@Jumanji
"TestDisk" don't require MBR or GPT header to be present. It will find partitions as long as boot sectors are not over written and the disk is healthy.
Another possible obstacle is disk encryption.
@shashank
If the system was not booting at that time, how do you know that all files are in there intact ?.
I had all the files intact untill I ran DISKPART CLEAN
I could use command prompt and D:\dir and view the files! the same was for all other drives. Will perform PartedMagic shortly! Downloading
Test Disk MBR:
Initially I had zeroed Sector 0 . All zeros. ( I do it often with Bootice for all my experiments)
Then I wrote Test Disk MBR.
Now sector O has everything but partition table. The MBR code, Windows Signature and MBR disk signature.It does not have the partition table. That space 64 bytes in all are still 00s. If TestDisk or PW find the sectors with NTFS volume boot record, the sectors will be noted and the partition table will be written in the space assigned to them in the sector 0.
I am off for my afternoon nap.
Since CLEAN command is already issued, first 1 MB and last 2 MB will be already destroyed. We can try writing a new MBR and then a "Deep" scan with "TestDisk" as it won't hurt writing to sector zero which is already wiped. But let's verify the disk's health condition first.
@shashank
In addition to collecting the SMART report, please perform the below steps also.
1. Open a "Terminal" Window ( Monitor icon in the taskbar ).
2. Enter the below command.
fdisk -l
3. No take a screenshot of the command window. There is a screen capture utility in "Parted Magic" ( named "Screenshot" )which will be located in either "Graphics" or "multimedia". Opening that and you will see options to capture either the full screen or active window. Use "Active window" option and save the picture. Upload it with the SMART report.
It shows "Overall Health Self-Assessment" as FAILED. Attaching the assessment!
Screenshot of Fdisk -l attached herewith.
This is definitely bad news. "GsmartControl" is not like other SMART monitoring tools. It only displays what is written in the SMART log of a HDD (it won't predict disk life its own ). All the BSOD and booting issues, PW flagging disk as bad etc further confirms the disk's critical condition.
( use "Notepad++" to correctly view the "SMART.txt file )
If the data stored on the disk is really important and you need to recover them as soon as possible, i would recommend hiring the service of a professional data recovery company. Otherwise we can try to recover data but it will take time as copying the disk to another good one is the first step.
Anyway please perform the below steps to check whether there is a valid file system present on the disk.
1. Open a "Terminal" window.
2. Enter the below command exactly.
dd if=/dev/sda of=/root/Desktop/MBR.img bs=512 count=2050
3. After the above command completed successfully, you will see a file named MBR.img on the desktop. Please attach it with next reply.
Do you remember how many partitions was on the disk ?.
I somehow feel better about PARTEDMAGIC. brings some faith and hope back. I ran a testdisk and deeper search and found the partitions which GPARTED couldnt detect. Attaching 2 screenshots. Can I run photorec? or What is a better solution??
GSmartControl shows health as "Alert:the drive is reporting that it will FAIL very soon. Please back up as soon as possible."
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