Lost partition. Can Testdisk be my saviour?

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
davidfb
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 Mar 2013, 20:18

Lost partition. Can Testdisk be my saviour?

#1 Post by davidfb »

Please, help. I don't know what to do!

Long story short: using Ubuntu's "startup disk creator" I chose my external hard drive instead of my pen drive and accidentally erased everything on it (for what I understand it simply rewrote the partition table info so that files were no longer accessible).

Using the deep analyze from Testdisk I got this output:

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TestDisk 6.13, Data Recovery Utility, November 2011

Disk /dev/sdc - 999 GB / 930 GiB - CHS 121516 255 63

The harddisk (999 GB / 930 GiB) seems too small! (< 2722 GB / 2535 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...

The following partition can't be recovered:
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>  FAT32 LBA            120921  13 50 330958 136  6 3374252111
So I searched in these forums and tried changing the geometry. I set the cylinders from 121516 to 332000 (it was an approximation that may be wrong, as I never could actually understand how exactly you get the proper numbers to be set). I did a deep search again but now no partition seems to be found, but the first (new and empty) one.

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Disk /dev/sdc - 2730 GB / 2543 GiB - CHS 332000 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>* FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
This is an excerpt of my log file:

Code: Select all

Fri Mar 15 20:37:33 2013
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 6.13, Data Recovery Utility, November 2011
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Linux, kernel 3.2.0-38-generic (#61-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 19 12:20:02 UTC 2013) i686
Compiler: GCC 4.6
Compilation date: 2012-02-05T07:16:54
ext2fs lib: 1.42, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: none
/dev/sda: LBA, LBA48, DCO support
/dev/sda: size       156301488 sectors
/dev/sda: user_max   156301488 sectors
/dev/sdb: LBA, HPA, LBA48, DCO support
/dev/sdb: size       976773168 sectors
/dev/sdb: user_max   976773168 sectors
/dev/sdb: native_max 976773168 sectors
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/mapper/control - 0 B - CHS 1 1 1, sector size=512
/dev/sr0 is not an ATA disk
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 80 GB / 74 GiB - CHS 9729 255 63, sector size=512 - WDC WD800JD-60LSA0, S/N:WD-WMAM9T010126, FW:07.01D07
Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - SAMSUNG HD501LJ, S/N:S0MUJ1DPB09726, FW:CR100-12
Disk /dev/sdc - 999 GB / 930 GiB - CHS 121515 255 63, sector size=512 - WD My Passport 070A, FW:1030
Disk /dev/sdd - 300 GB / 279 GiB - CHS 36481 255 63, sector size=512 - SAMSUNG HD300LD, FW:WK10
Disk /dev/sr0 - 7784 MB / 7423 MiB - CHS 3801056 1 1 (RO), sector size=2048 - HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12L, S/N:K136AK44816, FW:VL01
Disk /dev/sr1 - 700 MB / 668 MiB - CHS 342016 1 1 (RO), sector size=2048 - WD Virtual CD 070A, FW:1030

Partition table type (auto): Intel
Disk /dev/sdc - 999 GB / 930 GiB - WD My Passport 070A
Partition table type: Intel
New geometry
Disk /dev/sdc - 2730 GB / 2543 GiB - CHS 332000 255 63 sector_size=512

Analyse Disk /dev/sdc - 2730 GB / 2543 GiB - CHS 332000 255 63
Geometry from i386 MBR: head=255 sector=63
FAT32 at 0/1/1
Info: size boot_sector 1952138412, partition 1952138412
FAT1 : 32-476415
FAT2 : 476416-952799
start_rootdir : 952800 root cluster : 2
Data : 952800-1952138399
sectors : 1952138412
cluster_size : 32
no_of_cluster : 60974550 (2 - 60974551)
fat_length 476384 calculated 476364
set_FAT_info: name from BS used
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=8 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=16 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=32 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=64 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=128 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=240 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2
Current partition structure:
 1 * FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
Ask the user for vista mode
Allow partial last cylinder : No
search_vista_part: 0

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdc - 2730 GB / 2543 GiB - CHS 332000 255 63
FAT32 at 0/1/1
FAT1 : 32-476415
FAT2 : 476416-952799
start_rootdir : 952800 root cluster : 2
Data : 952800-1952138399
sectors : 1952138412
cluster_size : 32
no_of_cluster : 60974550 (2 - 60974551)
fat_length 476384 calculated 476364
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/1/1
     FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
     FAT32, 999 GB / 930 GiB
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=8 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=16 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=32 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=64 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=128 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=240 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2

Results
   * FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
     FAT32, 999 GB / 930 GiB

interface_write()
 1 * FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412

search_part()
Disk /dev/sdc - 2730 GB / 2543 GiB - CHS 332000 255 63
FAT32 at 0/1/1
FAT1 : 32-476415
FAT2 : 476416-952799
start_rootdir : 952800 root cluster : 2
Data : 952800-1952138399
sectors : 1952138412
cluster_size : 32
no_of_cluster : 60974550 (2 - 60974551)
fat_length 476384 calculated 476364
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/1/1
     FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
     FAT32, 999 GB / 930 GiB
FAT32 at 0/1/7
FAT1 : 32-476415
FAT2 : 476416-952799
start_rootdir : 952800 root cluster : 2
Data : 952800-1952138399
sectors : 1952138412
cluster_size : 32
no_of_cluster : 60974550 (2 - 60974551)
fat_length 476384 calculated 476364
set_FAT_info: name from BS used

FAT32 at 0/1/7
     FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
     FAT found using backup sector!, 999 GB / 930 GiB
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=8 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=16 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=32 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=64 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=128 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=240 nbr=1
get_geometry_from_list_part_aux head=255 nbr=2

Results
   * FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
     FAT32, 999 GB / 930 GiB

interface_write()
 1 * FAT32 LBA                0   1  1 121514 254 63 1952138412
simulate write!

write_mbr_i386: starting...
write_all_log_i386: starting...
No extended partition

TestDisk exited normally.
Thank you very very much.

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