Looking To Restore Files/Space on External Hard Drive in New Enclosure

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Xadryc

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Sep 28, 2015
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Hi there,
A few days ago, I accidentally ripped the USB port out of my Seagate 2TB Hard Drive, so I put it in a different enclosure, but when I plugged it in, it said I needed to format my hard drive. As well, in disk management it only shows 232GB and that there's 1630GB of unallocated space. Is there any way to recover my files and restore the space to my hard drive without formatting? If not, am I able to recover anything after formatting?
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Welcome to the community, Xadryc!

Well, there are third-party data recovery utilities you could try on the external drive but I'd recommend you to check its health and S.M.A.R.T. status first. You can do that by running the tests from your HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool, which you should be able to find on their website.
I'm not sure if you would be able to successfully retrieve your files (without corruption), unless you get the assistance of a professional data recovery company, so I'd advise you to consider it if the data is very important to you. ( http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/291895-32-best-data-recovery-software )

Either way, good luck! Keep me posted with the diagnostic test results!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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Xadryc

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Sep 28, 2015
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Thank you for the quick reply, SuperSoph_WD!

So I downloaded SeaTools and ren my hard drive through a Short Drive Self-Test, a Short Generic Test, and a Long Generic Test.
The hard drive passed the Short Drive Self-Test, but failed the Short Generic test, meaning there might be a bad sector. The Long Generic Test is still going, but that'll take hours to reach a result, but I'll let you know what that result is.
Also I'm taking a look at some of the recovery software and see what I can find. I tried a few and they do find a lot of files in both the seemingly lost 1630GB partition and the actual drive itself. Of course, the ones I've tried require payments to even recover anything, which is less than helpful, but if it's the only way, I'll do what I must to recover it, because it is very important to me.

But thanks! I'll keep you updated as more results emerge!
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi again, Xadryc!

Definitely keep me up-to-date with the test results and more importantly the S.M.A.R.T. attributes which will show how many bad sectors we're dealing with here. However, the fact that it fails one test is enough proof to consider seeking a professional data recovery company for assistance. Unfortunately, you cannot recover/repair bad sectors and thus data from such sectors is very hard to retrieve without any file damages or corruption. Either way, I'd contact your HDD manufacturer's customer support for any data recovery referrals.

Keep me posted though!
Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD
 
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GObonzo

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Apr 5, 2011
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what external housing did you purchase? some of them require drives to be formatted to fit their specifications(RAID, etc). but others are just plug-n-play. also, what type of enclosure did it come from?

i would try taking the HD out of the new enclosure and plugging it directly into the system via SATA. then testing the disk and checking the information on it. you could easily move the important files to a separate disk while it is installed, then do the necessary formatting, then move the information back to disk when it is setup in the new enclosure.
 
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Xadryc

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Sep 28, 2015
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Apologies for the delayed response, but thank you for the reply GObonzo.
Anyway, my hard drive was moved from a standard seagate HDD enclosure which it came in, to an Insignia 3.5" USB 3.0 SATA HDD Enclosure. The USB port on the new enclosure is vastly different from the port on my old enclosure, so might that have something to do with it? Anyway, since I was using a desktop external Hard Drive for a laptop, it wont physically fit into my laptop. I'll have access to my old desktop soon though so I'll give that a try and keep you updated.

Also Supersoph_WD, I have a bit of a problem, because SeaTools doesn't even give me the option for a S.M.A.R.T scan on this external drive, but I know it can because it gives me the option for my laptop's hard drive. So if plugging the drive directly into my desktop shows no results, I'll try asking for a data recovery referral.

But that you both for the replies, and I'll keep you updated on my findings.
 
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