harddrive changed to "RAW filesystem" "0 bytes" size, TestDisk no solution

rattle · 07-09-2008, 06:53 PM

Dear TSF,

Let me start by mentioning the painful futility i have expeirenced through googling forums where idiots suggest brand x partition recovery program with no idea about what they are talking about.

I am running XPsp2 on a Dell Inspiron 9400

I have been using a external enclosure to access my 3 year old 160Gb 3.5' Seagate Barracuda IDE hard drive, which I have stored many about 120Gb of unbacked up files.

As opposed to before, when it was an NTFS drive displaying its size via my computer, it now takes a minute to appear after switched on and when it loads it displays no size, does not do the whole autorun search thing and when opened in Windows Explorer is apparently empty.

In the image below, the "RAW" drive in question is "(I:) Local Disk" ST316002 3A
I also have a 2.5' external assigned to (H:) so don't be confused as they are separate external drives connected by USB.

I have also shown where some of the free utilities have failed as the disc is allegedly 0 bytes in size. Please note that this is different to other people who can see their drive size in TestDisk and can proceed in fixing their problem. When I used test disk, it only displays options for my other two working drive, and does not display an option for my "RAW" drive.

Can you please help me by explaining:
* how I can restore my drives functionality to NTFS (pretty sure it was NTFS not fat32) so I can get my files - ie no 'format it' replies please
* what is the problem (as my guess if a power failure deleted/corrupted the file system index (vbr table??), but i am a newb)
* where/how, if ever, you have personally encountered and fixed this problem before and how you did it - or note if you response is a guess

Please and thankyou for you future help :D:D
Michael.

**Deleted090308** · 07-09-2008, 09:57 PM

Welcome to TSF.

The first step has to be replacing the USB cable and/or the enclosure - alternatively mounting the drive inside a desktop PC.
Then run TestDisk again.

07-09-2008, 06:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
rattle Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 1 OS: XPsp2	harddrive changed to "RAW filesystem" "0 bytes" size, TestDisk no solution Dear TSF, Let me start by mentioning the painful futility i have expeirenced through googling forums where idiots suggest brand x partition recovery program with no idea about what they are talking about. I am running XPsp2 on a Dell Inspiron 9400 I have been using a external enclosure to access my 3 year old 160Gb 3.5' Seagate Barracuda IDE hard drive, which I have stored many about 120Gb of unbacked up files. As opposed to before, when it was an NTFS drive displaying its size via my computer, it now takes a minute to appear after switched on and when it loads it displays no size, does not do the whole autorun search thing and when opened in Windows Explorer is apparently empty. In the image below, the "RAW" drive in question is "(I:) Local Disk" ST316002 3A I also have a 2.5' external assigned to (H:) so don't be confused as they are separate external drives connected by USB. I have also shown where some of the free utilities have failed as the disc is allegedly 0 bytes in size. Please note that this is different to other people who can see their drive size in TestDisk and can proceed in fixing their problem. When I used test disk, it only displays options for my other two working drive, and does not display an option for my "RAW" drive. Can you please help me by explaining: * how I can restore my drives functionality to NTFS (pretty sure it was NTFS not fat32) so I can get my files - ie no 'format it' replies please * what is the problem (as my guess if a power failure deleted/corrupted the file system index (vbr table??), but i am a newb) * where/how, if ever, you have personally encountered and fixed this problem before and how you did it - or note if you response is a guess Please and thankyou for you future help :D:D Michael. Last edited by rattle : 07-09-2008 at 07:00 PM.

07-09-2008, 09:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
Deleted090308 Not... Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 22,281 OS: Xp	Re: harddrive changed to "RAW filesystem" "0 bytes" size, TestDisk no solution Welcome to TSF. The first step has to be replacing the USB cable and/or the enclosure - alternatively mounting the drive inside a desktop PC. Then run TestDisk again.