Need serious help with backup hard drive not showing up

[Chowder Head]

Hey guys, here's the skinny. I have an SSD, a 2TB primary storage drive, and two other 500GB drives in my computer. I noticed Windows 7 was getting a little sluggish so I decided to wipe the primary drive which is my SSD. I used DBAN on it to wipe it clean but prior to doing that I unplugged all the other hard drives to prevent the chance of them being affected.

When I loaded and reinstalled Windows everything was running smooth but my other hard drives weren't showing up in my computer. I know I have to locate them in disk management and I did, but it wanted me to format them in order to be seen (even though they were already formatted prior to wiping the primary hard drive). I did some research and found out they have tools to recover the data from formatted hard drives and downloaded Recuva.

I wiped the least important drive, the 500GB one, and tried Recuva on it. It picked up a lot of files and I had the recovered files sent to the same hard drive. In hind sight I shouldn't have done that because while the data was there, it was in pieces such as songs that were missing half the length on so on. I decided to try the 1TB drive but this time send it to the 500GB one. I could do this because obviously I didn't have a full TB worth of data but I will say that the files I sent over came out a lot clearer and nearly all the videos and music I've checked on the 500GB that were transferred from the 1TB one were intact, although it's difficult to sort the files by the dates modified so I haven't had the time to check all the files that were transferred over.

Which leads me to the most important point. The 2TB drive I have in my primary storage drive and although it has copies of what was on the other drives, it has a lot of other important files on there and I'm trying my best to make sure they come out clean.

Now my main question would be is there anything I can do to get this data off or allow the data to be seen? Again, it was formatted when I originally installed Windows 7 a while back and prior to wiping the hard drive, they were completely accessible. I just assumed I could plug it back in and Windows would recognize it without a problem since it was formatted already but that is not the case. So what exactly should I do? The 2TB is NOT formatted yet (meaning it is not showing up in the list of drives now after the new OS install) and I'm assuming the data is still on there but I can't access the drive without formatting it which means I would lose it all. What a pain in the ass this has become. Is there anyway to see what's on the hard drive? In the disk management it says the entire thing is filled with unallocated space and the only way I can access it is to format it again.

I have an external hard drive on the way (should have one already I know) and was wondering if I have any other options besides formatting the primary 2TB drive and using Recuva to send all the files to the external one. If there's a simple trick I'm not seeing please let me know! The files which I sent to the other hard drive remaining intact gives me some hope that this could be done but I want to see if there's anything else I can try.

I apologize for the lengthiness but I wanted to provide as much information as I can. Any replies would be an enormous help, thank you in advance!

 

[timta2]

That sounds completely insane, why in the world would you format a hard drive and then try to recover the data you formatted? You should have tried to figure out what the problem was after the fresh install. It's probably related to the hard drive's drivers or settings (AHCI? RAID?). Windows is just telling you that the drive needs to be formatted because it can't read it, that doesn't mean format it!

Rule number one when it comes to data recovery is to not allow writes on the drive you are trying to recover data from, since this can overwrite your data.

 

[Chowder Head]

I formatted it because I thought that was the only way for it to be seen again in Windows. The main one I'm trying to preserve, the 2TB one, has not been formatted again so the data that is on there should be on there. I'm just not sure how I access the data WITHOUT formatting it again since it's not appearing on Windows. How do I make Windows read it without formatting it again then?

 

[evilsofa]

I noticed Windows 7 was getting a little sluggish so I decided to wipe the primary drive which is my SSD. I used DBAN on it to wipe it clean

Don't use DBAN on SSDs. DBAN is for HDDs only, and will not work on SSDs properly. Use the SSD's Secure Erase function instead.

DO NOT WIPE OR FORMAT THE 2TB DRIVE

Do not wipe or format the 2TB drive. Do not wipe or format the 2TB drive. Do not wipe or format the 2TB drive.

You should probably use Secure Erase to wipe the SSD, reinstall Windows 7 again, and see if it sees the other drives properly. If it does not, don't do anything else but come back here and ask questions.

 

[Chowder Head]

Will do, thanks! Could you elaborate on the ssd's secure erase function though? I have a Crucial C300 and found programs such as HDDErase and Parted Magic but couldn't find one that was specific to my model. Would one of these work?

