USB ext 500GB Problem

[pclaptop23hour]

I think this is the right forum, "Memory and Storage" that is, But I have a 8-9 year old Seagate USB 500GB ext slim drive.

It was xfering/playing fine with movies and music stored on it, but now, although it lights up, it is not recognized by my laptop or desktop or a media device (MxqPro), where it had been feeding movies thru the MxqPro on to a television. (a possible CAUSE is my friend removed the drive while powered up, but I do that all the time with USB flash drive mem sticks on my laptop with no problems)

I'm using "Active File Recovery" software to analyze and hopefully repair/fix this problem but I'm not quite sure how to go about using the available tools/options to get this fixed.

One thing I notice is that the "Active File Recovery" software reports TWO 500gb partitions, when I know there is only one!
How is that possible to have two 500gb partitions on a drive that is 500gb max? Obviously this has something to do with the problem! But how do I delete the one partition without wiping out all the data on the other when they are both the same 500gb drive?


Any ideas?

 

[mxnerd]

First, see if any error shows up in Event Viewer for the disk. Your drive might be too old and is dying.

Also try free tools here.

https://www.easeus.com/download/partition-recovery-download.html

https://www.minitool.com/free-tools/minitool-partitionrecovery.html

Do NOT delete partitions! You will mess up everything!

The best recovery method is to copy files from the disk to another location using recovery software. It takes a much longer time but is the safest way.

 

[pclaptop23hour]

Thanks for reply, I'm scanning with the "Last Chance" option of Active File Recovery checking for disk errors. I've used Ease Us before to recover data but will it fix the dual partition situation?

 

[pclaptop23hour]

I'm also wondering if when USB drives first came out especially in large sizes, that you HAD to execute a software "eject" on them to prevent this kind of error. But I'm thinking newer USB removable drives, whether they were large ext HD(as in this case 500gb) or smaller size flash drives, had solved this potential software "handshake protocol" conflict?

 

[mxnerd]

Don't know. Each case is different. Find out which partition gives you more correct info. Sometimes the recovery software will find more than 10 partitions. It's just making best guess, there is no guarantee.

 

[mxnerd]

I never eject USB flash or USB HDD. But I do make sure there are no open files before removing.

 

[mxnerd]

I would copy everything from the drive and then reformat the drive if the drive is OK and it's just NTFS corruption.

==
I personally use Runtime GetDataBack NTFS.

The above free tools can only recover 1GB or 2GB data.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I believe that NTFS volumes on Disk devices marked as "Removable" do require the "Safe Eject" procedure. (*)

That said, HDDs have a rough approximate lifespan of 5 years, for internal drives run 24/7. External drives may not run 24/7 (and if they do, they generally have even shorted lifespans), but they are subject to a lot more "bumps and bruises".

If you got 8-9 years out of that drive, you really got your money's worth. I would suggest, though, not storing ANYTHING on a removable drive (USB flash drive, or external HDD) that you can't stand to lose. (Only use them for more-or-less transfer or temporary storage, or secondary backups of primary source material. Too many people use them as a sort of portable primary archive, which exposes them to data-loss.)

(*) I have corrupted USB flash drives with Windows 7/10 installers on them, by leaving them plugged in, after installing and booting to the OS, and then pulling the drive out while the OS is booted, without shutting down or using the Safe Eject feature. After that happened, the flash drive would no longer properly install the OS on new machines. Had to re-make it.

 

[mikeymikec]

I would copy everything from the drive and then reformat the drive if the drive is OK and it's just NTFS corruption.

I'm not sure I've ever seen NTFS corruption that wasn't hardware related and yet wasn't fixable with chkdsk driveletter: /f /v /r

By all means back up any data first just in case (as the chkdsk operation might point out hardware issues).

----

Storage devices and safe disconnect: My rule of thumb is to safe-disconnect any drive that I've written data to.

 

[pclaptop23hour]

Thanks all for the replies. I was also given advice NOT to attempt data recovery by way of the USB port??? This is a very thin (less than 8mm thick) drive that looks like it is factory sealed. if I attempt to open it, even with great care, the possibility of damage to the hard drive is high! There are no screws, so it is a "snap fit" of some sort.

So at this point copying all data that is recoverable to a temp storage unit, and either reformat or get a new drive seems to be the way to go.

thansk again