Hard drive and windows photo viewer issues

Hello,

My hard drive (2TB Seagate expansion desktop drive) is normally connected to my Xbox one and contains all of my games and saves. I then plugged it in to my computer to back up all of my computer files. But did not show in my computer, so i researched on the issue and found the issue was that there was not a 'partition' (followed the video entirely) and the drive was not allocated. So i allocated it to D: drive and thought i had solved the issue.

But then found that i had to format it. I did not format it as i have important data and took to the internet, after trying some things, i found that the data on it was 'RAW'. (by this point i had tried windows support tech team and after 5 attempts gave up.) I also tried different programs such as 'ease us data recovery, find and mount and remo recover. All of which did not work, apart form 'ease us' where partition recovery showed my drive but would take 5 hours to do 1 hour in i read up on what it was and did not sound like what i needed (please correct me if i am wrong.) So i tried Complete recovery but it did not show my drive (tried unplugging it, turning on and off did not work.) So fearing i had lost it all i tried it back in my Xbox, no games 'your external drive needs formatting.) Then i turned here.

Also i like to do photography and editing and when looking though my images found that they had been replaced with black box's. Looked though my old photos the same tried making them read only but no luck, no updates. I saw a issue saying you have to un-install your graphics driver but could not find out how to do so.

Sorry for it being so long and for any possible spelling, punctuation errors. (running Windows 8.1)

Thanks for any help, keiran
 
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I have little experience with RAW files, but I wonder if they can be read after booting with a Linux Live DVD. If they can be read, then all you would have to do is copy them to your PC into a folder of your choice.

If the files have been deleted then you would need a recovery software to retrieve the files. Since Windows is not reading the hard drive, then you might have to do the recovery in Linux.

As for the photos...which software are you using to view the photos? Where are the photos located?
 
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As for the photos...which software are you using to view the photos? Where are the photos located?

I use the default 'Windows Photo viewer' I have also tried 'photos' (windows 8 app) and still no good. They are on a sd card, desktop, pictures and random places on the computer within folders and subfolders.

Could you also please help me on how i could use linux to copy the files. If that does not work what program could i use.

Thanks
 
I use the default 'Windows Photo viewer' I have also tried 'photos' (windows 8 app) and still no good. They are on a sd card, desktop, pictures and random places on the computer within folders and subfolders.

I'm not sure why you can't view the photos with the Windows native image viewer, but try one of these open source titles.

ImageGlass
http://www.imageglass.org/

IrfanView
http://www.irfanview.com/

Could you also please help me on how i could use linux to copy the files.

You will have to download Ubuntu and burn it to a DVD. Plug in your external drive and then boot your PC from the DVD. There will be a menu with various options, pick Try Ubuntu. Don not click Install Ubuntu. After you click Try Ubuntu, the PC will boot from the DVD. After that you can try and access your drive by clicking on the appropriate drive button to the left of your screen. Should be one of the last buttons on the vertical taskbar. If you find your files, then pick a folder on one of the internal drives and copy them to that folder.

Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop
 
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I'm not sure why you can't view the photos with the Windows native image viewer, but try one of these open source titles.

IrfanView
http://www.irfanview.com/

This one works very well and replaces 'file explore' for photos. All works thanks very much.



boot your PC from the DVD.

How would i do this? Im on a windows 8 laptop and no options come up at boot up to allow me to get to the BIOS or anything?
Thanks so much.
 
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One of these keys will get you into BIOS or the boot menu. F1 (BIOS), F12 (boot menu) or the delete key (BIOS). Older laptops sometimes use the F2 key to start BIOS.
 
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Windows 8 is different you need to go to settings and then recovery to get to the BIOS but any way I'm on UBUNTU now and I have my hard drive but I don't know what to do now.

Update I'm making a disk image of the hole hard drive. It will take 1 day 5 hours. Is this correct. Or should I only do the the section with the data on which will take 9 hours.
Thanks
 

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