 

[evilsofa]

The last post (on page 2) in this thread on crucial's forums seems to have the best and simplest answer:

BTW, you do not need a seperate disk partition with Windows to use DISKPART to restore your SSD... All you need to do is boot any Windows 7, Vista, or Server 2008 install DVD, and when it pauses at the first install screen hit <SHIFT> and <F10> to open a command prompt, then all you have to do is:

· Start DiskPart by typing "DISKPART" at the prompt
· You should see the new DiskPart prompt after a short delay
· Type "LIST DISK" to get a list of disks attached to the system and active
· Select the disk by typing "SELECT DISK #" where # is the disk you want to clean
· DiskPart will confirm the selection
· Enter "CLEAN ALL" to wipe the disk of all configuration information...

Depending on the size of your SSD it could take a while, you can open multipme command prompts and even some Windows PE utilities from the command line while you wait...

When DISKPART is done, type "EXIT" to cleanly exit DISKPART, and "EXIT" again to close your command console, and as you're already in the PE Boot environment you can go ahead and install Windows on your newly restored SSD.

That thread talks about how getting HDDErase to actually work can be annoying, so I would just do the above since you obviously have a Win7 install disc.

 

[staticlag]

Firstly I would try using the disk in a USB enclosure to see if that works.

Secondly I would use r-studio.

Also never recover files to the same drive that you are recovering from, the process with corrupt the files (as you have discovered)

 

[reddi]

You can probably use TestDisk to restore the partition tables and get your data back: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

 

[devman]

Don't use DBAN on SSDs. DBAN is for HDDs only, and will not work on SSDs properly. Use the SSD's Secure Erase function instead.
...
You should probably use Secure Erase to wipe the SSD, reinstall Windows 7 again, and see if it sees the other drives properly. If it does not, don't do anything else but come back here and ask questions.

Really this is sound advice for any drive SSD or HDD. Secure Erase has been in the ATA standard a long time now, almost any SSD or HDD will respond to the command. No need for DBAN just Secure Erase and done.

 

[Chowder Head]

Well I did the secure erase through diskpart and it's still not showing up. In fact it somehow assigned a drive letter to the disk but it still wants me to format. It says the drive is not accessible and for me to please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. Is there any way to manually install the drivers so it will be seen? Is there anything else I can try? The other drives are showing up fine but not the primary one. Should I try to delete the letter drive through diskpart and maybe it'll show up? I wanna make sure that only deleting the drive letter from my computer won't interfere with any possible data loss since it's still not formatted. Everytime I look at the drive it says its completely free of data and I'm getting kinda scared. Any other actions I could take would be appreciated. I looked at testdisk but I'm not too sure what to do. Would that program help me in this situation? Thanks again in advance everyone.

 

[drescherjm]

Well I did the secure erase through diskpart and it's still not showing up. In fact it somehow assigned a drive letter to the disk but it still wants me to format.

This is fully expected. After you did a secure erase it will not be formatted and also all data on the drive will no longer exist and no longer be recoverable.

Everytime I look at the drive it says its completely free of data and I'm getting kinda scared.

I hope that was not the drive that you did a secure erase on. If it was your data is no longer recoverable.

Would that program help me in this situation?

GetDataBack will probably help. Again if you did not do a secure erase on the drive you want to recover data from.

 

[Chowder Head]

Yeah I only secure erased the primary ssd and not the 2TB one. So getdataback is supposed to be pretty good? Better than recuva? And it will work with a non formated drive as well? Is it similar to other data recovery tools in that it will send the files to another drive? Or since the data is hopefully still in tact since it wasn't formatted would it simply allow access to the data without the need of using another hard drive? Sorry for all the questions I just want to be completely sure of my next step.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[staticlag]

you will need another hard drive

 

[Chowder Head]

I thought so, thanks for confirming.

I just have two more question at the moment. I'd like to try to secure erase one more time but before that I'd like to wipe the letter drive the 2TB hard drive has been assigned to. Since it is still unformatted, would erasing the letter drive through diskpart have any affect on the data itself?I'd like to think not since it's still unformatted and would think this would only erase it from showing up in my computer with the hope it may pop up if I reinstall Windows one more time. I would be safe in trying this correct?

Lastly, these disk recovery tools you all mentioned, do all of these work with unformatted hard drives? I know recuva tries to recover data from formatted drives but I'd like to know if programs such as r-studio and getdataback can pull files from unformatted hard drives to increase the likelihood of a successful extract. Or perhaps I should try to use testdisk to try to make it visible first before purchasing one of these programs?

