Recover a GPT Partition that became RAW in 3T Internal HDD

jumanji said:

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1. Post a fresh screenshot of Windows Disk Management. ( Just to confirm that we are still in the same condition with which we started.)

2. I am now going back to Partition Wizard - your Post #21 with the screenshot of found partitions after a quick scan.Quick scan did find a valid VBR at sector 264192. ( This VBR could be a new VBR overwriting the original VBR)

Run a quickscan again. When it finds the partitions, please select the second partition by clicking on the square, double click on the second partition (starting LBA 264192 ending LBA 1565565871) that should open the explorer Window showing the files it could see. ( Please refer to image 5 and image 6 in dsperber's
post # 17)

If it shows the folders/files well and good. Post a screenshot. Close the explorer Window. Cancel and close Partiion Wizard.

Do it slowly at your leisure.Absolutely no need to do anything in a hurry. Absolutely no need to keep awake at night.

Murphy's Law at its best...



1 - Here








I'll perform step 2 as asked. However i'm not very confident at this stage... The 1st time the scan haven't detected any lost/deleted partitions and this time same is happening...






Will return with more screenshots when all is done!


Cheers




PS - Until now, after all the tests and recovery software analisys, the only program able to detect the partition as windows and also to show me some RAW data recovery is EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. The odd thing is that another software from that company, EaseUS Partition Master, cannot recognize the partition too which is really weird...


Take a look at the image i made with Easeus Data Recover in the next screenshot.








You can see plenty of RAW data to be recovered. But is all a mess and probably might not find everything i want, and lots of junk in the middle of those files... Look at the size of the recovery data, much bigger than the partition size...

PW Quick scan ended and nothing happened when i checked the box and double clicked the partition. No detection of lost partitions too. I'll maybe try a Full Scan...











PS - OK i've performed a Full Scan with same results. Atm i'm running MiniTool Power Data Recovery to compare the finds with my previous easeus data recover results...

"PS - Until now, after all the tests and recovery software analisys, the only program able to detect the partition as windows and also to show me some RAW data recovery is EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. The odd thing is that another software from that company, EaseUS Partition Master, cannot recognize the partition too which is really weird..."

Good work. ( I missed it since you edited that post and added it later) I haven't used it anytime and so I cannot comment on it.

I may think since 200GB of your 1TB partitlon is missing, you may not see the files in that missing 200GB.

After seeing that however, I would suggest that you try Active@fileRecovery and Getdataback Simple and see whether these can show your files. The plus point with these two programs is: If they show your files, you can open those and check the integrity of the files. If you are satisfied then you can buy a license to copy the files.

Getdataback Simple Data Recovery Software Products - Runtime Software Products

Active @ File Recovery Erased file recovery tool - Active@ File Recovery - for deleted files and damaged disks

I wish I could have helped you better but then I have gotten busy with other things in the last few days and will continue to be busy with it for the next few days..

At this stage you have no option but continue to try whatever you can. (I had some plans to do some experiments on my 3TB to check whether some ideas I have formulated can work but unfortunately as stated I will be busy with other things and therefore cannot concentrate on it. I need undivided and undisturbed attention to do it)

You may do the following: ( This is exactly what I wanted to experiment)

Save sector 1 ( GPT Header), Sector 2 (GPT Partition Table) Sector 264192 (VBR at the start of the first partition - First partition always starts at Sector 264192), sector 1565565839 ( backup of the current Partition Table), sector 1565565871 ( Backup of the current GPT header) with bootice ( This is only a safety measure. Should you want to go back to the previous state anytime, you can restore with bootice)

After saving those, zero these sectors. To write zeros to these sectors, go to that Sector, move the mouse pointer diagonally across, (thus selecting all the 512 fields), right click > Fill Selection > 0x00 > OK and click on Save changes icon in the menu bar. In effect you are destroying these unwanted sectors and GPT structure. Keep sector 0 as it is and do not zero it (With this unwanted GPT Partition Data killed, I presume the correct partition data at the fag end of 3TB will kick in and we may be able to see the full 3TB.)



Close bootice and rerun to check the disk shows all these sectors are correctly zeroed.

Then Run Partition Wizard, Quick scan. Let me see what partitions it finds. ( Of course it will not find the first partition VBR (absent, since we had zeroed it.) But if it finds the second and third partition and shows your full 3TB disk then we shall think of some more manipulations to write a new VBR for the first partition. If we succeed, then Getdataback and Active at file recovery and all such software may be able to see the original Master File Table that may be, as I guess, between 746GB and 1TB which at present the recovery software do not see.

As I said this is purely experimental that may or may not succeed. I am just working on assumptions and presumptions.