How to fix corrupted NTFS

Question

I was trying to backup my linux box (ext4) into an external NTFS HDD using rsync I got some failure errors and then I deleted the backup on External HDD using "rm -r" & "rm -rf" which was not able to delete all files/DIRs and there was some weird sounds coming out of HDD after this process (even if it was not mounted {Yes, I could still mount it} ) this happend couple of times (re-backup and delete again) then I pluged the device into an MS-Windows and tried "chkdsk /f" which fixed the sound issue and created some folders/files named "found.000 to found.999" (I was not able to see them on windows even with the hidden option enabled) it was somehow a recovey of what I had tried to get rid of with rm -rf and at the end I decided to remove all found.000-999 folders using on linux with rm -rf.

Now neither on windows nor on linux Im not able to mount it, I can see the device using diskmgmt.msc on windows and using lsblk/fdisk on linux before the disaster it was an one partition HDD now its divided to 4-5!

However Its VERY IMPORTANT/VITAL to save the data

Here is some output

# fdisk -l /dev/sdc

Disk /dev/sdc: 1.8 TiB, 2000365289472 bytes, 3906963456 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x6e697373

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  ?    1936269394 3772285809 1836016416 875.5G 4f QNX4.x 3rd part
/dev/sdc2  ?    1917848077 2462285169  544437093 259.6G 73 unknown
/dev/sdc3  ?    1818575915 2362751050  544175136 259.5G 2b unknown
/dev/sdc4  ?    2844524554 2844579527      54974  26.9M 61 SpeedStor

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

,

# ntfsfix -d /dev/sdc
Mounting volume... ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x00000000  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 0  usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
Record 0 has no FILE magic (0x0)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x00000000  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 0  usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
Record 0 has no FILE magic (0x0)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Input/output error
Checking for self-located MFT segment... ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x00000000  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 0  usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
OK
ntfs_mst_post_read_fixup_warn: magic: 0x00000000  size: 1024   usa_ofs: 0  usa_count: 65535: Invalid argument
Record 0 has no FILE magic (0x0)
Failed to load $MFT: Input/output error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.

THANKS

Solution

I found a great opensource tool called testdisk & followed this tutorial AND YES It put a fresh spirit upon the HDD

Comments

[Tetsujin]

Looks like the drive died. Time to trash it & recover from backup. 'Weird sounds' is never a good sign.

[user]

Hi Mirkan. It's good that you were able to recover your data, but we try to make answers here self-contained. Links are great for additional information but should not be required to understand what the answer is talking about; the linked page may be changed, or removed entirely. Can you incorporate the relevant information from the linked page, such that this answer will still be useful if the linked pages change?

[user]

Also, I agree with what Tetsujin wrote in a comment on the question; "weird sounds" coming from a hard drive is never a good thing. I would very strongly encourage you to (1) replace that HDD with a new one, while it is working and you are able to get your data off it, and (2) get proper backups in place so you don't have to go through something similar again the next time a drive fails for you.