Drive became Unallocated and not having much luck recoverying

Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst ... 5678 LastLast

  1. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #61

    It's dead I tell you Dead

    No files sadly ...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Drive became Unallocated and not having much luck recoverying-pwscan.jpg  
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,656
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #62

    Can you recover files with "MiniTool Power Data Recovery 7.0"?
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #63

    At the beginning of all this I used photorec which recovered quite a few files but a lot of stuff was missing and anything other than single standalone files is impossible to reconstruct without folder structures.

    The other one I tried was Easeus Data recovery but had to abort that some way through. I couldn't really tell if that found more but once I aborted that one it didn't find any mkv files which photorec did.

    I'm not sure I can stomach the work needed to figure out which files are which especially if they are incomplete so perhaps if I can't reconstruct the partition it's going to have to be a reformat sadly.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #64

    I understand your anguish. You have indeed done a lot of work (as I did too ) in trying to resurrect the drive or recover the data and it has proved elusive so far. Now we need a booster dose.:)

    Do this one last or last but one thing. Download the proven GetdataBack Simple trial version, https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm run it and see whether it shows all your folders/files with the original structure. You can open the folders and then the files in it and preview also to confirm that everything is fine. ( To copy thedata however you need to buy it USD69. That is a decision you have to make) Even if you pre-decide not to buy, do this and let us know the results.It will add to our proof list.

    Shall continue after a break.
    Last edited by jumanji; 22 Jun 2015 at 00:37. Reason: missing web link added
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #65

    Continuing...

    Partition Recovery Wizard found the partition details only from the backup boot sector present somewhere in the last sectors of the drive. That is why it took a long time scanning to the last sectors. (If it were able to find a valid NTFS boot sector at Sector 2048, it would have found it within seconds.)

    If you remember, Test Disk also took a longtime before it found the partition details but threw a clear message "NTFS found using backup sector .......... ( The last sentence in the screenshot in your post #5). I do not know why after writing the partition table (which is correct) to sector 0, it started saying that the primary boot sector (at sector 2048) is OK preempting us writing the backup to the primary sector with Backup BS. But it is very clear now it is not and the backup is still valid and OK.

    So do this as one last attempt. With bootice save the current sector 2048 ( just in case you want to revert back later). Then select all the 512 fields by running the mouse pointer from start to end, Right click >Fill Selection > 0xFF > OK. Save to disk.

    Now run TestDisk. Advanced - File system Utilities Proceed with Boot and see whether it now shows Primary boot sector Bad and Backup boot sector OK. If yes, Backup BS to write the backup to the Primary. If successful, close Test Disk, reboot and check whether lady luck smiles on you.

    Good Luck.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #66

    jumanji said:
    I understand your anguish. You have indeed done a lot of work (as I did too ) in trying to resurrect the drive or recover the data and it has proved elusive so far. Now we need a booster dose.:)

    Do this one last or last but one thing. Download the proven GetdataBack Simple trial version, https://www.runtime.org/data-recovery-software.htm run it

    Shall continue after a break.
    Booster dose ... I like that.

    I am installing the software now.
    It doesn't see any files so I am letting it scan which looks like it's going to take a long time.
    Did you want the scan or did you just want to see if it can see files when first run?
    The scan will take 3 + hours and it's running now till I hear from you.
    Last edited by Louiscar; 22 Jun 2015 at 06:57.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #67

    jumanji said:
    Continuing...


    If you remember, Test Disk also took a longtime before it found the partition details but threw a clear message "NTFS found using backup sector .......... ( The last sentence in the screenshot in your post #5). I do not know why after writing the partition table (which is correct) to sector 0, it started saying that the primary boot sector (at sector 2048) is OK preempting us writing the backup to the primary sector with Backup BS. But it is very clear now it is not and the backup is still valid and OK.
    I'm interested in your conclusion that the backup BS is ok. The way I saw this was that the BackupBS is exactly the same as the current BS and that's why Testdisk doesn't offer to copy the backup.

    Does the backup BS not get copied with every write operation?
    [/QUOTE]

    jumanji said:
    So do this as one last attempt. With bootice save the current sector 2048 ( just in case you want to revert back later). Then select all the 512 fields by running the mouse pointer from start to end, Right click >Fill Selection > 0xFF > OK. Save to disk.

    Now run TestDisk. Advanced - File system Utilities Proceed with Boot and see whether it now shows Primary boot sector Bad and Backup boot sector OK. If yes, Backup BS to write the backup to the Primary. If successful, close Test Disk, reboot and check whether lady luck smiles on you.

    Good Luck.
    I was tempted to try this now but I'll let the scan complete - seems like 3.5 hours though.

    As I am writing this I looked at the scan and it this is what it is finding. I don't think this is much different to photorec finding files but maybe it's different. I saw some folders.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Drive became Unallocated and not having much luck recoverying-getdata.jpg  
    Last edited by Louiscar; 22 Jun 2015 at 07:49. Reason: Updated scan
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 7,055
    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit
       #68

    Wait till the end. It may find the correct NTFS boot only at the end and if it does it may rehash everything. I hope so.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #69

    jumanji said:
    Wait till the end. It may find the correct NTFS boot only at the end and if it does it may rehash everything. I hope so.
    Ok, will do - it's showing 35% and about 2 hours now.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 70
    Windows 7 ultimate 64bit
    Thread Starter
       #70

    90% done... 20 mins to go

    Hmm, I just noticed when saving sectors for the other drives that one of my 1TB drives had it's NTFS boot sector starting at 63 not 2048.
    It's probably the oldest of my drives - but I'm curious why that is. I'm sure the drive we are dealing with is probably 2048 but can we be sure?

    Edit: ok I think I understand. It was probably formatted with an older fdisk.
    Last edited by Louiscar; 22 Jun 2015 at 09:54. Reason: % done updated
      My Computer


 
Page 7 of 8 FirstFirst ... 5678 LastLast

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:26.
Find Us