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Lost Volume on WD Cavier Green 3TB previously divided into two disks

Tags:
  • Storage
  • Western Digital
  • Computers
  • Green
Last response: in Storage
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October 15, 2014 12:28:59 PM

My 3TB WD drive was originally divided into two "disks" on my old machine, similar to this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/cambot/3tb_zpsa6...

When that computer's motherboard died last week, I swapped the 3TB to a new computer, and the new computer sees the 746GB "disk" as RAW and doesn't see the 2TB "disk" at all ... I've tried to recover the partitions or the data using TestDisk with no luck ... can anyone help?

More about : lost volume cavier green 3tb previously divided disks

a c 943 G Storage
October 15, 2014 1:20:38 PM

It sounds like the 'new computer' doesnt support drives over 2tb or maybe is in IDE mode for the sata ports.
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October 15, 2014 1:23:37 PM

SATA controller mode is in AHCI. And the old computer didn't support drives over 2TB either, that's why I had it split in the first place.

The goal is to recover the data, and re-partition the drive under a GPT table so I can use all 3TB as one disk, partitioned as needed.
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October 15, 2014 5:21:13 PM

I don't remember what program I used to split the drive (it was over two years ago). I didn't have to use any special software to access the data on either drive once it was split - it worked just like normal in Windows Explorer.

Do you think that might be something I can install now to help access the drive?
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a c 943 G Storage
October 15, 2014 5:42:22 PM

I'm thinking you had to use something for testdisk not to see the missing partitions. This drive wasn't an external that was turned into an internal or put into another enclosure was it?
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October 15, 2014 6:13:06 PM

Oh, sorry if I wasn't specific enough - TestDisk SEES the missing partition, but it says it can't recover it.

This was an internal hard drive, and I'm trying to use it like that again. It was never in an enclosure, always connected straight to the motherboard via SATA cable.
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October 16, 2014 8:02:42 AM

I just wanted to update this with the solution I found. I use a program called "Zero Assumption Recovery" that does exactly what it says. It was able to scan the physical drive sector by sector and retrieved all the files on both virtual "disks" because it ignored the fact that they even existed.

For anyone who has a similar problem, here is the link to the program. The full version is not free, but it's worth EVERY cent. http://www.z-a-recovery.com/
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a c 943 G Storage
October 16, 2014 5:26:34 PM

Thank you for the update :-)
ZaR is well known here, we just don't like to recommend the paid stuff until the free stuff doesnt work.
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October 17, 2014 5:35:04 AM

Fair enough. :) 
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