4TB MBR Drive with data in it, convert to GPT question

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shadowz01

Commendable
Feb 20, 2016
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1,510
I was running a 4tb seagate expansion external drive, but the enclosure is dead. I connected the drive directly to the motherboard and found out it is MBR with a partition of 465.75GB (unformatted) and 3.18TB Unallocated.

The thing is the drive used to be only one partition of 4tb and had about 2TB data in there... so if I use those partition softwares to convert it to GPT will I lose the data in there?

(I could see the files and read it as one partition if I use it with seagate enclosure, but if I connect it directly to my computer it will read as what I said about, 465.75GB(unformatted) and 3.18TB Unallocated.)

Thanks
 
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Boogieman_WD
Hey there, shadowz01.

It's highly possible that you'll lose data if you try to convert to GPT. There are 3rd party tools which offer to do that without you losing any data, but even then it's a bit risky and backing up is always recommended. In your case things are even more complicated as the drive should be GPT, but doesn't show the correct files system and partition when it's out of its original enclosure, that's why I'd suggest that you try to recover your data first.
Try accessing the drive via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if the partition is properly recognized and if you can get to your files. Another option would be to try out data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and...
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, shadowz01.

It's highly possible that you'll lose data if you try to convert to GPT. There are 3rd party tools which offer to do that without you losing any data, but even then it's a bit risky and backing up is always recommended. In your case things are even more complicated as the drive should be GPT, but doesn't show the correct files system and partition when it's out of its original enclosure, that's why I'd suggest that you try to recover your data first.
Try accessing the drive via Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if the partition is properly recognized and if you can get to your files. Another option would be to try out data recovery software: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1644496/lost-data-recovery.html and http://pcsupport.about.com/od/filerecovery/tp/free-file-recovery-programs.htm. If your data is really important and you have no luck with the above mentioned methods, you could always go for professional help, such as a data recovery company.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how it goes.
Boogieman_WD
 
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