3TB NTFS Partition gone RAW

[Vis1/0N]

My Seagate 3TB (the infamous ST3000DM001) is now showing as RAW and has lost the filesystem. EASEUS Data Recovery has picked up a small about of files from the file system ( original filenames available ) and is showing the others based on content (File 001.mkv... File xyz.mkv, mp3, pdf, jpg etc).

I had other files in the drive - VMDK and ISO files are not showing in the recovery. Does this mean the EASUS Data Recovery picked up the content based on the disk scan by recognizing the popular file types file signatures and did not pick up the VMDK and ISO files because it cannot recover those files without being designed to recognize them?

With probably 95% of the drive backed I am not too concerned although it would have been nice to know the filenames of the files I did loose.

The other point of note for the 3TB drive : 2.72TiB , 800MB was the recent free space until my last backup to the drive. That means it wrote past the 2TB (or 2Tib). The last time I did this with the drive it went RAW as well. Anyone have any ideas, would it be a MB chipset driver problem or should I suspect the drive?

 

[WAslayer]

Install Hard Disk Sentinel or Crystal Disk Info to get the smart information of the 3TB hard drive.. This will let you know the approximate health if the HDD as such..

As for the filenames, depending on what exactly happened to the filesystem the MFT may have been partially lost or corrupted which is responsible for storing file names.. With that said, I have had an instance where easeus refused to restore files where the file names were present and had to revert to restoring them without filenames..

I can't elaborate on the vmdk and iso files, but your suggestion of popular file types make most sense..

 

[Vis1/0N]

Google led me to http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2023309.

I am running the 3TB of a old external case of that came with a 500MB drive and it leads me to believe that the USB2SATA controller on the external drive was not designed to handles partitions of greater than 2TiB. When I wrote the newer data it wrapped around to the start of the drive where the filesystem is located.

I do have the other 3TB external that is fine.

 

[MrNose]

Google led me to http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2023309.

I am running the 3TB of a old external case of that came with a 500MB drive and it leads me to believe that the USB2SATA controller on the external drive was not designed to handles partitions of greater than 2TiB. When I wrote the newer data it wrapped around to the start of the drive where the filesystem is located.

I do have the other 3TB external that is fine.

The USB to SATA device doesn't care or know about how big the volume is.
Your partition table is bad... that's all.
Run gparted off a live CD and let that run, problem solved.

 

[Sl8er]

Google led me to http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2023309.

I am running the 3TB of a old external case of that came with a 500MB drive and it leads me to believe that the USB2SATA controller on the external drive was not designed to handles partitions of greater than 2TiB. When I wrote the newer data it wrapped around to the start of the drive where the filesystem is located.

I do have the other 3TB external that is fine.

Yup.
Had the same thing happen with an old enclosure.

Sorted the drive out, popped it into the old enclosure and it didn't see the whole drive.
Popped it into a new enclosure and everything was fine.

 

[sajunky]

Google led me to http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2023309.

I am running the 3TB of a old external case of that came with a 500MB drive and it leads me to believe that the USB2SATA controller on the external drive was not designed to handles partitions of greater than 2TiB. When I wrote the newer data it wrapped around to the start of the drive where the filesystem is located.

I do have the other 3TB external that is fine.

Did you partition the drive in external enclosure, or you moved a drive partitioned on SATA PC interface (or a different USB box)? Some USB bridge chips reduce maximum available LBA. Moving partitioned drives to a different interface is a receipe for disaster as partition mapping is changing.

Also read the last post from VVVVV, see if it helps.

It could be also a hard drive developing bad sectors. Scan entire drive for errors.

I read some misleading comments about XP compatibility marking on some USB boxes. It only applies to the partitioning method - sector alligment (a performance issue only). If you re-partition drive yourself, it will change.

A simple safeguard receipe for future:

1. To test USB bridge chip for 3TB compatibility fill-up the drive with zeros using HDAT2. By default HDAT2 writes sector ID's to each LBA location, it will detect overlapping when verifying sectors.

2. Always do partitioning and formating the drive on the destignated interface.

 

[Sammy14]

The USB to SATA device doesn't care or know about how big the volume is.
Your partition table is bad... that's all. homepage here
Run gparted off a live CD and let that run, problem solved.

I've used gparted for a similar issue before and it helped. I would also recommend this. Hopefully you had a backup of important data in cloud storage or a separate disk.

 

[Vis1/0N]

How would I eliminate my PC setup as being the problem? The info out there says there is wrap around (that overwrites the early sectors) due to the USB-SATA bridge, and others say due to the drivers (Intel Rapid Storage Technology) - variables being BIOS, OS, drivers, USB-SATA bridge, and sector size.

I have a 3TB (proper external) that has 800GB free. It is backed up to a 4TB. I could try writing some 200GB of data to it and then I would know to eliminate the drive if this also goes raw. That would be a drastic step.