gpart utility: Can't access USB Hard Drive

[ktas]

No, I was referring to the "gpart" utility which refuses even to scan the drive. I know there was only a single NTFS partition. Repartitioning with fdisk won't lose data?

Uh, you've got a backup image, right? In that case, no, you won't lose any data. Partitioning, especially when there's only one partition involved, only modifies the first 512 bytes of data. Destroying the partition table is kind of like ripping out the table of contents from a book. The chapters are still there, you just don't know how many there are or where they are or how big they are. But if you know there was only one partition and it took the entire drive and it was NTFS, then you can recreate the partition table.

However, if you do not create a backup image first, yes, whatever you do will immediately destroy all hopes of getting any meaningful data off the drive. That rule is called "Murphy's Law" and it holds true whenever there's really important data involved.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

Okay. Thanks so much for the help.