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sandeep_8 0 Newbie Poster

I have a really strange situation with my storage device. I would be really grateful if somebody could guide me through this.
System details: Mac mini 2.0 i7 8GB 500GBx2
External storage: My studio Book WD 6TB (inside probably 3TBx2 raid). file format: NTFS
Connected to Mac through Firewire.
intermediate between mac and NTFS: TUXERA NTFS

My 6TB had around 5.4 TB data in it and was running slow. I thought of defragmenting it (which I regret so much now) using stellar disk defrag.

After 3 days of defrag, when it finished with "done" popup, Mac mini didnt show the disk anymore. I restarted my mac and now disk utility gave an error message on startup that "disk utility cant repair your disk, please copy your data if possible and reformat"

  1. I got a panic attack and tried disk utility at least a dozen times to fix it, but didnt get through anywhere.
    read some blogs to understand the problem, volume repair was suggested as the plausible solution.

  2. Disk warrior for mac came to rescue. It started rebuilding the broken file system. after 8 hours of spinning around the disk and many pop ups, finally it repaired. Disk was recognised by Mac. it showed all folders and files back in its place. BUT

  3. I am not able to open any of the files available on the disk. I tried random files and finally I realized that my files have been corrupted internally. i.e. INFORMATION REGARDING NAME OF THE FILE IS SAME BUT THE CONTENT HAS BEEN FRAGMENTED OR JUMBLED AND GOT EXCHANGED WITH OTHER FILES INTERNALLY.

  4. I also realised that now the file system on my external 6TB is not NTFS but HFS+ (native mac format) which might be the reason behind such a mess.

  5. I tried disc recovery from stellar for mac but after 3 days of deep excavation, I dug out same fractured jumbled heap of useless files.

I am not aware whether it is a common problem or people come across such situation often, but for me its a first time in this black hole.

I also tries PC to recover the stuff but that also gave me the same files.

COULD SOMEBODY HELP!!

IS IT POSSIBLE TO SWITCH TO NTFS FORMAT WITHOUT FORMATTING THE DRIVE?

WILL THAT RESTORE THE LOST SYNC BETWEEN INFORMATION HEADERS AND CONTENT IN THE STORED DATA STRUCTURE?

Thanking in advance for at least giving it a reading.

regards
Sunnydez

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Dani AI

Generated

— short, practical guide for what to do next and why.

What likely happened
When file names and folder trees reappear but the contents are wrong, that usually means the filesystem metadata (the table that maps filenames to the actual data blocks — e.g. the NTFS MFT or other allocation structures) was damaged. A utility that “rebuilds” just the directory can restore names but not the original block-to-file mapping, so file contents become scrambled. (studylib.net)
Also note that Mac utilities built to repair Mac filesystems expect HFS+/APFS; they do not reliably repair Windows filesystems and can produce unpredictable results if used on NTFS. (alsoft.com)

Immediate, non-destructive actions
Stop using the drive immediately (no more mounts, copies or repairs) to avoid further writes. Make a full block-level image to a separate drive at least as large as the source — do this before attempting any repairs. GNU ddrescue is the recommended tool because it tries to rescue good blocks first and keeps a mapfile so you can resume safely. Example workflow (run from Linux/macOS terminal with the device unmounted):

# first fast copy (no retries)
ddrescue -n /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/image.log

# then try to recover remaining bad spots (retry 3 times)
ddrescue -d -r3 /dev/sdX /path/to/image.img /path/to/image.log

Read ddrescue documentation and only operate on the raw device; do not attempt repairs on the original disk. (gnu.org)

Recover from the image, not the original
Work against the image file or a copy of it. First try TestDisk to repair NTFS boot sector/MFT and restore directory entries (it is filesystem-aware and can sometimes recover filenames). If that fails, use PhotoRec (file carving) to recover file contents — it often recovers intact files but without original filenames or folder structure. If the data is irreplaceable, stop experimentation and contact a professional recovery lab. (cgsecurity.org)

About “switching” filesystems
You cannot safely convert an NTFS volume into HFS+/APFS in-place to recover lost metadata; conversion typically requires copying data to a new formatted volume or using risky third-party converters. The correct sequence is image → recover data → reformat the disk to the filesystem you need → restore recovered files. (seagate.com)

Summary: image first (ddrescue), attempt filesystem-aware repair on the image (TestDisk), then carve for contents if needed (PhotoRec). If unsure at any step, stop and seek a professional — further writes will reduce recovery chances.

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