Help: Windows Vista, external harddrive

[Florian1234]

Dear forum, dear computer experts,

I've got a serious problem with my external harddrive (Fujitsu MHV 2100 AH, originally from a laptop, but now in an external housing with usb connection, re-formatted for use on win and mac).

there was a weird sound from the hdd while in use, as if you shut down a laptop via powerbutton instead via Windows software shut down. I put if off the computer, put it back on and then the hdd wasn't recognized by Vista's computer section (where all drives are listed). or not as the original one, but then as local drive (my version is German, so I lack of exact term here).
I thought maybe it would work again on the mac, put it in there and it worked. So I put it back to the Vista machine, but it was only then when I realized that there is a whole set of data missing now.
How does that work? Why is that?
Is there anything I can do now by means onboard in Vista or via freeware? I already run Pandora-Recovery, but that was errenous, too (shut down the program by error after some minutes) and now I'm running Recuva to hopefully get back the stuff.

I backed up, but not in the last two or three weeks (before you stick my nose on this...).

Can you help me with a wise hint? :bang:

 

[greyelm]

Spinrite by Gibson Research Corp has a very good reputation in fixing HDD issues.


https://www.grc.com/intro.htm

 

[maddoc]

It worked on the Mac and the data were there ? You could also try to boot from a USB-stick LINUX and see what LINUX can find on your USB HDD. To me it sounds like the external HDD draws a to high current from the USB bus causing a USB failure (I had something like this happen with a USB 2.0 hub that had a shorted capacitor ...)

 

[Florian1234]

It worked on the Mac and the data were there ? You could also try to boot from a USB-stick LINUX and see what LINUX can find on your USB HDD. To me it sounds like the external HDD draws a to high current from the USB bus causing a USB failure (I had something like this happen with a USB 2.0 hub that had a shorted capacitor ...)

I don't know if all the data was there on the Mac at the first time. When I saw data missing on win, I checked back to Mac and it was missing there, too.

I also think that there's something wrong with the USB ports, too.
But I have no clue how to solve this.

 

[maddoc]

If possible connecting that erroneous HDD to an internal bus SATA would solve any USB/USB-power related problem. Then you could more easily examine what might be wrong with the HDD and if really data are missing. Sometimes only the MBR gets slightly disordered (repairable in LINUX if I remember correctly).

Data usually don`t get lost but the physical addresses where they were located get deleted and the space declared as "free" so it can possibly be overwritten. Data-recovery software would try to find those unassigned data-strings and relocate them to defined addresses to that they can`t be overwritten.

 

[Florian1234]

Gabor, that's not possible for me. 🙁

I ran "Recuva" and now try to recover all files which are marked as not overwritten. that's not much though:bang:

 

[maddoc]

Gabor, that's not possible for me. 🙁

I ran "Recuva" and now try to recover all files which are marked as not overwritten. that's not much though:bang:

Fingers crossed !! I will backup my external HDD additionally to my wife`s new laptop tomorrow... knock on wood ...

 

[Florian1234]

Fingers crossed !! I will backup my external HDD additionally to my wife`s new laptop tomorrow... knock on wood ...

Thanks a lot, Gabor, fingers crossed for you, too!

Now another odd thing happened. After closing Recuva software, at least the most valuable files were back there. But another whole folder was not. Very strange behaviour!!

 

[Highway 61]

Sounds like you could run some malware on this HDD.

I would plug the HDD onto a Mac again, save the files, then plug the HDD on a Windows machine and format it to see what's happening onwards.

 

[MartinP]

Before doing anything else, image the drive to somewhere else. By doing this you will not lose any further data as, if you have a large problem recovering the data from the external drive, you can always write the image back to the drive before trying again - or, better, try to repair the file-system on another copy of the partition.

Note that, in any case, your external drive is no longer trustworthy and should not be used for data storage. The most you can reasonably do is recover what is on there. For using external drives powered from the usb cable, it would be most reliable to use a powered-hub to be sure of getting a reliable 5V/500mA.

 

[Florian1234]

Before doing anything else, image the drive to somewhere else. By doing this you will not lose any further data as, if you have a large problem recovering the data from the external drive, you can always write the image back to the drive before trying again - or, better, try to repair the file-system on another copy of the partition.

Note that, in any case, your external drive is no longer trustworthy and should not be used for data storage. The most you can reasonably do is recover what is on there. For using external drives powered from the usb cable, it would be most reliable to use a powered-hub to be sure of getting a reliable 5V/500mA.

I already had most of the files on an external harddrive with an own power supply.
The usb drive was my main work-drive though, because I can not store stuff on the computer in the office (university, not very trustworthy system etc.). So it's basically "only" about ten to twenty documents that are gone, but that kind of hurts.

I'll format the drive now after recovery of the most valuable files and then it might be time (again) to spent some money on a new one which is working.

Btw, I formated it the first time on the mac to be able to use it on mac and windows. Was that okay?