PLEASE READ THE TOPIC TILL THE END.. I REALLY NEED SOMEONE'S HELP !
Loss of Important Files Due to a Disconnection of an External USB HD During Changing its Partition's Cluster Size On Onetouch 4
Heloo
I have the Maxtor Onetouch 4 external USB harddisk of 500 GBs. It has two partitions, one is 15 GBs, and the other is the rest of the Harddisk's capacity which is I think 461 GBs. Here, I am speaking about the large partition which is Z.
The partition Z's cluster size is 4 KB, the factory setting. After it has become almost full, with nearly 410 GBs of video files, I have decided to change its cluster size to the maximum 64 KBs , because I belive that having the hardisk stuffed with large files (no less than 500 MBs ) makes it better to have a larger cluster size to ease the access of the files. To change cluster size, I used Paragon Partition Manager version 6, and I made sure it gave No warning regards the loss of the files or them getting corrupted.
During applying the cluster size change by Paragon, which was made under Windows XP Pro , SP3, where it wasnt necessary according to Paragon to restart the system to make the changes (because drive Z contains No operating systems ), I said, During applying the change, something happened to the USB connection between the Computer and the Onetouch 4 harddisk nearly in the middle of the process. I heard that sound that you hear when you plug out a usb device off the usb port in the PC, then, in a second, I heard the sound that you hear when the USB is plugged in. Namely, something occured that caused the USB drive to plug in and out very quickly in a second or two.
Here, Paragon Manager showed an error message talking about a connection problem with the USB drive. Later, I have discovered that many of the video files are no longer working. Trying to play them with VLC, Windows Media Player 11, and Windows Media Player Classic (6), the videos (basically AVI-Divx-XviD format) either appear to be playing but no sound or picture, and the video player's slider moves quickly, not matching the real length of the movie, Or the player simply crashes, or Windows Explorer itself crashes.
What I tried to rollback this problem
* I have tried to return the partition to its original state, with 4 KiB of cluster size. For this, I tried Norton (Powerquest's) Partition Magic 8.01, but I get an error during the process. I tried Paragon Partition Manager 9 (first time I used version 6), but it doesnt seem to give me the option to change the cluster size without formatting.
* I used a tool called CDcheck to check the files hashes, where it showed no problem with the files in terms of their hash records, except for some files of the kind NFO, ISO, and MD5, SFV, showing errors because the original files associated with these are non-existent. But it showed no errors with the huge amount of the video files there.
* I tried to defragment the drive, and defragment the MFT, but didnt help.
* I also tried to copy some video files which didnt work to another location on a different local HD. The copying was done suxesfuly, but when trying to play it, the same problem, it crashes.
As I said above, not all the files got corrupt. I didnt examine all of them, but most of them arent working. For your notice, the thing here is not alphabetical, namely, its not that the folders of video files starting with X or W (which come at the end of the alphabetics) are okay, whereas the ones starting with A or B are corrupt. The corrupt files are very random. I could find a corrupt file, and the file that comes directly after it in the alphabetical order is okay and playable. So applying the cluster size change wasnt necessarily done according to the alphabetical order of the files. This might not be useful, but I want you to know all the things I tried to reverse that problem.
What can I do to fix this problem and restore the very precious collection of videos that I no longer have the original DVDs for, and which I have been collecting for long years now ??
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I wish you can Help me out of this misery.
Mouad Khateb
iceq at hotmail co uk
Loss of Important Files Due to a Disconnection of an External USB HD During Changing its Partition's Cluster Size On Onetouch 4
Heloo
I have the Maxtor Onetouch 4 external USB harddisk of 500 GBs. It has two partitions, one is 15 GBs, and the other is the rest of the Harddisk's capacity which is I think 461 GBs. Here, I am speaking about the large partition which is Z.
The partition Z's cluster size is 4 KB, the factory setting. After it has become almost full, with nearly 410 GBs of video files, I have decided to change its cluster size to the maximum 64 KBs , because I belive that having the hardisk stuffed with large files (no less than 500 MBs ) makes it better to have a larger cluster size to ease the access of the files. To change cluster size, I used Paragon Partition Manager version 6, and I made sure it gave No warning regards the loss of the files or them getting corrupted.
During applying the cluster size change by Paragon, which was made under Windows XP Pro , SP3, where it wasnt necessary according to Paragon to restart the system to make the changes (because drive Z contains No operating systems ), I said, During applying the change, something happened to the USB connection between the Computer and the Onetouch 4 harddisk nearly in the middle of the process. I heard that sound that you hear when you plug out a usb device off the usb port in the PC, then, in a second, I heard the sound that you hear when the USB is plugged in. Namely, something occured that caused the USB drive to plug in and out very quickly in a second or two.
Here, Paragon Manager showed an error message talking about a connection problem with the USB drive. Later, I have discovered that many of the video files are no longer working. Trying to play them with VLC, Windows Media Player 11, and Windows Media Player Classic (6), the videos (basically AVI-Divx-XviD format) either appear to be playing but no sound or picture, and the video player's slider moves quickly, not matching the real length of the movie, Or the player simply crashes, or Windows Explorer itself crashes.
What I tried to rollback this problem
* I have tried to return the partition to its original state, with 4 KiB of cluster size. For this, I tried Norton (Powerquest's) Partition Magic 8.01, but I get an error during the process. I tried Paragon Partition Manager 9 (first time I used version 6), but it doesnt seem to give me the option to change the cluster size without formatting.
* I used a tool called CDcheck to check the files hashes, where it showed no problem with the files in terms of their hash records, except for some files of the kind NFO, ISO, and MD5, SFV, showing errors because the original files associated with these are non-existent. But it showed no errors with the huge amount of the video files there.
* I tried to defragment the drive, and defragment the MFT, but didnt help.
* I also tried to copy some video files which didnt work to another location on a different local HD. The copying was done suxesfuly, but when trying to play it, the same problem, it crashes.
As I said above, not all the files got corrupt. I didnt examine all of them, but most of them arent working. For your notice, the thing here is not alphabetical, namely, its not that the folders of video files starting with X or W (which come at the end of the alphabetics) are okay, whereas the ones starting with A or B are corrupt. The corrupt files are very random. I could find a corrupt file, and the file that comes directly after it in the alphabetical order is okay and playable. So applying the cluster size change wasnt necessarily done according to the alphabetical order of the files. This might not be useful, but I want you to know all the things I tried to reverse that problem.
What can I do to fix this problem and restore the very precious collection of videos that I no longer have the original DVDs for, and which I have been collecting for long years now ??
Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I wish you can Help me out of this misery.
Mouad Khateb
iceq at hotmail co uk
