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Re: CHS Numbers for Seagate ST3400620AS

Posted: 03 Jan 2013, 19:16
by steve1916
Results of NTFSInfo attached. Not sure if this will help.

Re: CHS Numbers for Seagate ST3400620AS

Posted: 03 Jan 2013, 19:19
by steve1916
MTF (Master File Size) size = 0 MB is a problem?

If I could recover System Reserved and the boot (C) partition, that would work for me. There is nothing important in DATA2 partition.

Any help with what to do next would be great!

Re: CHS Numbers for Seagate ST3400620AS

Posted: 03 Jan 2013, 21:52
by dragonfly41
No ntsfinfo shows in partition F because it is not ntfs (it's raw).

To check that your $MFT is zero try nftswalker to view structure ..

http://dmitrybrant.com/ntfswalker

If so then you may be down to file recovery using commercial software.

More on that later when you've checked $MFT on C partition.

Re: CHS Numbers for Seagate ST3400620AS

Posted: 04 Jan 2013, 10:39
by Fiona
Green partitions mean, that they don't overlap.
It's not possible that two partitions using the same space.
If TestDisk finds more partitions and they overlap, you must set one of them for recovery.

Looks like you're using Win7?
Easily assuming it, because your first partition is labeled "System Reserved".
According to your geometry, TestDisk works Intel Standard.
It means Partitions are aligned on cylinder boundary.
But since Vista, Microsoft changed from Intel-MBR standard to megabyte boundary.
TestDisk supports megabyte boundary but can report, that Intel-MBR geometry mismatches.
I'll put it onto my todo list and report it to Christophe to find a better solution to make it more clearly to user.
Some further info about disk manufacturer and results from your motherboard hard disk controller.
In the past, manufacturer provided CHS (Clinder, Head, Sector) values on the label.
Nowadays they mostly using memory addressing like LBA (Logical Block Addressing).
3.5 inch disks mostly have had 16 heads per cylinder and 2.5 inches disks have had 15 heads per cylinder.
The disk controller from your motherboard changes this value from 16 to 255 heads per cylinder and for a 2.5 inch disk from 15 to 240 heads per cylinder (often laptops).
But an OS can influence geometry also.
Linux can use 16 heads.
Some mor infos here;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Menu_Geometry

Now trying to get to the point!

In your case, geometry probably aligned on Win7 standard that's why ,messages about geometry can be ignored.
Deeper Search found your partition including your data using backup of the boot sector.
The appropriate partition might be this one;
dir_partition inode=5
* HPFS - NTFS 12 223 20 48641 45 44 781213696
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 399 GB / 372 GiB

Recovery procedure might be;

After deeper search, mark this partition.
Use your left or right arrow key to set it to P für primary only.
You can watch it at the right.
Your System Reserved partition is your boot partition and should be active.
You can watch it at the right also!
It should be a * (Star).
Press enter to proceed.
Highlight Write (if it's not already predefind) and press anter and y to confirm.
Now another menu should appear, reporting that your boot sector is damaged.
Please use Backup BS to repair it.
Quit TestDisk and restart your PC!

If you list your data, you can copy/backup your data first, using testdisk.
At the bottom of the screen you'll find all the commands.

Fiona