Hello All. I'm in HD hell and need some help getting out! I've been transferring files off of a Win11 system HD onto an Ex-SSD in order to get them onto another Win10 PC. All was going great until this morning. I pugged the Ex-SSD into the Win10 PC, powered the PC on, then got an error warning that went away very quickly, something about "the E:/Recycle Bin being corrupt" & a 2nd error "identifier file missing". Now the Ex-SSD shows up as a blank drive. I powered down the Win10 PC, unplugged the Ex-SSD, went back to the Win11 PC and tried the same process on it.....same thing! There is lots of data on the drive still but I can't access it via Windows. After looking around the Win11PC I see that many of the files are still in the recycle bin, but many are also totally missing. Is there a way to do this on my own, with help from MDL members? Like always any help is greatly appreciated!
The SSD might be fake, especially if it's a cheap one from China, which could explain why you're having trouble accessing the data. The fact that the SSD is showing up as a blank drive and the files are inaccessible could be a sign of a fake capacity scam. Try using Linux to read the SSD, as it may be able to access the data even if Windows can't. Linux can often read file systems and partitions that Windows can't, and it may be able to recover some of the data on the SSD.
Thanks for the input, Cracker. The ExSSD has been used previously w/o issues. It shows up in Win Disk Manager as "931.48 GB RAW Healthy ( Basic Data Partition)" But when I try a Data Recovery Software it only wants to recover ~400GBs of data when I know there was twice that much on it while attached to the Win11PC. I don't have a Linux PC.
You can try using a Linux live bootable USB to recover your data. Here are a few options: - Ubuntu: A popular and user-friendly Linux distribution that can be booted from a USB drive. - Linux Mint: Another popular Linux distribution that is easy to use and has a wide range of tools for data recovery. These options are free and can be booted from a USB drive without installing anything on your computer. You can download the ISO file from the official website and create a bootable USB using a tool like Rufus. Keep in mind that you'll need a USB drive with at least 4GB of space to create a bootable Linux USB. When creating a bootable Linux USB, the data on the USB drive will be erased. Make sure to use a USB drive that doesn't contain any important data, or back up the data before creating the bootable Linux USB. It's also a good idea to use a dedicated USB drive for this purpose, so you don't accidentally overwrite any important data. Once you've created the bootable Linux USB, you can use it to boot into the Linux environment and try to recover your data from the External SSD.
On my Win10PC I ran chkdsk /f The Good; My ExSSD is now recognized by Win and some of my files are accessible! The Bad; unfortunately none of the transferred video files are on it. I also recv'd the same error message..."The Recycle Bin on H:\ is corrupted. Do you want to empty the recycle bin for this drive." I chose no! I have a bad feeling that when I had plugged the Ex-SSD into my newly built HTPC, I saw this error that it was defaulted to YES and I hit the enter key, and that was when I lost all those precious video files.
What is the brand and model of that SSD, is it a known one? While it won't get your files back, it may have a firmware update to prevent the errors from occurring in the future. It's also a good idea to educate yourself on the TRIM command and how it can impact data recovery on SSDs. Understanding how TRIM works and why it can make data recovery more challenging will help you make informed decisions when dealing with SSDs.
Sorry for the tardy reply, Cracker. I have been busy with other things. WD Elements ExSSD P/N: WDBUZGOO10BBK-EB I have been able to get everything back with help of yourself, others, and USF Explorer Recovery software! Thanks, I will educate myself on the trim command and look for a firmware update!! Dan