Used "Clean" diskpart on backup HDD and external HDD with system image

[Arcturus314]

Used "Clean" diskpart on backup HDD and external HDD with system image

Hi all,
Recently I tried to enable RAID on my laptop. I had previously made several data backups on an internal (non boot) HDD as well as making a full system image on an external HDD.

When I attempted to restore from my system image I got an error, that the drives were marked as active. When I ran the "Clean" command (not "clean all") I accidentally wiped my HDD with the system image. I currently don't have access to anything on my laptop.

After I realized my mistake I shut down the laptop (running on a windows repair disk) and unplugged the HDD. I plugged it into my desktop and ran the MiniTool Partition Wizard Data Recovery full scan. I didn't find anything but partitions sub 1.2 GB. I'm not sure about the data structure created in a system image though.

Currently I'm running a testdisk quick scan of the drive. I'll post a screenshot when it completes.

Any ideas on how I can get my system image back? I have no other way to restore files to my laptop as I (being the bumbling idiot I am) deleted my backups in the process.

Thanks in advance,
Arcturus314

EDIT: Disk management says the disk is "not initialized".

 

[Arcturus314]

That is the quick scan image.

I'll run a Partition Recovery Wizard quick scan and post a pic of that when it completes.

EDIT: At 1% now, found a "boot" partition with a size of 3.01MB.

 

[Arcturus314]

Screenshot of Partition Recovery Wizard:

Is there any hope for me to recover my data? Both the partition recovery wizard and testdisk have failed.

 

[jumanji]

I am still trying to understand your system.

1. Your Dell lappy came with two 128GB SSDs inside. Yes/No

2. One drive was the System drive and the other drive was just a secondary drive for data. Yes/No

3. Your system uses UEFI boot Yes/No

4. Your system uses the normal BIOS and MBR boot. Yes /No

5. What does your system document say on how to recover the system in case it becomes unbootable?

6. Did you create the Recovery CDs on first setup if it had been so ordained in your system documentation?

7. Is your system still under warranty/extended warranty?

8. What do you plan to do in case the system image is irrecoverable from your 500GB external HDD?

9. What did you do to create a RAID? Explain in detail

10. Did that attempt kill your laptop and made it inaccessible?

11. When you wanted to restore the system image, instead of running diskpart clean on the system drive you ran it on the external HDD. Yes/No

12. Did you not think that it would have been wiser to have disconnected any external drives when attempting diskpart so that such accidents could never happen?

13. Do you have DELL OEM installation Disk? (not a repair disk)

14. How was the 500GB external drive formatted? MBR? GPT? Make/manufacturer/model No

15. How is Test Disk showing it as 4096 block size? Any idea?

Please answer point by point without missing any question.

Unless we understand your system and what you had done, it is not possible to even think of a solution.

Come to think of it you have a costly flagship machine and you should have taken advice from Dell Technical Support or from this forum before embarking on any modifications.

 

[Arcturus314]

I am still trying to understand your system.

1. Your Dell lappy came with two 128GB SSDs inside. Yes/No

2. One drive was the System drive and the other drive was just a secondary drive for data. Yes/No

3. Your system uses UEFI boot Yes/No

4. Your system uses the normal BIOS and MBR boot. Yes /No

5. What does your system document say on how to recover the system in case it becomes unbootable?

6. Did you create the Recovery CDs on first setup if it had been so ordained in your system documentation?

7. Is your system still under warranty/extended warranty?

8. What do you plan to do in case the system image is irrecoverable from your 500GB external HDD?

9. What did you do to create a RAID? Explain in detail

10. Did that attempt kill your laptop and made it inaccessible?

11. When you wanted to restore the system image, instead of running diskpart clean on the system drive you ran it on the external HDD. Yes/No

12. Did you not think that it would have been wiser to have disconnected any external drives when attempting diskpart so that such accidents could never happen?

13. Do you have DELL OEM installation Disk? (not a repair disk)

14. How was the 500GB external drive formatted? MBR? GPT? Make/manufacturer/model No

15. How is Test Disk showing it as 4096 block size? Any idea?

Please answer point by point without missing any question.

Unless we understand your system and what you had done, it is not possible to even think of a solution.

