HELP!!! External USB HD NTFS notworking unplugged on mac

Hey fellow Geeks I hope you can help I'm so freaked out right now I can't really think straight so I'm asking for help! ... OK so here's the problem.. a few days ago my external USB HD stopped being recognized by my PC.. why well we have the reason.. but first a lil background on the drive.. the total capacity is 1TB it has three partitions on it two are fat32 for Linux and swap one 500 gb NTFS.. heres what happened: while the drive was connected to a mac to it was disconnected not unmounted.. now it is not working... both the mac and PC cannot see any of the partitions on it... I've tried a bunch of recovery apps one has shown me that all my files are still there on the lost NTFS partition.. but instead of restoring the partition all the apps want me to transfer the files off the drive which I have no space for... Is there a way I can fix it without having to transfer all the data off format and transfer it all back? Thanks! -Dream

 

PS I don't care about any of the files on any other partition but the NTFS one!

 

Try Partition Wizard. Use the Recover Partition option and see what partitions it finds on the HD. If it finds the partition, you can double-click it to see the files. If the file list looks OK then you can go ahead and try to restore the partition.

 

Awesome! still waiting for the scan to complete... yet already the three partitions are shown! After the scan is complete will I be able to select all three and restore them?

Maybe we can create a HOW TO sticky from this for the forum.. I think this may be a common problem.. I've tried a zillion other apps as I stated before and this http://majorgeeks.com/Partition_Wizard_Home_Edition_d6175.html was the ONLY one that has worked.. well so far haha .. I'll keep you posted! and Thanks! =)

 

With a lil investigation I found that there is a Mac version of the same software too! http://mac.powerdatarecovery.com/

Any one know of a solution for a Linux based OS?

 

Partition Wizard has a bootable CD available on their website. The download link is buried on this page.

You should be able to recover all three partitions. In fact I think checking the boxes for all three is preferable. (Do me a favor and let me know after you select to recover the partitions and that window closes--then is the Apply button available in the main window or is it greyed out? And do you have to hit that button to finalize the partition recovery? It doesn't say that in the guide but I think I had to do that when I used it.)

 

And the Mac version of the Boot CD is here: http://mac.powerdatarecovery.com/data-recovery-boot-disk.html =)

Soon as the scan finishes I'll post results!

 

Wow, that is taking quite a long time. I know it takes longer than I originally thought. I first tested it on a 20gb drive and it was a 5 minute thing. Then on 500gb drive I realized it took quite a bit longer. I guess on a TB drive it has to go through the whole thing.

You've already invested quite a bit of time so let it finish. But just for future reference (I haven't tested it) I believe once it shows the partitions you want to recover you can hit cancel and you still get taken to the screen asking which ones you want to recover. I've done it that far but didn't actually choose to rewrite the partition table since mine was OK. (If it finds the partitions in 5 minutes then there really is no need to scan the entire disk looking for more partitions.)

One other thought is after you recover the partitions if the drives aren't visible in Windows you may have to assign a drive letter either in P/W or using Disk Management in windows. (Perhaps rebooting or unplugging/replugging the external HD will do this automatically.)

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That link for MAC CD is for the Data Recovery software. I think the P/W boot CD should be able to boot a MAC although I don't know from experience.

The power data recovery software is very good but it works the way you describe in your original post where you have to copy the data to a separate partition or HD.

 

LOL OK I fell asleep so I'm not entirely sure how long it took... after the scan was complete I selected the three partitions and then finish. (which had you not said anything I might have left the app thinking it actually was finished) that brought me back to the main screen where it shows the pending changes.. I clicked apply in the upper left and Yes in the pop up dialogue box to complete the process.. after I found I had to give each drive a letter... I have a bit of cleanup to do but I am able to explore my drive again!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

 

I'm glad you got everything worked out.

I'm surprised the scan took so long. Maybe because of being USB? I used to think partition recovery using Partition Wizard was a quick process but I guess it takes longer than I thought. At any rate the interface is fairly easy to figure out so I think it is a good option for this sort of thing.

Thanks for the detailed descriptions of the screens. It will help others with the process.