Formatted disk in need of recovery

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
Rope
Posts: 3
Joined: 06 Apr 2013, 15:11

Formatted disk in need of recovery

#1 Post by Rope »

Hi Guys,

First of all I'd like to thank anyone willing to help me in advance.

So hereś the problem. I was fiddling around with a windows server 2012 on my server (which used to have ubuntu on it).
I have a (or rather HAD) a raid array set up that contained all my data. I had another disk (an ssd) which contained the OS and the boot sector.

So when installing Windows Server I went about with getting it to read my RAID array. This unfortunately to no avail.
However in a glimps of hope I had thought that I had found a conversion tool in windows itself that would make Windows Server read my ext4 filesystem.

Hastely I clicked the button for it to start the conversion. I watched as it started with (what I thought was a conversion) but than I noticed it started a task with this name: "Formatting disk..". This made me lose my mind as it was a task for the entire LVM.

So I tried to click the cancel button however it already started formatting and could not cancel. Instead I decided to turn of my PC in a state of panic.

So here I am. In this situation. I've not been able to get the previous partition on there as I've got no clue what to do.

I ran a deep scan with both "None" and "EPI GPT" here's the result of that:

Image

However I had to turn of the pc and that deepscan ran for atleast a day and a half.

The correct (or rather the partition I would like to restore) is the ext4 RAID5 one.

Would you be so kind as to instruct me how to go about doing this?

Greetings, Rope.

P.S. I get a "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged." error when I try to list the partition which is found with a quick search.
Attachments
Left: None, <br />Right: EPI GPT
Left: None,
Right: EPI GPT
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User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Formatted disk in need of recovery

#2 Post by Fiona »

TestDisk displays your partition with a size of 6 TB.
But if you watch TestDisk and your disk, the size is only 2 TB.
For a succesful recovery, you'll need an intact array.
Did you accidentally format your disk from ext4 to fat32 or NTFS?

Fiona

Rope
Posts: 3
Joined: 06 Apr 2013, 15:11

Re: Formatted disk in need of recovery

#3 Post by Rope »

Hi Fiona,

Thanks for the quick reply. This is indeed the case. It used to be an LVM which I mounted. Then switched my OS to Windows Server 2012 which could not read ext4. In my search for a conversion tool or a way to open ext4 in windows I accidentally started a formatting proces which I canceled.

How do I proceed?

User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Formatted disk in need of recovery

#4 Post by Fiona »

Would it be possible to recreate your array exactly like before?
Don't format or partition your array.
Your disks must be in sequential order, exactly like before too.
Then it would be possible to make a diagnose of your RAID using TestDisk.

Fiona

Rope
Posts: 3
Joined: 06 Apr 2013, 15:11

Re: Formatted disk in need of recovery

#5 Post by Rope »

Hi guys,

Sorry for the (very) late reply I was really busy with work.

Here's some extra info.

It used to be a Volume Group called "RAID 5".

I think that's about all the info I got (or what I can remember at least) for now.

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