REPLY: 1:135/377 5d7928fa   
   MSGID: 2:240/77 5d7eb915   
   CHRS: LATIN-1 2   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.4.0-sta 09-04-05   
   Hello Rick!   
      
   11 Sep 19, Rick Christian wrote to Bbsing Bbs:   
      
    RC> Standard USB external HD (not a SSD! I don't use or trust that   
    RC> garbage)   
      
    RC> This is why I don't use SSD unreliable and write limited.   
      
   Reality Check: My SSD works fine, what is broken on your side?   
   HDD are unreliable and are write limited just like any other storage media too.   
   They are sold with a MTBF with the warranty that they will fail.   
      
   In 20 years i lost two internal HDD, had two new HDD with many badblocks   
   (replaced by warranty), one dead SSD and two sudden death USB Sticks.   
      
   Bashing one type of storage may calm your emotions, but it would not help you.   
      
    RC> I can SEE THE PARTIOTION in test disk...   
      
   You don't. You see the data entry in the partition table which tells you where   
   the real partition was.   
      
    RC> it just comes up with the Message "Can't mount drive.... "  if I plug   
    RC> it in and try to access it like normal use.   
      
    BB>> If your computer is reporting a different size of the drive than   
      
    RC> Just can't access the drive if I plug it in...   
      
   How could you see something with testdisk then?   
      
    BB>> NOTE!!! dd can wipe out all data on your drive if used   
    BB>> incorrectly. NOTE(2) dd can take a long long time to read a 4TB   
    BB>> drive.   
      
    RC> dd is too dangerous for use for exactly #1, and #2.   
      
   If you are talking about too dangerous and risky you must use dd to reduce   
   risk and danger. There is no way around.   
      
   If you are working with the original data there is a high risk that any rescue   
   tool make things worse or destroy mandatory data.   
      
   At the moment you don't know what kind of damage you have. Is there a software   
   failure in the data structure on the disk or do you have a real hardware   
   failure that prevents some kind of data to be read.   
      
   The first thing is to make a mirror of the damaged device. dd_rescue is a   
   useful Linux tool for that. If testdisk finds something, than some data can be   
   read. dd_rescue copies all data that can be read to another disk and skips the   
   unreadable data. It's suggested to keep the first mirror and make a working   
   copy of that mirror for trouble shooting. A broken disk could loose more data   
   with every usage. Creating additional mirrors from the original disk may   
   result into additional data loss.   
      
    RC> 1) What acn be done via testdisk to use its internal backup/recovery   
    RC> options.... BEFORE I DO   
      
   It can recover the partition table, the partition directory, from a backup   
   sector. It can't repair a broken filesystem i.e. if the filesystem can't be   
   mounted.   
      
    RC> 2) Reset the info, likely the partition info, so that plugging it in   
    RC> and selecing to open in file manager or mounting it other ways works   
      
   Can't work. A partition can hold one of dozens of different file systems which   
   are mounted in different ways. Linux also does not need a partition, a   
   filesystem can be placed directly on /dev/sdx.   
      
    RC> I have HUGE RISK AVERSION. Meaning that measure 40x then review,   
    RC> measure 50x more, review.. backup backup backup.. try it...   
      
   Hm, sounds like you overkilled your disk with too many backups.   
      
    RC> So I'd like to use testdisk to suck out the data I can to say either   
    RC> another 4TB drive I attach to the box and then I can review what I've   
    RC> recovered and go from there.. then test out the steps to recover the   
    RC> disk..   
      
   Sounds good. Step one: Suck out data = use dd_rescue   
      
    RC>  ie: do the x,y,z in testdisk to reset it and then see if it is   
    RC> mountable...   
      
    RC> I just can seem to find a GOOD STEP BY STEP EXPLAIN it in full for   
    RC> testdisk , that after I am at the point, below, do, x,y,z to reset   
    RC> things so the drive is mountable...   
      
   There are too many if then else in the process to write them down in a step by   
   step tutorial. Many things are useless and do not apply if a previous "else"   
   matches.   
      
   testdisk is for partitions and testdisk tells you:   
      
    RC> NTFS filesystem need to be repaired.   
      
   that your filesystem is broken. So testdisk is useless.   
      
   I don't know how reliable the linux ntfs repair modes are, if your mirror disk   
   is ready you maybe could give an MS system a try.   
      
   Regards   
      
   Kai   
      
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