I have previously used an old hard drive as ‘storage’ on an Android TV box.
I had to reset the box and now the hard drive has to be re-formatted in order to become usable again.
However, I need to get a lot of movies off the hard drive before doing that but the problem is it was formatted by Android as an ‘EFI System’ Partition which does not ‘open’ or show its contents in either Windows, Android or Linux on my laptop.
Are there any linux programmes (except Photorec) that might do the job?
Otherwise, is there a linux terminal ‘command’ that will guarantee access to that EFI partition and enable me to remove the files intact?
First off: please tell us about your Linux system - as much as possible: it’s best to prepare for posting by reading http://linuxforums.org.uk/index.php?board=209.0 where you will find much useful info that will help people to advise you. You will find also on the Forum page a link to Forum Rules - please read that also.
As I understand it, EFI is platform independent so ought to be readable, but I’m no expert.
If you are attaching the offending HDD to your computer as an external device, then try this in a terminal to see if the system can see it:
df -h | grep "media"
If that shows your attached drive, then change to the directory listed (“/media/david/…” or whatever) and issue the command
I have no experience with EFI file systems myself, but if Keiths suggestion doesn’t bear any fruit, it may be worth looking at something like “Hirens Boot CD”. I’ve used this for similar tasks in the past. It’s a collection of freeware on a bootable image. While I see there is a new 64bit version, I’ve only used the old (and much smaller) version 15.
Re: Keith: I use Upup 2019 version (puppy linux) on an old laptop. The problem drive is a Hitachi SATA hard drive 80gb which I have previously been using as a large USB storage device on a Droid (Android) TV Box. The files I am wanting to retrieve were on /dev/sdb2 but it appears they may have disappeared for good.
I have tried all the commands that have been suggested so far. The output is listed below:
[i]# df -h | grep “media”
fdisk -l /dev/sdb
The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
Disk /dev/sdb: 74.5 GiB, 80026361856 bytes, 156301488 sectors
Disk model: HTS541680J9SA00
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: gpt
Disk identifier: A00ABF37-421A-489C-915A-95A51CB536B7
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 34815 32768 16M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 34816 156301454 156266639 74.5G EFI System
It certainly doesn’t look promising. Good luck with the “hirens” - it’s beyond me - and it might be your best bet for retrieving files.
If you can’t bear to lose the files then there are companies that specialise in file retrieval, although the cost might not be trivial.
I web-searched for “companies retrieve files from broken hard drives” and found lots of DIY advice and specialist companies, so you might get some ideas there if all else fails.
The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
Disk /dev/sdb: 74.5 GiB, 80026361856 bytes, 156301488 sectors
Disk model: HTS541680J9SA00
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: gpt
Disk identifier: A00ABF37-421A-489C-915A-95A51CB536B7
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 34815 32768 16M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 34816 156301454 156266639 74.5G EFI System
mkdir /mnt/EFI
mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/EFI
mount-FULL: /mnt/EFI: special device /dev/sdb2 does not exist.
cd /mnt/EFI
ls
re: SeZo reply of 5 Feb 2022
fdisk -l /dev/sdb
The primary GPT table is corrupt, but the backup appears OK, so that will be used.
Disk /dev/sdb: 74.5 GiB, 80026361856 bytes, 156301488 sectors
Disk model: HTS541680J9SA00
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: gpt
Disk identifier: A00ABF37-421A-489C-915A-95A51CB536B7
Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 34815 32768 16M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 34816 156301454 156266639 74.5G EFI System
parted /dev/sdb print
Error: /dev/sdb: unrecognised disk label
Model: Hitachi HTS541680J9SA00 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:
Thanks again to everyone who has tried to help resolve this problem - I think I will have to accept that the files that I was trying to retrieve are probably gone forever.
Firstly, i’m not sure I’d recommend this if you intend to send the drive to a professional service, but there are options to fix an unmountable drive. Just before you throw the disk in the bin, those may be worth looking at. Many of the aforementioned recovery CDs contain unformatters and disk scanners, which may be able to find your files - they produce a lot out output and you need a similar sized disk to recover to… it’s not quick either… but if you consider the data lost, and the drive scrap - it nay be worth a go.
Just for interest, I have a TV set that has the function to record TV programmes to an external hard drive. However, if after you’ve recorded something you then plug the drive into a PC, you’ll be lucky if it even recognises it, let alone reveal any of it’s contents.
I haven’t figured out the ins and outs of it, what format it’s using or anything else, but I can’t help wondering if it’s all deliberate, perhaps to protect copyright, or something like that? Either way I don’t bother using it, more hassle than it’s worth, and I’ve got other recording equipment.