External Hard Drive not recognized

jalebi · 08-28-2009, 05:21 PM

Hey guys,

I have a 1TB external hard drive that was full of stuff, but today it just stopped working. On windows, the hard drive would refuse to open up and was labelled as "Local disk" instead of its usual name, and said "you have to format this drive before using it". It booted fine on Ubuntu, however, so I thought it was an MBR issue.

Using DOS fixmbr did not work. Checkdisk keeps checking it for consistency every time I boot up.

Now, even Ubuntu says that it is an unknown filesystem.

What do I do? Is the data lost? The Disk is formatted in NTFS.

Any advice would be appreciated.

**raptor_pa** · 08-28-2009, 05:53 PM

Try test_disk to repair the partition table and MBR Have you "lost" a hard drive, partition or files in your computer? the data is stil intact, you may however have to do a recovery to get the data onto another drive and then format it.

jalebi · 08-28-2009, 06:18 PM

I tried both of those two procedures, and after restarting my computer and performing a checkdisk the drive is in the same condition I left it.

Any other suggestions?

**raptor_pa** · 08-28-2009, 06:26 PM

Scan the drive with partition find and mount http://findandmount.com/ if it can identify the partition, this will allow you to mount the drive as read only and copy your data out to another disk. It would be best to get the drive out of the external enclosure and mount it internally to a desktop. This will also allow you to get the make and model number of the actual hard drive, some drives have known issues. It also eliminates the USB translation which will not pass some of the low level ATA and vendor commands that the drive may need to be properly diagnosed.

jalebi · 08-28-2009, 07:52 PM

After trying out Find and Mount and mounting the drive windows explorer repeatedly froze.

What's odd is that one of my computers running Ubuntu managed to recognize the drive and use it fully. On top of that gparted identified it as an ntfs drive. Why is it not being recognized?

jalebi · 08-28-2009, 08:17 PM

In testdisk I went into advanced and clicked on Repair MFT and the program comes back saying: "Both MFT seems ok but they don't match, use chkdsk."

What is that supposed to mean? Chkdsk has been run about 10 times today yet the errors persists, nto testdisk tells me to use chkdsk? What should I do?

**raptor_pa** · 08-28-2009, 09:17 PM

Copy your data out under ubuntu and then zero wipe the drive with killdisk or d-ban and start with a fresh disk... One of the MBRs is invalid - could be a virus or a bad sector in the MBR, zero wiping will allow the disk to remap any bad sectors.

jalebi · 08-29-2009, 04:43 AM

Okay, will do that, only problem is that it's going to take forever as that hard drive is 1TB and my next biggest is 500GB, I'm going to have to burn a few data discs...

One last thing, What would be the best file system for the new drive? I'm guessing not FAT32, but is there anything more reliable than NTFS? Ext3 maybe?

WinFS should hurry up.

**raptor_pa** · 08-29-2009, 11:36 AM

NTFS is as reliable or more reliable than ext3. FAT32 gets pretty inefficient after about 40 GB. ext3 isn't an option for Windows anyway. Make sure write behind cacheing is disabled on the disk, the minimal loss of performance will prevent potential damage to the MFT. Don't be in such a hurry for WinFS, so far I haven't been real impressed with what I have heard.

jalebi · 08-29-2009, 12:26 PM

Thanks for all the help, its greatly appreciated.

08-28-2009, 05:21 PM	#1 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	External Hard Drive not recognized Hey guys, I have a 1TB external hard drive that was full of stuff, but today it just stopped working. On windows, the hard drive would refuse to open up and was labelled as "Local disk" instead of its usual name, and said "you have to format this drive before using it". It booted fine on Ubuntu, however, so I thought it was an MBR issue. Using DOS fixmbr did not work. Checkdisk keeps checking it for consistency every time I boot up. Now, even Ubuntu says that it is an unknown filesystem. What do I do? Is the data lost? The Disk is formatted in NTFS. Any advice would be appreciated.

08-28-2009, 05:53 PM	#2 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,934 OS: XP	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized Try test_disk to repair the partition table and MBR Have you "lost" a hard drive, partition or files in your computer? the data is stil intact, you may however have to do a recovery to get the data onto another drive and then format it. __________________

08-28-2009, 06:18 PM	#3 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized I tried both of those two procedures, and after restarting my computer and performing a checkdisk the drive is in the same condition I left it. Any other suggestions?

08-28-2009, 06:26 PM	#4 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,934 OS: XP	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized Scan the drive with partition find and mount http://findandmount.com/ if it can identify the partition, this will allow you to mount the drive as read only and copy your data out to another disk. It would be best to get the drive out of the external enclosure and mount it internally to a desktop. This will also allow you to get the make and model number of the actual hard drive, some drives have known issues. It also eliminates the USB translation which will not pass some of the low level ATA and vendor commands that the drive may need to be properly diagnosed. __________________

08-28-2009, 07:52 PM	#5 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized After trying out Find and Mount and mounting the drive windows explorer repeatedly froze. What's odd is that one of my computers running Ubuntu managed to recognize the drive and use it fully. On top of that gparted identified it as an ntfs drive. Why is it not being recognized?

08-28-2009, 08:17 PM	#6 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized In testdisk I went into advanced and clicked on Repair MFT and the program comes back saying: "Both MFT seems ok but they don't match, use chkdsk." What is that supposed to mean? Chkdsk has been run about 10 times today yet the errors persists, nto testdisk tells me to use chkdsk? What should I do?

08-28-2009, 09:17 PM	#7 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,934 OS: XP	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized Copy your data out under ubuntu and then zero wipe the drive with killdisk or d-ban and start with a fresh disk... One of the MBRs is invalid - could be a virus or a bad sector in the MBR, zero wiping will allow the disk to remap any bad sectors. __________________

08-29-2009, 04:43 AM	#8 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized Okay, will do that, only problem is that it's going to take forever as that hard drive is 1TB and my next biggest is 500GB, I'm going to have to burn a few data discs... One last thing, What would be the best file system for the new drive? I'm guessing not FAT32, but is there anything more reliable than NTFS? Ext3 maybe? WinFS should hurry up.

08-29-2009, 11:36 AM	#9 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,934 OS: XP	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized NTFS is as reliable or more reliable than ext3. FAT32 gets pretty inefficient after about 40 GB. ext3 isn't an option for Windows anyway. Make sure write behind cacheing is disabled on the disk, the minimal loss of performance will prevent potential damage to the MFT. Don't be in such a hurry for WinFS, so far I haven't been real impressed with what I have heard. __________________

08-29-2009, 12:26 PM	#10 (permalink)
jalebi Registered User Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 6 OS: vista	Re: External Hard Drive not recognized Thanks for all the help, its greatly appreciated.