Help with damaged disk Topic is solved

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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momefarley
Posts: 26
Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#41 Post by momefarley »

OK, finally got to try it this evening. Took me a while to get the partitions right for the copy (I finally found a way to mount the image.dd I had retrieved from the first and third partitions of the original drive, and then copy them to a new partition to be copied via EaseUS DiskCopy onto the partition I made via your instructions), and I forgot to do the MBR the first few times. It still doesn't like the partitions... not sure why...

I think my biggest problem is that I set it to boot from the blank partition where I want to restore/install Windows.... Now trying to resolve that...

Want to see some screen shots?
Still plugging away at trying...

momefarley
Posts: 26
Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#42 Post by momefarley »

It's working!!! It's working!!! I had to go back and reformat the main partition again (even set it's name correctly as it had been), and set the boot from the HDDRecovery partition. Now it's "Recovering"!! Not done yet, but with a clean hard drive (even checked it again today from Crystal Disk and it's beautiful!), I don't foresee more trouble!

I'll try to report in once again after it really is done...

BUT, THANKS so much, Remy and Fiona!!! Amazing what some persistence and a few good tools can do (I saw numerous places where people had just said to give up and buy the media)!!!

momefarley
Posts: 26
Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#43 Post by momefarley »

I'm going to try to remember and summarize the important steps that I've taken. Someone else may benefit from what I've learned.

First of all - I started off with a partly damaged disk that wouldn't load Windows. And we found out through the process that indeed it was truly damaged. The owner (my friend) had never made any recovery media, but the recovery partition was intact. I bought a new hard drive (larger size) and have now restored all the original software, and am working on the final Windows Updates to get it back up to speed (if nothing else, all those updates are enough to make me super glad I'm using almost only Mac myself! I have BootCamp Windows 7 from which I worked anything that couldn't be done on the original computer).

I used TestDisk to copy the User folder for all the owners personal files (moved it over to my good hard drive). I also created an image.dd file of the two small partitions on the drive that are used for Recovery - when they can be booted into.

Then I did all kinds of attempts to see if the disk could be repaired, which all failed... Bought a new hard drive!

Then I set up the geometry and partitions on the new drive exactly like the original drive had been set up - even to the naming of the partitions. I formatted the partition that would be the main Windows system as NTFS.

I used Mount Image (free trial) to read the image.dd files and copy them to a partition of an external hard drive I was using (I think a large thumb drive would have worked for this too) - and made that partition as close to the size it would be copied to as possible.

Then I used a bootable CD with freeware DiskCopy from EaseUS to copy the Windows RE(store) and HDDRecovery partitions onto the prepared partitions on the new drive.

I used TestDisk to write a new MBR (and partition table) making the HDDRecovery partition the bootable partition.

And it worked! The Toshiba Recovery program loaded and set me up with a good set of Windows (and all the other original software and drivers).

BUT, at that point, the part of the drive that was larger than the original drive was not recognized (I suppose I could have just made yet another partition).

So I made recovery media (DVD/USB) - which is what obviously my friend should have done months ago.... Then I messed enough with the current setup so it wouldn't boot into any of it, and used the external recovery media to make a completely fresh full installation of all original software. This time, the whole new drive is easily accessible as the main drive.

And all I'm busy doing is just getting Windows Updates, and setting up software and copying her documents and photos back into place...

I hope that helps someone! :D

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

Re: Help with damaged disk

#44 Post by Fiona »

Thanks for your feedback!
I'll set your topic as solved!

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