Data recovery from WD 4TB ext USB drive

[labtech]

So the client has their data. I'm sure the deal was probably a corrupted partition (this was not a boot drive).

If the drive shows in Linux, try to get a SMART report first. This is the first hint at getting a clue whether it is mechanical/firmware/bad sectors issue.

Though there are exceptions, if the SMART report is clean, then there is a good chance it is some sort of partition corruption. Never worry about "letter assignment", as 99% of the times a letter won't be assigned, therefore the process will require using data recovery software.

 

[britechguy]

The ones I can get to even buy an external, Make macrium images monthly.

That's about the same frequency I recommend. My statement is "make a regular backup, once a month, and if you do something like uploading your around the world vacation photos that you can't lose, take one off-schedule then. If you do anything where you'd want to kill yourself were you to lose it or have to do it over again, take one off-schedule then."

 

[fincoder]

I was able to get HDD SuperClone to clone the drive on Linux

Was the drive visible in Disk Management in Windows before you tried Linux? I asked that and you didn't respond.

through the USB interface

USB interface is fine for data recovery using software methods.

But here's what I don't understand. Why could there not be an adapter from USB to Sata with the necessary logic to do the conversion in the same way that you can go from Sata to USB with an adapter that also has the required logc built into it.

Not needed for software-based data recovery methods. Only specialist data recovery labs need to worry about that.