Cannot access my external HDD.. Help please

[Shade]

So I had an encrypted folder on my external HDD wich I used an old XP installation to encrypt and then reinstalled it, but I forgot to backup the EFS encryption key, so all my encrypted files are now history.

But that isn't such a big deal, no problem that I can't recover the encrypted files.. .. Screw them.. They wasn't even that important..
But my REAL problem is that I can't DELETE the encrypted folder.. Not even after taking ownership. So I decided to just format the drive, so I booted up on my XP cd and formatted the external harddrive with NFS.

At 99% it said the the format had failed. So I booted back into windows XP and tried to access my harddrive, to see if the encrypted folder were still there.

The drive had changed name from "Bella" (no comments on that please ) to default "Local Disk", and when I tryto access it, it tells me "The disk in H: has not been formatted yet. Should it be formatted?" And I click yes, and start.
and THEN. It tells my the format failed again.
It tells me that it isn't formatted and if it should be, everytime I try to access it.

So my question is, WTF do I do now? What's the next step? I tried to format it, and now I cannot access it, before it's formatted and it fails everytime.

Did I piss on some Packard Bell god's breakfast or something?

[K0LO]

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Go to the drive manufacturer's web site and download any drive testing software. For example, Seagate has SeaTools. Use the software to thoroughly test the disk; it might have bad sectors.

2. If nothing unusual turns up in the disk test then use the software to wipe the drive completely, especially the first few sectors.

3. Use a Live Linux CD (from Ubuntu, Knoppix, or your favorite) to boot into Linux. Use the dd command to wipe the disk:

Code: Select all

dd if=dev/zero of=dev/xxx

where xxx is the external drive device designator. BE CAREFUL to zero only the intended drive!

Afterwards, use Windows to format the drive as NTFS and to give it a drive letter.

[basketb]

Have you tried other disk tools like partition magic?

[Shade]

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Go to the drive manufacturer's web site and download any drive testing software. For example, Seagate has SeaTools. Use the software to thoroughly test the disk; it might have bad sectors.

2. If nothing unusual turns up in the disk test then use the software to wipe the drive completely, especially the first few sectors.

3. Use a Live Linux CD (from Ubuntu, Knoppix, or your favorite) to boot into Linux. Use the dd command to wipe the disk:

Code: Select all

dd if=dev/zero of=dev/xxx

where xxx is the external drive device designator. BE CAREFUL to zero only the intended drive!

Afterwards, use Windows to format the drive as NTFS and to give it a drive letter.

Yes I have my Backtrack 3 USB live version ... So I tried your command:

Code: Select all

bt ~ # dd if=dev/zero of=dev/sdc
dd: opening `dev/zero': No such file or directory

So do I need to change the command or did you type it wrong?

Have you tried other disk tools like partition magic?

Yes, I just sat partiton magic 8.0 to format my hdd, rebooted. Partiting magic started to format... and:
Error 4 while executing batch
Error 4. Bad argument/parameter

More ideas?

[K0LO]

Yes I have my Backtrack 3 USB live version ... So I tried your command:

Code: Select all

bt ~ # dd if=dev/zero of=dev/sdc
dd: opening `dev/zero': No such file or directory

So do I need to change the command or did you type it wrong?

Maybe with your distribution you need to run the command as root. But I just tried it on Kubuntu as a regular (non-root) user (to a dummy file) and got a big file filled with zeros.

Look in the device branch to see if the "zero" device is present in Backtrack:

Code: Select all

cd /dev
ls

[Shade]

Maybe with your distribution you need to run the command as root. But I just tried it on Kubuntu as a regular (non-root) user (to a dummy file) and got a big file filled with zeros.

Look in the device branch to see if the "zero" device is present in Backtrack:

Code: Select all

cd /dev
ls

Seems like it is there:

Code: Select all

ptyb6@       ptys2@  ptyye@  tty52@       ttyp8@  ttyw4@  zero

Also when I try to access my external, /dev/sdc in qtparted it sais:
Critical error during ped_disk_new !
and the freakin' program freezes and crashes.

It's amazing what kind of problems it can cause just by trying to format a harddrive with an encrypted folder on it.

[K0LO]

I'm really surprised that Linux won't zero the drive for you; that's always been a sure thing for me when other techniques fail.

Maybe you could try this tool? DBAN

[basketb]

...

Have you tried other disk tools like partition magic?

Yes, I just sat partiton magic 8.0 to format my hdd, rebooted. Partiting magic started to format... and:
Error 4 while executing batch
Error 4. Bad argument/parameter

More ideas?

If you haven't done so already, then rather than just formatting the existing drive/partition, delete the partition (possibly restart) and create a new partition and then format that partition. If that doesn't work either, then sorry, can't help further.