Data Recovery from a USB with exFAT file system that gone RAW

Question

I have a 64 GB USB with exFAT (with 4096 byte Unit Allocation Size) file system. I have connected it to a Bus entertainment system which was running Android to listen my music within. It didn't see my USB and when I get home, I realized it was RAW.

TestDisk showed these partitions before executing searches:

I have tried TestDisk first but both quick search and deep search failed to find any partitions.

I have downloaded and boot Gparted live CD to to rescue data. The only option I was able to try was "Attempt Rescue" which searched the USB for a long time but was not able to find any partition.

I was going to try fixmbr in windows or in TestDisk but I was afraid it will destroy some data that can be recovered with existing mbr table.

I am sorry if this post does not follow any established format or if there was a guide or manual that I should have read but didn't.

Is it possible for me to save my files? or are they gone forever?

If you wish to have more info feel free to ask here.

Solution 1

I was wondering if you had managed to get anywhere with your issue?

I had the same happen to me an hour ago but I found some helpful info here:

http://reboot.pro/topic/16168-ntfs-now-showing-as-raw/

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=50003219

For me, simply using chkdsk :X /F worked.

Solution 2

You can try other software that supports exFAT data recovery to get back files. There are many recovery tools out there on the Internet, thus it's easy to get lost data back if you try sifferent tools. Here is one of those solutions you can try:

Step 1: Connect the storage device where you want to recover data to computer.

Step 2: Run exFAT recovery software PartitionGuru, and select the partition that lost data and click “File Recovery” button.

Step 3: Select “Complete Recovery” on the pop-up window and click “Start” button.

Step 4: Scan and preview files. The recovery software displays files it just finds out and keeps updating file list. When you see files you can start preview files and check file quality. You can easily open files by double click mouse button.

Step 5: Save and recover files. Since you can view files during scanning, you can stop or pause the process your files are found out. Then select these files you want to recover and right-click mouse to choose “Copy”. After that you will asked to set a target folder to save recovered data.

Detailed guide: http://www.eassos.com/blog/exfat-data-recovery/

Comments

[Olli]

Please, when linking, provide useful summary. Those links will be broken sooner or later, and after that this answer is basically useless.

[Emmanuel]

chkdsk :X /F was indeed the easy painless solution to an unreadable 2TB drive I had.