Trying to recover data from Hitachi 3TB external drive HELP ME!

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 01:17 AM

I tried all the methods I could find on the web, but none seem to work. I used ddrescue to make an image of the drive and tried to mount it, but it seems to always error out. Here is the error I'm getting as well as some info about the drive. I also used foremost to try and scrape files off it, but I have a lot of backed up DVD files that it doesn't seem to get which I would like to recover.

Code:

$ sudo mount -t ntfs -o loop,offset=32256 image.iso mnt/
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/loop0': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/loop0' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

$ sudo parted /dev/sdc
GNU Parted 2.2
Using /dev/sdc
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) unit                                                             
Unit?  [compact]? B                                                       
(parted) print                                                            
Model: Hitachi HDS723030ALA640 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 3000592982016B
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End            Size           Type     File system  Flags
1      32256B  375072767999B  375072735744B  primary
sudo fdisk -l -C 63 /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6e1a101f

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1               1       45600   366281968+   7  HPFS/NTFS
3:54 PM

Any help with this would be appreciated!

jefro · 12-19-2012, 03:41 PM

I'd start with testdisk.

smallpond · 12-19-2012, 04:07 PM

What exact command did you do to create image.iso? Did you run it on the NTFS partition, or the whole disk?

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 04:27 PM

I ran the command below to make the image and ran it on the NTFS partition. I know how the above shows I'm using sdc but it's really sdd since I plugged in another external to copy and move files to.

sudo ddrescue -r 3 /dev/sdd1 /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso /media/External/Hitachi/log

propofol · 12-19-2012, 04:37 PM

I have not used ddrescue but it looks like you have backed up /dev/sdd1 so you should not need an offset. Try:

Code:

sudo mount -t ntfs -o loop image.iso mnt/

testdisk is a great recovery tool. If you cannot mount the partition, use testdisk to recover the partition from the image. It is not iso btw.

Regards,
Stefan

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 04:54 PM

Same problem:

Code:

$ sudo mount -t ntfs -o loop /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso /media/Slave/Hitachi/mnt/
 
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/loop0': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/loop0' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 04:58 PM

Gonna try testdisk to analyze the disk now.

smallpond · 12-19-2012, 05:28 PM

Also, please try the command:

Code:

file /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 05:34 PM

$ file /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso
/media/External/Hitachi/image.iso: data

michaelk · 12-19-2012, 05:39 PM

Try the -s option i.e.
file -s /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 05:42 PM

$ file -s /media/External/Hitachi/image.iso
/media/External/Hitachi/image.iso: data

michaelk · 12-19-2012, 06:41 PM

There must be some hidden magic going on since by definition the max size of a MBR formatted disk is 2TB with 512K sector size. Were you previously able to mount the drive via linux? Technically all this means is that you can not boot from it...

However, the file command does not recognise the file as a block device.

tcpdumper · 12-19-2012, 06:54 PM

I was never able to mount it in linux. It was just an external hard drive that I thought broke so I ripped it out of the enclosure and tried to recover it from there. Originally it was formatted in windows.