cgsecurity.org

My dad wiped his storage drive while installing a copy of Linux Mint. It was a single NTFS partition. Now it's a large EXT4 partition with a 4GB swap partition at the end.

I tried the last example listed here -> http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Data_Recovery_Examples

However, after the long RebuildBS, it just relists a page claiming a bad boot sector and the only option is to RebuildBS. Should I assume that recovery is not an option?

I have a complete dd backup of the drive so I can redo this as many times as is necessary. In all honesty, I think loosing the drive may be a good lesson to him. My problem is that I introduced him to Linux in the first place so I feel a little responsible.

I am able to extract files from the drive using NTFS walker programs. They just name the file based on it's extension and the sector it's found in. Getting the good filenames is why I'm attempting this first.

Any help would be great. I've never done this before since I always had parity and backups on my side. I'm out of my element here.

Use RebuildBS, List. If you see the files, choose Write and confirm, Quit and reboot

It shows the linux files only. I wonder, would deleting the linux partition help?

Do not delete the Linux partition.
Run TestDisk, Advanced, force the partition type to NTFS and try Boot, RebuildBS, List...

I did that. All it shows for list is the Linux file system (Each directory that is standard in Linux). I made an exact copy of the drive with dd so I can redo a recovery if I mess it up.

Please post the corresponding testdisk.log file

Here is the log, I can retry it if necessary.