Thanks again guys!

 

[evilsofa]

When you secure erased the SSD, you removed all data from it. That includes the partition info and the way in which it was formatted. So, the SSD is completely unformatted and exists in a raw state. When you install Windows onto the SSD, the installer will create the partition tables and set up the partitions as needed. Did you secure delete the SSD and then install Windows on it? If you have not installed Windows on it, do so now. If you have not installed Windows on the SSD, how are you looking at the drives? Have you installed Windows on one of the hard drives?

If there was any data on the SSD that you wanted to keep or save, it is GONE and has been since you used DBAN on it.

Do not format, wipe, or secure delete the 2TB drive. Doing those things will not fix whatever your problem or misunderstanding is.

Please confirm that you have never at any point formatted, wiped, or secure deleted the 2TB drive, because the way you are talking about it is very confusing. Please be very clear about which drive you are speaking about in your posts. It may be helpful to start at the beginning and clearly explain what has happened to each of your drives.

 

[Chowder Head]

Correct, I wiped the SSD which is my primary drive and installed Windows on it. In the list of hard drives it lists the other two drives that I extracted data from but not the primary data hard drive I have, which is the 2TB. It is not accessible because it is still not formatted.

And yes, the 2TB drive has not been formatted. It was assigned a drive letter. Come to think of it I may have assigned the drive a letter prior to secure erasing the SSD (which has Windows installed) but I did not take the next step and format it. So the 2TB is listed but since it is not formatted, I can't access it.

I apologize for the confusion but I believe I have a better grasp on what's going on. I have 4 hard drives. The 1st one, the SSD, is the one I have Windows installed on. Drive 2 is the primary 2TB storage drive, and drives 3 and 4 and essentially backups of the main 2TB storage drive.

Drives 3 and 4 were what I was playing around with in the beginning, where I extracted the files from drive 4 and put them back on drive 4 which I found out later is not recommended and I saw why. Not too bad of a deal since all that data is on the 2TB drive anyway. I then formatted and extracted files from drive 3 and sent them to drive 4. Those files actually came out pretty good, music files were the correct length and videos seemed just fine.

Now I'm left with what to do with the 2TB drive, drive 2. I have files on that which I don't have copies for on any other drive which is why I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do.

Drive 2 is listed in disk management as RAW and is not formatted whatsoever. The only time it was formatted was when I originally set up the computer a few years back. During this whole fiasco though, it has not been formatted.

That is why I was thinking if I wipe the letter drive that I may have assigned to it and install Windows again on the SSD, perhaps it will actually read it this time. I'd like to make sure erasing the drive letter won't have any affect on the data on it though. I don't believe it will since it's not formatted anyway but it'd never hurt to make sure.

If that doesn't work though, I need to find something that will either restore partitions on the RAW 2TB drive (will testdisk do this?) so it will become accessible or a program that can read a RAW drive and extract the files off of it. Would one of the programs listed in this thread such as r-studio or getdataback do this? Hopefully since the drive is listed as RAW I stand a better chance of getting all the files back safety compared to if it was formatted instead but I'm just not exactly sure what program to use or how to proceed.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[drescherjm]

Removing the drive letter for some other drive in your system will have no effect on reading the 2TB drive. This is not the problem.

If that doesn't work though, I need to find something that will either restore partitions on the RAW 2TB drive (will testdisk do this?)

Yes test disk will do that. So will GetDataBack and a few other utilities. If you did a quick format this should be recoverable. If you did a full format or secure erase there is no chance of recovery.

BTW, was the 2TB drive that is now unreadable an internal drive on the previous OS install?

 

[Chowder Head]

No, the 2TB has always served as a storage drive. The SSD is the only drive that has ever contained an OS. I think I'm gonna research some more about using testdisk to restore the partition so I can access the drive. Has anyone here used testdisk for fixing a RAW drive? Hopefully it's pretty straightforward.

 

[drescherjm]

Has anyone here used testdisk for fixing a RAW drive? Hopefully it's pretty straightforward.

I have. It was pretty easy for me. However I have been a windows and linux admin since the 1990s.

I recommend when you do this to disconnect all drives but the 2TB.

No, the 2TB has always served as a storage drive.

Okay. I wanted to know that so I was sure that you did not pull the drive from a removable between the OS swap. Some external drives have 4K sectors that are not emulated as 512 bytes.