Come to think of it you have a costly flagship machine and you should have taken advice from Dell Technical Support or from this forum before embarking on any modifications.

1. My laptop came with one 128GB SSD. I added a second one for RAID.

2. Immediately after I added the second drive (and had already made backups and a system image) I switched to RAID. The original drive was a system drive.

3. My system does support UEFI boot, but I'm not sure if it is enabled. My BIOS page says "BIOS version A08" so I assume that I am using BIOS setup.

4. See previous question. How do I tell if my laptop is using MBR boot?

5. I have an OEM Windows installation disk I can use to reinstall Windows onto the RAID array.

6. I have created a Windows Recovery disk for the laptop

7.My system is still under warranty

8. I have a Windows installation disk so my current plan is just to reinstall Windows if I'm unable to recover my system image.

9. First, I made sure that RAID was enabled in BIOS. Then, I entered the drive configuration utility. It is a settings page separate from Windows that I can enter on boot. From there, I created the RAID array with my two 128GB SSDs. It did give a warning that it would erase all content on the drives but at that point I had my backups and system image. From there, I booted from my recovery CD. When I tried to restore from the system image it gave the error that the drive was currently marked active. I followed the message instructions and used the clean command from the command line in the recovery disk. Then, I went back to the restore page. I got the error that no system images were available. At this point I realized my mistake and shut the computer down.

10. I still have access to BIOS and can boot from external media. I just don't have an OS installed on any internal disks.

11. I ran diskpart clean on both the internal and external disks.

12. It would definitely have been better to have disconnected the external drive. I just didn't think of it at the time.

13. I do have the OEM Windows installation disk.

14. The external drive is an MBR drive according to the Partition Wizard. It is a Hitachi HTS545050KTA300 connected over USB 2.0

15. I have absolutely no idea why Test Disk is showing it with a block size of 4096. I didn't inspect the drive all too thoroughly before creating the system image on it.

In regard to your last point, you are again correct. I overestimated what I was able to do and made a stupid mistake.

Thank you so much for the help.

 

[jumanji]

..........Thank you so much for the help.

Not yet. I haven't helped you in anyway so far. I was only helping myself trying to understand your system and what you had done . Thank you for all the answers.

At this point I see no problem at all.

While configuring RAID you perhaps got scared by the message that all data will be lost and backed out. Yes you will lose the OS installed on the first drive. But now after the RAID is configured in BIOS you have to anyway install the OS afresh on the RAID. At some point during the installation from your OEM Reinstall Disk, Windows may ask for the mass storage device driver when you have to inject the RAID driver. So have the RAID driver ready on a pen drive and show it. The installation will progress after the RAID driver is installed and install Windows on the drives which will now appear as one single 256GB drive. Partition and format the way you like and install Windows.( I am assuming that you have no critical personal data alongwith the OS in the first drive.)

(Your documentation should give all the steps in configuring and installing Windows on RAID. May be the RAID driver is already there on the OEM Installation disk.)

Should you require any further help let us know. ( I may then redirect you to our master craftsman greg - the Windows 7 installation expert.)

 

[Arcturus314]

Ok, I can do that. I'm fine with losing the current OS.

Now, thank you for the help

 

[jumanji]

Make sure that you have the OEM Windows Installation Disk - the disk that can clean install Windows abinitio. That disk will have the OEM preactivation data that will auto activate the installation. ( I am not meaning the repair disk or even the recovery disk that you might have created.)

 

[Arcturus314]

Make sure that you have the OEM Windows Installation Disk - the disk that can clean install Windows abinitio. That disk will have the OEM preactivation data that will auto activate the installation. ( I am not meaning the repair disk or even the recovery disk that you might have created.)

The laptop shipped with an OEM Windows installation disk, so I think I'm alright.

 

[jumanji]

If it is something like this its OK.



In your case it will be Windows 7 Professional 64bit. (with or without SP1) depending upon when you bought the machine.

Go ahead and good luck.

 

[Arcturus314]

If it is something like this its OK.

View attachment 358768

In your case it will be Windows 7 Professional 64bit. (with or without SP1) depending upon when you bought the machine.

Go ahead and good luck.

Yes, mine looks similar. I'll be quite busy tomorrow but I'll be able to install the OS Tuesday. I'll update this thread about the results.