Thanks for the update. I would have followed the advice in the second post in this thread. It is similar to what I tell my clients.
Failing that it is time to seek professional help. And it makes sense - for if you need guidance getting this far, you need a pro-level service to recovery your data.
I used to do data recovery, and made out like a bandit with each job. But I found advising on backups & prevention more rewarding and the pay nearly as great. Common theme is no one thinks about backups till it’s too lake and something like this happens.
1st tier support is pretty bad across the board when it comes to consumer electronics. Everything is scripted and can only solve the most basic problems.
Also, regarding backups, any drive can fail at any time from any manufacturer. I’ve had WD disks, Seagate disks, Fujitsu, Hitatchi, and others go bad on me over the years. When they do I make use of the warranty and that’s that. I fall back on my own insurance plan, a 2nd copy. Done and done.
I don’t like the “hidden” partitions with pre-installed software either. I like a basic bare drive - so I prefer the Elements series of drives. They fit my style of working much better, and there’s nothing to get in the way. I hope they don’t go changing a good thing into a bad thing.
