External Hard Drive showing as RAW, how fix without format?

Max55gamerX

Distinguished
Apr 23, 2010
26
0
18,530
I have a external Toshiba 3TB that fell onto the floor.

TOSHIBA
DWC 130 3TB
P/N: HDWC130XK3J1
FAC: PF
DC+12v ... 2.0A 04/15


The drive hit on the side where the SS USB cable plugs in. It bent the metal on the plug. I was able to bend it back. So I plugged it back in. The drive seemed to be working fine. It was working ok for a few days.

Then the drive was clicking, it was just on. The drive was not be utilized. The pattern was something like this:

click..............20secs later.... click..............20secs later....
click..............20secs later.... click..............20secs later....
click..............20secs later.... click..............20secs later....

Windows 10 then wanted to play "hide n seek". Windows notifies that the drive is added, then it leaves, comes back, etc.

I tried to scan it, and Windows 10 froze/crash. The only way to unfeeze Windows 10 was to restart or unplug the USB from the Hard Drive.

I removed the hard drive from the enclosure, sealed it inside ziplocks and put it in the freezer overnight. The next day I tried a drive dock. Windows10 seen my hard drive. When I try to access it, I get this message:

You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it.
Do you want to format it?
[Format disk][Cancel]

So I downloaded ISOs and burned Linux Live DVDs for:

Ubuntu
Zorin
Peppermint
LinuxMint (Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce)
Mageia (Gnome, Plasma, Xfce)

I booted the Ubuntu and it did see the external hard drive.

Zorin & Mageia Gnome both showed my hard drive as this:

375 GB Partition 1 / unknown
2.6TB Free Space
Partition Type: HPFS/NTFS (Bootable)
Contents: Unknown

LinuxMint Xfce also showed my hard drive but with this difference:
Partition Type: HPFS/exFAT/NTFS (Bootable)

LinuxMint Mate seen my Toshiba Hard Drive but listed it as: unknown size/type/volume?

While the others didn't help at all. Well I couldn't find what I needed.

I seen options for repartitions, fix partition, clone partition, copy partition, etc. If I could move it to another external hard drive it would be great. But the very least I would like to be able to see the files on it.

How do I go about getting Linux to be able to recognize the partition and read it?
What steps do I take?
The hard drive is being shown as RAW.
How do I save the information on this hard drive?


 


Seems like the drive is dying. Not much you can do about that. If you have data on there that you need send it to a certified data restore company.

Always have at least one backup of your data.