All my important data in an external Hard Drive that does not mount. Please help :(
 

Seagate External Hard Drive
Now using: Ubuntu 14.04
It is "mounted" as "Initio Ini-3910". I cannot access inside anyway.

I think it was formatted in a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
I think it was formatted in ext4

All my important data is inside :(

Just ask for information about it. I will do it and post the results.

Run sudo fdisk -l you're just mounting the usb software to see what partitions are there.

It just shows the partition on my laptop. No partition in external hard drive are shown.

It appears in "disks" as "/dev/sdb". Nothing more (sdb1, sdb2...)

Please, I am desperate :(

Not even GParted recognises it :S

Was that GParted from a live CD/DVD/USB? (Point being your OS was out of the picture).

If so, it is entirely possible that the drive has simply died.

You mentioned that it had been formatted in an earlier OS version, so I guess it is not a new drive.

How old is it? How long since you last used it? Has it ever worked with the 14.04 OS?

Maybe a more complete picture would help.

If there is data there that you absolutely must recover, try photorec. I've never had to use it, but I've heard it highly recommended.

Please read the documentation thoroughly first.

Was that GParted from a live CD/DVD/USB? (Point being your OS was out of the picture). >> No, installed Gparted in installed Ubuntu 14.04

You mentioned that it had been formatted in an earlier OS version, so I guess it is not a new drive. >> I just bought it to make a huge backup. Just one time used. ONCE. 10 months ago.

How old is it? How long since you last used it? Has it ever worked with the 14.04 OS? >> 10 months ago. One time used. Never tried with 14.04 until now. I'm now downloading 13.10. 12.04 didn't recognised it.

Check the connections for the external drive.
Check to see if it is recognized in the BIOS.

How did you create that one-time backup? Did you ever verify it (as in use it to restore anything)? A backup isn't a backup until it is verified...

10 months is a long time for me these days, has it possibly been mishandled or possibly used by someone else unbeknownst to you during that time?

Just presenting possibilities...

What does dmesg have to say when you plug it in ?

Today 01:20 AM
astrogeek How did you create that one-time backup? Did you ever verify it (as in use it to restore anything)? A backup isn't a backup until it is verified...

My desktop computer died. Internal SATA was still alive. With an adapter SATA-USB I got all the data into this fuck*ng bought-specially-for-it new external HD. Throught GParted I formatted it to ext4 and put all the data on it. I just remember that. From then on I started using a laptop (I moved to another country, so desktop computer recent death was not so such a mess)

Yes, I verified it. On two ubuntus.

10 months is a long time for me these days, has it possibly been mishandled or possibly used by someone else unbeknownst to you during that time?

No. Just put in a box specially for it lol. I told my mum to take care of that box like if my life was there lol, and she did it.

yancek Check the connections for the external drive.

Connections are right.

Check to see if it is recognized in the BIOS.

This BIOS is a mess :S It is a new BIOS with boot secure and all that crap I don't truly understand :S

syg00 What does dmesg have to say when you plug it in ?
Code:

dmesg | tail -n 20

[ 226.329048] usb 3-2: Product: Ini-3910
[ 226.329053] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Initio
[ 226.329058] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: CCDB2B86479AA290AE2EB65E
[ 226.329687] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 226.329942] scsi7 : usb-storage 3-2:1.0
[ 227.327269] scsi 7:0:0:0: Direct-Access Initio Ini-3910 0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 227.328177] sd 7:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 227.331214] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
[ 321.982394] usb 3-2: USB disconnect, device number 4
[ 328.882921] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[ 328.901258] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=13fd, idProduct=3910
[ 328.901269] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 328.901276] usb 3-2: Product: Ini-3910
[ 328.901281] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Initio
[ 328.901286] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: CCDBAB86479AA290AE2CB65E
[ 328.901928] usb-storage 3-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[ 328.902166] scsi8 : usb-storage 3-2:1.0
[ 329.899308] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access Initio Ini-3910 0000 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 329.901997] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[ 329.903478] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk


Thanks a lot, guys, for all this help.

Just to say I have tried too with 13.10, 14.04 and 12.04 and it didn't work anyway.

It's dropping off continually. Does it have external power (i.e. in the wall power socket) ?. If so try that, else see if you can find a powered USB hub.

Sounds as if you are really sure the data was on it (not trying to convince you otherwise!).

So the only other thing I can suggest - after you have exhausted any other methods of mounting it, and maybe try on a completely different machine - is to first burn a GParted live DVD and boot to it, basically taking your installed OS out of the loop. See if you can get anywhere with that.

If not, someone above suggested photorec - I too have no experience with it... but I have read many threads here where it worked for people. If you go that route then be sure to work on a copy of the drive if possible, really limit the activity on the actual drive to prevent overwriting anything.

I feel your pain... good luck!

Before you run PhotoRec please indicate / ensure the device uses its own power supply and then give use the output of running on the device. See http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step up to "Quick Search for partitions" for instructions. Do search for partitions but do not save or otherwise alter anything.