i'm going to post here my request for help I've already posted into another forum hoping someone could help me in solving this issue.
=====Original post============
I'd like to have some help in recovering data from the Win7 ntfs partition I have configured into my laptop (HP Elitebook 8460p), after installing LM17 xfce 64.
I'll try now to make the long story short.
Introduction:
- Win7 is originally installed into this laptop
- under win7 I previously resized the partition in order to create a free space of around 60gb for installing linux
- I used to work with LM, but this time I tried to install debian testing via netinst
- everything worked fine with debian until it installed grub since it didn't recognize the presence of win7, but I was informed i should have been able to fix it later.
- unfortunately I din't find the correct way to do it so under debian i was only able to boot into linux
Present situation:
- so I decided to go back to LM installing the latest xfce 64 version, hoping it could recover win7 someway automatically, but it didn't since I found there's a problem regarding NTFS signature that is missing
Below I'm coping everything I tried to do up to now, following what I found suggested in internet.
As you can read below I also tried to use the testdisk tool but "Rebuild BS" didn't worked in fixing the issue.
Conclusion:
My optimal goal is obviously to have a working dual boot system but I can also be happy with being able to access the ntfs partion so I can save some data i really need to have.
Do you have any idea of what I can do now?
Thanks a lot
gico
Code: Select all
sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0a25c191
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 365514751 182756352 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 365516798 488396799 61440001 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 483323904 488396799 2536448 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 365516800 483323903 58903552 83 Linux
------------
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows/
NTFS signature is missing.
Failed to mount '/dev/sda1': Invalid argument
The device '/dev/sda1' doesn't seem to have a valid NTFS.
Maybe the wrong device is used? Or the whole disk instead of a
partition (e.g. /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1)? Or the other way around?
------------
TestDisk 6.14, Data Recovery Utility, July 2013
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sda - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30401 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 22752 61 29 365512704
Boot sector
Status: Bad
Backup boot sector
Status: Bad
Sectors are not identical.
A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.
Note:
"Rebuild BS" didn't worked
----------------
TestDisk 6.14, Data Recovery Utility, July 2013
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
Disk /dev/sda - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30401 255 63
Warning: the current number of heads per cylinder is 255
but the correct value may be 128.
You can use the Geometry menu to change this value.
It's something to try if
- some partitions are not found by TestDisk
- or the partition table can not be written because partitions overlaps.
----------------
sudo ntfsfix /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for giorgio:
Mounting volume... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Attempting to correct errors... NTFS signature is missing.
FAILED
Failed to startup volume: Invalid argument
NTFS signature is missing.
Trying the alternate boot sector
Unrecoverable error
Volume is corrupt. You should run chkdsk.
----------------
Into this situation, the status of both "Boot sector" and "Backup boot sector" is Bad.
Is there a proper way to operate with TestDisk when both of them are bad? till now I've not found anything related to this situation into the TD documentation.
I was also suggested to try and use the tool "Minitool Partition Wizard boot CD" but unfortunately it didn't work to recover the lost win7 partition.
Thanks in advance of any support you can provide me.
ciao
g