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Format WD External Hard Drive

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(@computermonster)
Posts: 4
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My WD external hard drive got disconnected from its power cable when it was processing data. Windows explorer was showing drive in My Computer but was not able to access data. Testdisk was able to detect directory structure but was showing MFT, MFTMirror, MBR and MBR backup as bad. I wrote Testdisk MBR and MBR backup on it. Testdisk is not showing any directory structure on this data now but detecting drive at correct capacity.

Diskmgmt can delete volume but cannot format it. I want to do quick format not full format. I am on Windows 7 and my WD drive is password protected.

 
Posted : 15/03/2019 7:14 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

My WD external hard drive got disconnected from its power cable when it was processing data. Windows explorer was showing drive in My Computer but was not able to access data. Testdisk was able to detect directory structure but was showing MFT, MFTMirror, MBR and MBR backup as bad. I wrote Testdisk MBR and MBR backup on it. Testdisk is not showing any directory structure on this data now but detecting drive at correct capacity.

Diskmgmt can delete volume but cannot format it. I want to do quick format not full format. I am on Windows 7 and my WD drive is password protected.

Why? ?

I mean, you should try to recover data BEFORE making further "damages" (in the sense of ANY non-reversible change to the hard disk contents), and once you have recovered the data (hopefully) there will be no difference in practice between a "quick" and a "full" format.
BESIDES a sudden power cut-off may have (improbable but possible) compromised the actual disk drive working that should thus be verified/checked with the manufacturer tools before being put back into operation.

There are no particular issues in correcting/rebuilding the MBR (or the PBR, normally there isn't any "MBR backup", whilst NTFS does hold a backup copy of the first sector of the $Boot aka the PBR or bootsector), but re-building a correct $MFT "incipit" (which is what the $MFTmirror actually is) might be more complex.
There are however tools that usually can access a NTFS filesystem with the first few sectors of the $MFT corrupted.

jaclaz

 
Posted : 15/03/2019 8:53 pm
(@computermonster)
Posts: 4
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Topic starter
 

I have already deleted volume. Now drive has unallocated space.

Data recovery of 1 TB might take 60 days.

I want to do simple format because GetDataBack might recognise tree structure just as it did before.

How can I do simple format when windows cannot do it.

Drive must have not been damaged due to power disconnection because all softwares ere able to read data tree until I wrote MFT, MFTMirror, BootSector, Backup BootSector, and MBR with TestDisk.

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 3:16 am
(@mscotgrove)
Posts: 938
Prominent Member
 

NEVER change anything on the original disk

If you want to format a disk, make a sector by sector copy first, or equivalent image file, eg DD,or E01

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 3:21 am
(@computermonster)
Posts: 4
New Member
Topic starter
 

I have already written TestDisk MFT, MFTMirror, Boot sector, Boot sector backup, and MBR on it. I have also deleted volume.

Data on that disk is not that important.

I want to do quick format (just in case I might recover some data afterwards) but windows cannot do it.

How can I do quick format?

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 8:31 am
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

I have already written TestDisk MFT, MFTMirror, Boot sector, Boot sector backup, and MBR on it. I have also deleted volume.

All of those, though inappropriate actions, can still be reversed, allowing the recovery (hopefully) of the filesystem.

Data on that disk is not that important.

Then use the manufacturers tool to test the disk and do a full format.

I want to do quick format (just in case I might recover some data afterwards) but windows cannot do it.

It makes NO SENSE WHATEVER to DAMAGE the disk contents and thus reduce the possibilities of recovery.

And no, if you make a quick format, and reuse the volume, and use GetDataBack and then cry and stamp your feet (all the times you want) you won't be able to recover anything (if not by directly carving the sectors that by pure chance have not been overwritten).

How can I do quick format?

That is the "wrong" question, you can normally do a quick format, so (if you really-really want to do a quick format) the question is
Why Windows won't allow me to quick format?

And the answer may be in the particular setup you have (password protection of the hard disk, but how exactly it is password protected?) or in the possibility that the hard disk has been partially damaged.
In both cases you need to use the manufacturer tools/diagnostics to verify that the device is functional and possibly - due to the hard disk password protection - use as well the manufacturer tools to partition/format.

In any case, if you deleted the volume, you cannot format it (quick or not quick) so you need first to recreate the volume and then attempt to format it.

What is the actual result (feedback/error message) of opening a command prompt (assuming that the volume is mounted with drive letter Y\) and issuing the command?
format Y /FSNTFS /Q /X

Data recovery of 1 TB might take 60 days.

Not really.
In theory it may take 60 minutes or less OR it may take 60 years (please read as "forever") OR be totally and utterly impossible.

In the real world it will take a few hours to make an image of the disk and usually less that 1 hour to correct/fix the filesystem, then a few more hours to copy the recovered data to another media.
At the most 12-24 hours, of which the most part will be with the device unattended (making an image and copying recovered data).

jaclaz

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 12:33 pm
(@computermonster)
Posts: 4
New Member
Topic starter
 

I get the error Format did not complete successfully.
I had selected NTFS Quick Format from Diskmgmt.msc
I did not try DOS command.

But, now TestDisk and PhotoRec are showing following result

Did my disk get formatted?

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 2:36 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

There is some terminology issues/misunderstandings and also some other difficulties in exchanging info.

A "disk" cannot be formatted.
A "disk" can only be partitioned.
A "partition" (or "volume" which is the same thing if the partition is primary) can be formatted.

I understand that

I get the error Format did not complete successfully.
I had selected NTFS Quick Format from Diskmgmt.msc
I did not try DOS command.

And that is EXACTLY the reason why I suggested you to try using the command line (and NO, it is NOT DOS).

But - somehow - the partition containing the volume is not marked as being NTFS, since TESTDISK shows it as being a Primary (good) FAT16 bigger than 32 MB (how the heck this happened?), which should mean that the Partition ID in the partition table is either 0x06 or 0x0E
https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html

So, the very first thing you need to do is to verify the above, and, if this is the case, set the proper partition ID (0x07) in the MBR partition table.

You can use *any* hex/disk editor for this.

You could try using DMDE (which is also an excellent recovery tool, though not exactly aimed to someone which is not already familiar with the concepts involved and with NTFS), since it costs nothing
https://dmde.com/

Regardless the partition ID you now have, a scan of the disk (physicaldrive) with it might (or might not) be able to find the partially deleted/overwritten/messed with NTFS volume and hopefully recoverable data.

jaclaz

 
Posted : 17/03/2019 3:04 pm
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