Problem saving currupted data from one exHD to another using Photorec

What is the output of:

sudo fdisk -l

Thanks

Thanks for getting back to me.
After entering sudo fdisk -l (with both external HD's connected), I got the following:

siddartha@siddartha-Lenovo-G575:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for siddartha:
Disk /dev/sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x000a8541

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 617582591 617580544 294.5G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 617584638 625141759 7557122 3.6G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 617584640 625141759 7557120 3.6G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary. (this line is in red!)

Disk /dev/sdb: 465.8 GiB, 500107859968 bytes, 976773164 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: 0xda1b8a5e

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 976773163 976771116 465.8G c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 1.8 TiB, 2000398931968 bytes, 3907029164 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: 0xa8f842a0

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1 206848 3907024064 3906817217 1.8T 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
siddartha@siddartha-Lenovo-G575:~$

OK, we can see a 2Tb partition as /dev/sdc1

If you grab another 2Tb drive then you can use foremost to attempt to recover data from it. You will lose filename information and location but you may get partial or full files back. If a file has had part of its information written over with new data then it is gone.

Is there no backup of the data? Restoring the data will ensure the data is pristine and definitely restorable.

Thanks.
It is the 500GB drive (showing above as 465.8 GiB) that I am attempting to save to the 2TB drive.
But the 2TB drive does not show up on the destination options when I tried to recover the data.
(You have recently resolved my problem of it clogging up my laptop hard drive when I tied before, but now it seems to want to save onto my laptop again!)
Please can you tell me the code to save it to the 2TB (USB drive) rather than my laptop?
Please bear in mind that I am a novice regarding these things...

sudo apt-get install foremost; clear

Then what is the output of:

mount

Thanks

Do I enter the "sudo apt-get install foremost; clear" at the point when Photorec gives the options for a save destination?
The output is mp3's & avi's,
Please excuse my ignorance.

The command I gave to install foremost is just that. The clear command is to remove confusion. We need the output of the command to see the folder we need to output the found data to.

After installing 'foremost' all I got was the following:

Some text missing from Terminal then:

  ogmtools paps python-poppler python-pypdf python3-brlapi python3-louis
  python3-pyatspi python3-speechd qstat qtdeclarative5-accounts-plugin
  rtmpdump scummvm-data snap-confine synfig-examples ubuntu-core-launcher
  unity-webapps-qml whoopsie-preferences youtube-dl
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed
  foremost
0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 0 to remove and 8 not to upgrade.
Need to get 42.6 kB of archives.
After this operation, 138 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe i386 foremost i386 1.5.7-6 [42.6 kB]
Fetched 42.6 kB in 0s (281 kB/s)
N: Ignoring file 'getdeb.list.bck' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension
Selecting previously unselected package foremost.
(Reading database ... 1448492 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../foremost_1.5.7-6_i386.deb ...
Unpacking foremost (1.5.7-6) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up foremost (1.5.7-6) ...
N: Ignoring file 'getdeb.list.bck' in directory '/etc/apt/sources.list.d/' as it has an invalid filename extension

siddartha@siddartha-Lenovo-G575:~$

I'm not sure now about what 'mount' notice to post....

Then run:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/getdeb.list.bck

It will remove the warning.

Run:

mount

What is the output please?

Sorry for delay - had to go to Doctors.

