Solved Win 8.1 x64 and raw file system on external USB drive

[speedlever]

Update: miracles still happen!

By chance, I ordered a new USB3 enclosure cooled by a fan... thinking that regardless whether or not I rescued her files, and/or the drive itself was good/bad, she was going to need another enclosure and maybe a new HD So I bought a Startech USB3 enclosure:
Amazon.com: StarTech.com 3.5in SuperSpeed USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Enclosure w/ Fan: Electronics

The new enclosure just arrived and on a whim, I plugged her problematic drive into the new enclosure, connected it to her USB3 port on her Win 8.1x64 laptop, and the drive powered up, was recognized, and all files were intact. I am now in the process of uploading her photos to my Amazon Cloud account (free unlimited photo backup!). That will probably take much of the day... unattended!

Apparently, the old enclosure (USB3) had a hardware problem when it failed (would not power up). When I plugged the drive into my spare USB2 enclosure, I saw the same problem... raw file system, unreadable... as depicted upthread. Same when connected to an external USB 2 dock that accommodates both 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives.

But when I plugged the drive into the new USB3 enclosure, the full 3TB capacity was recognized and all files appear intact. Go figure.

jumanji? Any thoughts on why this seems to have resolved itself by switching to a new USB3 enclosure?

The failed drive/enclosure was a Seagate Backup Plus 3TB USB3 device. The enclosure I used was a NexStar-3 with USB2/esata interface. And the save-the-day hero is a new StarTech USB3 enclosure with a fan.

Edit: a little history on the bad backup drive. After we first got it, the backup drive was unreliable when connected to the USB3 port on her laptop. It would connect for a few minutes, then lose the connection. I never did figure out what the problem was as the device worked reliably when connected to the laptop's USB 2 ports. I figured the laptop must have a driver issue or something, even though it was running the latest drivers.

The new enclosure/drive has been running for a couple of hours now connected to the USB 3 port on the laptop and no issues to report. I have to wonder if the original backup drive was flaky from the get-go.

 

[jumanji]

Glad Your problem is resolved.

Right from the moment TestDisk still showed problems even after changing the sector size to 4096, I was doubting your enclosure. ( It was showing Heads/cylinder mismatch 64 instead of normal 255 and sectors/track mismatch 32 instead of normal 63) That is why I wanted it to be directly hooked up as an internal drive doing away with that undesirable dock. We have by many user experiences learnt that older docks were always problematic. ( I don't have any dock, external enclosure or even a >2TB drive .) A direct connection also might have brought your drive alive.

If Test Disk still showed heads/cylinder mismatch and sectors/track mismatch I would have advised changing the geometry again - heads/cylinder and sectors/track - to try and get the data out. Anyway you did a good thing trying out in a new enclosure which instantly resolved your problem. I am glad that I need not scratch my head. In the last three months it has turned more grey.

Please post a screenshot of how your 3TB external drive looks now. ( the very first screen when you launch the application)

 

[speedlever]

Thanks for all the help jumanji. I appreciate it, even if the fix was something else entirely... which still puzzles me. Regardless, I can't argue with success.

Next project is to track down a random BSOD on her laptop.
http://www.eightforums.com/bsod-crashes-debugging/70779-random-bsod-lenovo-y500-win-8-1x64.htm

And for your viewing pleasure: (!)

 

[jumanji]

Oh! I forgot to mention. I wanted to see the Partition Wizard screenshot - not TestDisk or anyother .

 

[speedlever]

And here ya go:

 

[jumanji]

OK, good. All your drives are MBR drives.

Now save the important sectors, the MBR sector Sector 0 and NTFS boot sectors (Volume Boot Record/ Partition Boot Record)
using the appropriate bit version of Bootice. In case the MBR gets corrupted or Partition Table gets corrupted ( both are in Sector 0) and your drive becomes inaccessible due to these, simply by restoring this sector from the back up can resolve the issue in most cases.

Lost partitions! Solved - Windows 7 Help Forums

Benefits of GPT vs MBR Primary and MBR Logical Partitions ? Solved - Page 3 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Benefits of GPT vs MBR Primary and MBR Logical Partitions ? Solved - Page 3 - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[speedlever]

OH goody! More homework.

I'll hafta read up on the usage of Bootice. I have not heard of that before.

Thanks for the tips!