Recover Partition Table that vanished

Why is Programs partition on another disk the only one marked Active, while the System partition isn't? Only the System partition should be marked Active.
Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums
Mark Partition Active

I would not have Programs partition on another hard drive as these write registry keys that integrate themselves into the OS until uninstalled so should be on C, a part of the OS image.

I have no idea what you've done as your explanations are too convoluted even before you had the emotional outburst. But an EFI System partition shown is used to boot an OS so why would the disk have been connected by USB cable? Did it have an OS on it before you used it for storage?

If you didn't read the warning message it makes it clear when given the choice for MBR or GPT partition that it is formatting the drive. If you had any question about whether this would affect your data you should have asked or googled the message to find out immediately you should not do this at all if you want to save your data.

edited down.

gregrocker said:

Why is Programs partition on another disk the only one marked Active, while the System partition isn't? Only the System partition should be marked Active.

I would not have Programs partition on another hard drive as these write registry keys that integrate themselves into the OS until uninstalled so should be on C, a part of the OS image.

Thanks, done it, C: is now Active. Other disk (Programi), thanks for link to make it inactive. I don't have enough space for all programs on C and I don't want to waste SSD space for programs I don't use a lot, and I don't think they should all be on C:, I put most important programs on C, rest is on D:

gregrocker said:

I have no idea what you've done as your explanations are too convoluted even before you had the emotional outburst. But an EFI System partition shown is used to boot an OS so why would the disk have been connected by USB cable? Did it have an OS on it before you used it for storage?

Well I explained it simple, not sure what you don't get?! I explained it like 10 times, every single time it is same explanation. Simple Convert to MBR part of 3TB disk, which vanished on its own. On image above it is Disk 2 (on Partition Recovery it is Disk 3)

I'm not sure where did you get this EFI thing, as I don't see it in Control Panel, Windows???

gregrocker said:

If you didn't read the warning message it makes it clear when given the choice for MBR or GPT partition that it is formatting the drive. If you had any question about whether this would affect your data you should have asked or googled the message to find out immediately you should not do this at all if you want to save your data.

There was warning, but disk was not formatted! As it is not automatically after converting disk.
I know I made mistake no need to rub it on my nose, if I didn't make it, I wouldn't be here, obviously.

C is not the System partition. System Reserved is clearly the partition marked System. It should be marked Active.

A disk cannot partially be converted to MBR. If you got the prompt to choose MBR or GPT then it was asking you to initialize the disk because Windows was not reading any format for it. If you chose one of those then it reformatted the entire disk MBR. If you aborted it then nothing could have been expected to survive since it wipes the partition table first.

What did you find when you attempted to rescue your data as I suggested?

Easeus shows the first partition of Disk3 (the one with the Unallocated space for most of it) is 128mb Reserved which is the System partition on an EFI Win7 install. Partition Recovery also shows two other EFI sectors.

Why is the paging file on H. I'd move it back to C by turning it off and then back on: System Protection - Change Disk Space Usage

What appears to me is that a lot of tweaking and other messing around with the disks has caught up with you. You'd be much better off to wipe the SSD to do a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7 and then stick only with the tools and methods in the tutorial. This has worked for over a million others without a single complaint.

Wait for Jumanji to try to help you recover your partitions on the disk you formatted.

greg, I think I know what confuses you, I will try to be more clear with my problem.

External case was connected with USB, 3TB disk in it that vanished. When I checked on Control Panel Computer Management, Storage, it asked that question for MBR or GPT, I clicked MBR, then I saw just 765GB, as it was connected to USB. Once I connected it to esata, it showed 2 times Unallocated space, 765GB + rest of the space...
Then I converted whole disk to GPT.

Once I run scan, as shown above, I see some system partitions, fat32, etc, I'm not sure what is that.
I can't resize window from EaseUS Partition Recovery.
I can see all data, I can restore data even from first partition, that is good news, but bad one is, I'm not sure if I can get file and directory names as they were before.

2nd and 3rd partition are visible in Partition recovery, even on TestDisk, and I believe I could return those back. It reads Label from 2nd and 3rd from that 3TB disk just fine, meaning it knows how it was called, which letter it was.

Format was not made, or it was, as you said, right after my miss-click, that would mean it formatted 765GB as it was only thing Windows saw, when connected on USB.

I can share new scren shot from EaseUS Partition Recovery, as I can now see last (3rd) partition, called Rest.
Problem as stated is, that first one is not visible, or not visible like 2nd and 3rd, and I'm not sure is there a way to restore partition table, or I should jump right in to data recovery part.

2nd part that bothers me is that when I tried one tool it said something, one of the partitions will be deleted, to continue or cancel, that is from first image I sent here, so I was afraid to click Yes, as I need that data.

On other hand I don't want to restore all data, as I believe I can recover 2nd and 3rd partition, it would be best to recover 2nd and 3rd, then try to restore data from 1st. But I'm not sure, which move would preserve data that is right now on the disk and save 2nd and 3rd partitions.

Do you understand me, sorry I'm from Croatia, maybe my way of explaning is not so clear, I'm trying hard. Spent like 20 hours behind computer, watching scanning, reading articles, ways to solve this issue.

If convert to MBR formatted disk, then only chance is restore data, no need for me to try to recover that 1st partition, right?

I see lots of EFI Sector, and Boot, on that disk, but it was never Bootable, so I'm not sure what is it, why did it find it on the disk?
Will send screen shot of EaseUS Partition Recovery scan once it is completed, I'm scanning that 3TB disk. It's around 60% done right now.

I would work with Jumanji on Partition Recovery.

Meanwhile can you browse in to see your data to Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console or if that fails try burning to CD with Windows Image Burner Paragon Rescue Kit Free Edition 11.0 Free . Copy your files to an external HD or USB flash stick. Now is the time to rescue any data you cannot afford to lose, since Partition Recovery is not a certain thing under the circumstances.

Hi Greg, problem is off course disk size, this is biggest of them all, one where I copied all important stuff, to remove it form my main computer disks.

I found one backup till March 2014, so I lose every single picture I took after that date till now.
I can browse files and directories under Partition Recovery, for 2nd Video and 3rd Rest partitions.

As this is biggest disk, and lots of data, I don't have enough space to copy data, and new disk is well above $130 which is way too much for me atm.

Here is screen shot of Partition Recovery 2nd Partition.
This program so far, doesn't see 1st one at all, there are only 2 partitions that are big, rest are some small, boot, mbr, etc., not even sure what they are.

In day or two I will get 1TB, so I believe I would have enough space to save all things, but how to copy paste, as I don't have those partitions restored just yet, all Windows see, as you can see, is unallocated space.

I will see if EaseUS can restore partitions (2 and 3) and make disk usable at all. There are couple of software that claim they can restore file names as well, do you think it is possible to do after format?

Then copy out the files you don't have backed up. If PW can see them then they may be accessible but you have to browse using one of the methods I've given you twice.

Hi Kaktussoft, thanks for hopping in.

There were 3 partitions, first one was messed with MBR and format.

2nd and 3rd look good, will try to recover them after scan finishes. if not, then I will copy files as greg said, with option he gave me.

True 2nd Video and 3rd Rest were one after another, but first one was Photo (one missing here), I could see recovery files, but names were all messed up, which I'm trying to avoid here as well, among full partition recovery.

Greg sorry to bother, can you please confirm, should I try to recover 2nd and 3rd partition, or first try to copy files way you gave me link (twice)? Thanks.