Question

Found.000 data issue / Windows no longer seeing HD

Asked by: SmileMagician

Hey all,

There have been many questions about the Found.000 issue with windows checkdisk causing data loss. None of them quite fit my case, so I thought I'd throw my case out there.

I have a 250 GB external drive which was about 50% full of data. I would try some of the hard drive recovery software out there, but Windows does not read the drive at all. It shows Unknown Device in the USB list, but even downloading the drivers from Western Digital does not redisplay the drive.

In other cases of this issue, people still see the data in there found.000 folder (just needs to be renamed or something) but mine appears to be empty. I only know this because when I boot up Ubuntu, it can see the drive, and it only sees the empty Found.000 folder.

Viewing the properties of the drive in Ubuntu shows that 55% of the space is used (like it should), and one isolated incident with my random wallpaper application pulled a wallpaper from the external drive and displayed it correctly, so it makes me think the data is still there and perhaps accessible somehow!

Thank you for any and all help on this.

SmileMagician :)

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Asked On
2008-04-16 at 21:13:36ID23329755
Tags

Western Digital

,

Dual-Option Model

,

External 250 GB

Topics

Computer Hard Drives

,

Backup & Restore Software

,

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
8

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Answers

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-04-17 at 00:32:37ID: 21374907

can't you copy your data with ubuntu?
you can still try the recovery soft, here some links (try more than 1, they work differently)
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/collection/0,collid,1295,00.asp            Free Recovery
http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm                  pc Inspector -free
http://www.runtime.org/                                    GetDataBack
http://www.stellarinfo.com/                                    Stellar

if you can open the case, the best way is to connect the disk directly to the ide /sata connector

 

by: flubbsterPosted on 2008-04-17 at 05:41:34ID: 21376320

I agree with pulling it out of the case if possible and connecting it as a slave in your pc. If you can do that, and you have the space available on your primary drive, you may be able to pull your data off by booting into safe mode w/command prompt. In the command prompt, you may be able to see any available folders/files better. Once there, you can use xcopy to copy the data that you want from it.

 

by: SmileMagicianPosted on 2008-04-17 at 09:33:22ID: 21378912

Okay, theres been some small progress! With further fiddling, Windows is now detecting the drive.  Right clicking it in My Computer > Properties says the File System is RAW and shows the used and free space at 0 bytes.

So now, I'm trying all the softwares and seeing what they come up with now that they can find the drive. Am currently running GetDataBack (though it costs $70 to actually save the recovered data, ack!)   Will update as soon as its finished!  (says it may take couple hours).

Also, unless I'm mistaken, the external drive is all one unit, and couldn't be connected by IDE.  Here is a photo:   http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/files/detail/western_wd2500.jpg

Thank you so much guys, I will post back as soon as I've got something new!

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-04-17 at 09:36:54ID: 21378951

i gave some links to free recovery too

 

by: flubbsterPosted on 2008-04-17 at 09:55:02ID: 21379093

Typically, you can open the cases of most USB external drives. Inside, there is usually a usb to ide converter and the drive itself can be removed.

 

by: SmileMagicianPosted on 2008-04-19 at 14:49:18ID: 21394049

Success success! I tried probly 7 or 8 different softwares, both freeware and not, and the one that finally worked for me was Testdisk, located here http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk  

Its quick and easy, finding all the lost files and allowing me to copy them any place I chose. Definitely worthy of a donation for a free bit of software!  =)

One last question, which Filesystem would you guys recommend using once I reformat my external drive for dual booting Windows and Ubuntu?

 

by: nobusPosted on 2008-04-19 at 23:27:42ID: 21395183

nowadays,  i prefer NTFS

 

by: SmileMagicianPosted on 2008-04-19 at 23:47:21ID: 31449625

Thanks a lot guys, I appreciate your help!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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