
  4. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    I'm wondering if I should let Stellar Data Recovery run completely first .... another 20hrs +/-. .....

    --- DS
     
  5. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    I think you can interrupt it at this point, I don't know that specific SW, but usually file recovery sw start to list found files as soon as they start detect them, which usually takes few minutes or even few seconds...
     
  6. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    I would have thought the same too - for "Lost Partitions" as well, especially when there is only 1 to begin with, but it's not an area that I am an expert in :)

    --- DS
     
  7. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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  8. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    Yeah, those are different models. The easyStore drives are supposed to have either Whites or Reds in them.

    --- DS
     
  9. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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  10. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    Ok, so I've loaded up the Linux disk and gone into UTILITIES - looking at the drives, it SEES the drive in question, lists it at the BOTTOM as MBR (Windows), lists the drive info
    Disk 0x90 (EDD30) C / H / S - 1023 / 255 / -775897425
    SIZE (however, is strange): -387948712 -387948712 B/-387948712
    AND indicates PARTITION 1
    if I click on that (PARTITION 1) I get the smaller pop-up with the following info:
    -------PARTITION 1--------
    SIZE : 0 B
    TYPE : GPT
    Boot Flag : No
    Start : 1
    End : -1
    ID : EE

    Thoughts before I go further?

    --- DS
     
  11. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    #52 DeathStalker77, Aug 10, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2023
    (OP)
    <edited>
    --- DS
     
  12. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    The GUI It's just misinterpreting what
    The GUI tool is just trying desperately to make sense of some sensless data passed to it by fdisk or whatever underlying SW it is using.

    Just proceed with fdisk and see what "p" prints out.
     
  13. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Basically yes to all your thoughts.

    But just try everything before thinking to open the box and / or RMAing it
     
  14. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    #55 DeathStalker77, Aug 10, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2023
    (OP)
    Ok, fdisk returns the message - fdisk cannot open /dev/sdr: Input/output error

    Yes, I ran lsblk to ensure I had the right drive - it is sdr

    --- DS

    I also went to try smartctl -a /dev/sdr but got the message bash: smartctl: command not found
     
  15. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    #56 acer-5100, Aug 10, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2023
    sdb (scsi/sata disk B) not sdr

    like I said usually sda is the first internal disk, sdb is the second and so on

    eventually you can look at the boot loog

    using

    sudo dmesg | less

    you can filter it using

    sudo dmesg | grep sd

    and / or

    sudo dmesg | grep usb

    or just unplug the drive, replug it and just type

    sudo dmesg

    to go straight to the last lines

    P.S. don't forget to type sudo before the commands unless you are logged as the real administrator (which is called "root" in linux).
     
  16. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    Ok, will try all that - and it IS sdr because it is DISK 17 :)

    --- DS
     
  17. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    Ok, running sudo dmesg | grep sd DOES return a bunch of errors for sdr
    a lot is repeated, but it starts out with -

    Media removed, stopped polling
    Very big device. Trying to use READ CAPACITY(16)
    35156656128 512-byte logical blocks: (18.0 TB/16.4 TiB)
    4096-byte physical blocks
    Write Protect is off
    Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08
    No Caching mode page found
    Assuming drive cache: write
    Media removed, stopped polling
    ---then this group is repeated several times ---
    ag#0 device offline or changed
    I/O error sector 0 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
    Buffer I/O error on device, logical block 0, async page read
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    -----------------
    sdr: unable to read partition table
    Attached SCSI disk
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    ---repeated 5 more times---
    then it goes through the list of our drives with: Attached scsi generic sg1 thru sg17 type 0
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    I/O error sector 3515665600 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    I/O error sector 3515665600 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
    Buffer I/O error on device, logical block 439458200, async page read
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    ---this is repeated several times---
    I/O error sector 0 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x0 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
    Buffer I/O error on device, logical block 0, async page read
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    --------------------
    Dev sdr: unable to read RDB block 0
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    sdr: unable to read partition table
    tag#0 device offline or changed
    tag#0 device offline or changed

    and then it just goes on to stop the rest of the drives

    --- DS
     
  18. DeathStalker77

    DeathStalker77 MDL Addicted

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    If I run llsblk -f it lists all of the drives and their names, but ONLY sdr for the problem drive (at the bottom, because it is the 17th of 17 drives)

    --- DS

    what about these commands?

    • $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility xfsprogs f2fs-tools -y
    • Open "disks".On KDE press "alt+space" and type "disks". Enter.
    • a) Recreate partition table on your drive
    1. $ mkfs.f2fs -o2 /dev/sdX
    ?
     
  19. acer-5100

    acer-5100 MDL Guru

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    Disk 17? :eek:
    :D
    So the difference wild be less noticeable
    f2fs tools are... for f2fs filesystem.

    You aren't supposed to deal with any filesystem, ntfs included.


    just

    sudo fdisk /dev/sdr

    possibly do a test with sdb or sdg, just to check what should happen and you got the command correctly.

    (sorry I haven't Idea you had so many disks, never seen a sdr even in corporations :D )

    if fdisk is still unable to open the device we can safely say It's time to RMA or open the box and test the disk using a SATA connector (it's up to you to evaluate the risks of both options)