Regain a lost drive using Test Disk - An Illustrated Guide

I understand that this is a really old thread, but I just joined this forum to say Thank You to Jumanji. I had been trying to regain access to my unallocated drive for the last 3 days with various software and your guide took me only 2 mins to fix it. Thank you so much!!

Howdy - WOW! Yes! This was almost 10 years ago . . . hopefully folks might still be around to address this. I have the problem presented here in PART 2. No partition is found, nothing bootable, not even anything in the list. I tell TestDisk to do the DEEPER scan (after the quick scan) and still . . . nothing.

What did I do? Well, I used a Seagate Slim BUP 1TB SSD (on windows PC) for a few years as a media drive. I just recently swapped out computers, so I did a little backup on that drive, too. Then, when I plugged into my newly setup PC, the drive would not mount. Disk Manager recognized something was there, and said healthy partition, but no mounting.

I stupidly followed a DiskPart YouTube video before realizing what the CLEAN command would do.

That's all I did . . . DiskPart CLEAN. No other formatting or anything.

Unfortunately, TestDIsk will not find a SINGLE thing.

However, software like Hetman Partition Recover is finding the file structure, drive, folders, and actual files; however, that's going to set me back $100US to recover the drive. UGH!!!!!!

Before I pull out my wallet, I wondered if there is some other "trick" I might be missing where TestDisk (or even another free option) might be available to me . . . anyone . . . please?

Thank you!

jumanji said:

PART 2:

The first part of this topic broadly outlined the steps involved in regaining an inaccessible drive with a corrupt/missing partition table.

In the event, the drive will be seen in the Disk Management without a drive letter and unallocated space.

To actually ascertain how good is Test Disk in regaining the hard drive access, I destroyed the partition table on my Maxtor external drive – using the same Test Disk – and went through the whole process.

( My external drive had two partitions, one containing the backup of D and E drives/partitions of my internal drive and the other the periodical system images of drive C. As a matter of abundant caution, I had copied all this data into another external drive, should something go wrong in this destructive trial and I am unable to regain the drive/data. I had also imaged the MBR and kept it. )

Here is my healthy external drive before the partition table was deleted:

Attachment 178520

In the fourth Window – Part 1, I selected Delete, Enter, which deletes the partition table.

My external drive is now inaccessible and shows in the Disk Management as below. Now this is the real-life situation one will find that will necessitate calling upon Test Disk.

Attachment 178521

With the drive inacceesible, I hit Analyse, Enter – fourth Window in Part 1. A window with “No Partition is bootable” message appears. ( This in fact replaces the earlier fifth window in Part 1)

Attachment 178522


Hit Quick Search, Enter and this sixth window (missing earlier in Part 1 with a healthy drive) appears.


Attachment 178523

Press Y and voila the seventh window showing both the missing partitions appears. This happened almost instantaneously.

Attachment 178524

( Selecting a partition and hitting P as also the List, Enter in any window will show the folders/files which can be copied to any other drive in the PC. Screen shot later in this post)

Yep, Test Disk has done its job. Go ahead with the rest of the steps in Part 1, and the partition table is restored.

The Maxtor drive is back in business. No sweat.

Attachment 178525

So go ahead and try Test Disk when suddenly your external drive becomes inaccessible.

More on Test Disk:

The fourth Window has the following tabs: Analyse, Advanced, Geometry, Options, MBR Code,Delete, Quit. We have already seen the Analyse in the fourth window – Part 1.

The Advanced Tab brings out the file System Utilities window.

Attachment 178526

Here one can select Type – for changing Partition Type, Boot – for Boot Sector Recovery, List – to list and copy files from the selected Partition, Undelete – to recover deleted files and Image Creation – for creating images of the partition. Boot, Enter brings another window with List, Rebuild BS, Repair MFT, and DUMP (dump boot sector and backup boot sector)


MBR Code facilitates writing a new Test Disk MBR code. Users are well-advised to read http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_MBRCode on writing the Test Disk MBR as a last resort.

Apparently these would be used when the system becomes unbootable and one tries to fix the system hard drive and /or recover the files. In such a situation, however, one would run Test Disk from a live-CD. ( A list of liveCDs with Test Disk can be found here .)

The List, Enter brings the following window which will enable one copy the folders/files to another drive.

Attachment 1785278

(The screenshot shows the system images stored in the second partition of my Maxtor External drive.)

Please keep in mind that Test Disk has to be run as an administrator.

SIW2 said:

I suggest you wait for @jumanji to feature.

Yes - that's what I was kinda hoping; however, is @jumanji still around? Anyone else?

Update: I used MiniTool Power Data Recovery free to scan the HD - I can see the full file/folder structure as I last remember it (and seeing I used it only less than a week ago - that means I believe I see the entire file/folder structure in tact).

MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the ONLY tool that shows me this folder structure and real file names (other programs find files; however, they list them as excel 1, excel 2, etc., etc.).

The point being is that I *KNOW* all the data is there on a lost partition; however, why can't TestDisk find anything?

Anyone? Please? Thank you!

SIW2 said:

Have you used minitool pdr free to recover your data?

Well, yes and no. I used it to scan and find the partition. As I mentioned in my reply to you above, it would appear the entire partition and file/folder structure was found and in tact. However, the recovery tool only allows 5GB of free recovery. This is a 1 TB drive with just under 600GB of data on it I want recovered (my full, previous file/folder structure on the drive pre-crash).

Before I spend the $70 - I just wanted to exhaust all my free options. Will TestDisk be able to do this, or is it a lost cause if TestDisk refuses to discover any partitions and/or file/folder strucutres?

Thanks again!

Well - this was and is VERY kind of you! However, here's what happened:

1. USB bootable created just fine - nice, fast Windows 7 load up.
2. Found the MTPDR app and it runs.
3. Quick scan didn't find, so it automatically started deep scan.
4. It finds a TON of partitions, but only one with 99% suggested rate.
5. Upon looking at the file structure, yup! This is the one.
6. The problem? It is HFS+ partition, and when I go to save the files I selected, I get a pop up from MTPDR:

"Power Date Recovery Free Edition does not support to recover files from HFS+ file system. To save the recovered files, you need a license key.

Then the link to go buy.

I thought this was a free edition, however, for a "HOME USER?" Yes, I absolutely made sure I clicked on home user, as the launch button would not activate until I did.

What other options might I have now?

Thanks again!

SIW2 said:

1.the last free version minitool dtata recovery that didnt limit recovery is in here 17514x64v26.iso
It is an older version, obviously, hopefully it will do the job.

extract the iso to create bootable usb using this: Usb7ice.zip
After booting from the usb, you will get a desktop - look under the start menu\data recovery




2. If not, you could investigate Find and Restore Lost Files: Undelete deleted files and recover damaged disks, if it sees your data you would need to buy a license to recover, but it was $29.95 last time I looked