siddartha@siddartha-Lenovo-G575:~$ mount
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=1843544k,nr_inodes=205153,mode=755)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=372444k,mode=755)
/dev/sda1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro,data=ordered)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /run/lock type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,size=5120k)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (rw,mode=755)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,xattr,release_agent=/lib/systemd/systemd-cgroups-agent,name=systemd)
pstore on /sys/fs/pstore type pstore (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/memory type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,memory)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpuset type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpuset,clone_children)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/perf_event type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,perf_event,release_agent=/run/cgmanager/agents/cgm-release-agent.perf_event)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/freezer type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,freezer)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/hugetlb type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,hugetlb,release_agent=/run/cgmanager/agents/cgm-release-agent.hugetlb)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu,cpuacct type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,cpu,cpuacct)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/devices type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,devices)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/pids type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,pids,release_agent=/run/cgmanager/agents/cgm-release-agent.pids)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls,net_prio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,net_cls,net_prio)
cgroup on /sys/fs/cgroup/blkio type cgroup (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime,blkio)
systemd-1 on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type autofs (rw,relatime,fd=23,pgrp=1,timeout=0,minproto=5,maxproto=5,direct)
mqueue on /dev/mqueue type mqueue (rw,relatime)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw,relatime)
hugetlbfs on /dev/hugepages type hugetlbfs (rw,relatime)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw,relatime)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,relatime)
cgmfs on /run/cgmanager/fs type tmpfs (rw,relatime,size=100k,mode=755)
tmpfs on /run/user/1000 type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,size=372444k,mode=700,uid=1000,gid=1000)
gvfsd-fuse on /run/user/1000/gvfs type fuse.gvfsd-fuse (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=1000)
/dev/sdb1 on /media/siddartha/2286-1507 type vfat (ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,showexec,utf8,flush,errors=remount-ro,uhelper=udisks2)
/dev/sdc1 on /media/siddartha/TOSHIBA EXT type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096,uhelper=udisks2)
siddartha@siddartha-Lenovo-G575:~$

OK, we'll use:
 /media/siddartha/TOSHIBA

As the output folder. This is the mount point of the 2Tb partition. You should run:

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

To unmount it.

You can then run the below 2 commands:

mkdir /media/siddartha/TOSHIBA/recovery

sudo foremost -i /dev/sdb -o /media/siddartha/TOSHIBA/recovery

This will work through the drive and attempt to recover data. It will take a while but let it bake. You can see files in the recovery folder.

When the prompt comes back under the foremost command then it is done

Hi,
I have been running your suggested foremost recovery for over 40hrs now.
Something seems to be happening to the Toshiba drive so I guess it is working.
I know that you said it would take a while, but....
Is this usual for a recovery of about 400GB of data? (approx. 10GB per hour - so far)

Let it bake. A good backup regime completely removes the need for any of this.....

Thanks. I'll keep it in the oven.
The external HD that was corrupted (by an Android device trying to re-format it) was a back-up of extensive data too large to keep on my lap-top. But after this incident I will keep a double back-up, thanks.

Well, after 125 continuous hours it has finally finished baking.

The Toshiba external hard drive, that I hoped to recover the data onto, is still empty of the recovered data.

However.....there is a TOSHIBA folder now on my laptop under siddartha, which contains:

4 Binary (application/octet stream) files: named - exe, gif, pdf & png
Plus one audit.txt file

All these files are admin-only accessible.

My worry now, after such a long time, is that the external hard drive, which I was trying to recover the data from, only contained mp3 and avi files, so I am not sure that the job has been done (and, if it has, then it is not accessible).

If you use the chown command, you can make your user the owner of the data. Root made the data so it is therefore root owned.

If you can give the full path of the data, I can give a command.

The files in the folder are the ones recovered by foremost. Each folder name is the 3 character extension of the files in the folder.

Please excuse my pensioner ignorance, but I do not know the full path of the data, nor how to find it (siddhartha/TOSHIBA?).

I am still worried that the mp3 & avi files (the only files that existed on the corrupted HD) are not showing up on the outcome of running foremost.

Is it worth continuing along the exe, gif, pdf & png route, as I'm not convinced that they originate from the corrupted HD?

I think the full path may be: media/siddhartha/TOSHIBA

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

I would still like help in recovering the data from a corrupted 500GB External Hard Drive to another 2TB External Hard Drive if anyone knows how this can be done?

But please bear in mind my ignorance of using the Terminal, so I need clear commands to copy & paste.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.