Hi All,

I have a 500 GB Seagate External USB Hard Disk on which I am able to see the all the data and directories but cannot copy the data to some other location.
It has NTFS filesystem.

Importantly, size of the files are showing correct.

Here are the images if it helps - Image1 Image2

Can anyone please suggest whether this issue is to to hardware (other than storage disk) or bad sectors on storage disk itself.

Any ideas, how can I recover the data ?
Any softwares recommended for this situation ?

I have heard that in such scenarios, it is recommended to create an image of the disk and then recover data from it. Shall I try to create an image, if yes which software shall I try.

Please HELP. Many thanks of advance.

If you have space to store an image then yes, try to make an image of it. Use dd or, in case the drive has errors, ddrescue.

The linked site has many resources on data forensics.

Another: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DataRecovery

Yes, ddrescue works fine for some but did not worked for me probably my HDD had more issues.

I am closing this thread now.

Many thanks Juako.

I would have taken the HDD out of the enclosure and mounted it inside the case just to make sure it wasn't something outside the HDD.

+1, sometimes the issue comes from cheap usb controller or other interface in the external box

Yes, this is what "Data Recovery" people do. But this lapses the warranty.