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Thread ID: 144180 2017-08-02 21:43:00 Advice on disc - is it dead? BBCmicro (15761) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1437916 2017-08-02 21:43:00 It's a WD Elements 2TB USB3 portable bought in April 2014

The picture shows attempts to access it in File Explorer

Disc Management says RAW but gives the right capacity.

I've tried different cables and ports, USB2 and USB3
BBCmicro (15761)
1437917 2017-08-02 22:21:00 usually faulty when that happens

if you dont need a data recovery....
You could try formatting it , via disk manger

or diskpart, list disk ,select disk 'x',clean , then use disk manager to partition, initialise & format
1101 (13337)
1437918 2017-08-02 23:33:00 In some enclosures you can remove the drive and connect it directly to your PCs internal ports - I think WD use encryption though so that might not work or it might but you'll be unable to read the data if any is still on there.

I have a 4 bay external drive enclosure I stopped using because it "lost" the same drive a couple of times. Partition disappeared and the drive showed as RAW. Re partitioning and reformatting it got it back both times and it tested fine but I stopped trusting that enclosure and it's sitting on a shelf empty now. The disk however was perfectly fine, it is just some weird glitch in the controller or something that corrupts the partition. Yours may be the drive or it may be the enclosure or it may just be a random corruption, hard to know.
dugimodo (138)
1437919 2017-08-03 06:12:00 Sounds like a corrupted partition table, I'm not sure on the Windows route to repair it as it normally suggests to format it which loses your data, however the method to fix it normally avoids your OS as you would boot into using a disk repair tool. I use testdisk.

What does Disk Management show? Seeing as it's picked up the drive and does not reveal free space or total size still leads me to suspect partition table and not the controller.
Kame (312)
1437920 2017-08-03 09:34:00 There was 2TB of data on it but I have found the backup so will now try formatting the faulty one. The disc spins and there are no clicking noises so some sort of software error gets more probable. There are no partitions, just one big volume

I have also made a backup of the backup but it wasn't easy. SyncBack couldn't read 50-odd files totalling 340GB. Fortunately everything was fine on the second attempt. It might have been caused by retrieving the backup from an unheated room and using it immediately in 20° room?
BBCmicro (15761)
1437921 2017-08-03 10:02:00 The faulty drive formatted fine BBCmicro (15761)
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