External drive vanished

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: External drive vanished

#11 Post by Fiona »

Ok, please use EFI GPT.
Your disk should be listed exactly as it was here;
Disk /dev/sdc - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 969010 32 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

1 P EFI System 40 409639 409600
Warning: number of heads/cylinder mismatches 255 (NTFS) != 32 (HD)
2 P MS Data 409640 1953262983 1952853344 [Time Machine]
If the values in TestDisk are 255 at heads and sectors 63 it could be changed in the menu geometry.
In case let me know.

Confirm in TestDisk through until you see Analyse.
Don't confirm at Analyse but Advanced.
Choose your partition MS Data!
If it appears as Unknown, please go to Type and change it to your previous file system NTFS.
If the menu Boot is not available you must change it to NTFS using Type also.
Confirm at Boot and provide info about your boot sector and its backup.
Please run Rebuild BS.
As long as you don't confirm at Write afterwards, youll not going to change anything.
If "Rebuild BS" was succesful you should see the menu List!
Have a try to list your files at the menu List.
Do you see your files or an error message!

Fiona

flash68
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 May 2012, 12:06

Re: External drive vanished

#12 Post by flash68 »

Hi Fiona,

Type NTFS is not available...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

2 P MS Data 409640 1953262983 1952853344 [Time Machine]
Please choose the partition type, press Enter when done.

EFI System HPUX Data Solaris /home
MBR HPUX Service Solaris EFI Alt.
FreeBSD Mac HFS Solaris Reserved1
FreeBSD Swap Mac UFS Solaris Reserved2
FreeBSD UFS Mac Raid Solaris Reserved3
FreeBSD Vinum Mac Raid (Offline) Solaris Reserved4
FreeBSD ZFS Mac Boot Solaris Reserved5
MS Reserved Mac Label
>MS Data Mac TV Recovery
MS LDM MetaData Solaris /boot
MS LDM Data Solaris /
Linux Raid Solaris Swap
Linux Swap Solaris Backup
Linux LVM Solaris /usr
Linux Reserved Solaris /var

[ Proceed ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the results from [Boot] on the MS Data partition...


------------------------------------------------------------------------

TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdc - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
2 P MS Data 409640 1953262983 1952853344 [Time Machine]

Boot sector
Status: OK

Backup boot sector
Status: OK

Sectors are identical.

A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.


>[ Quit ] [ List ] [Rebuild BS] [Repair MFT] [ Dump ]
Return to Advanced menu

------------------------------------------------------------------------

flash68
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 May 2012, 12:06

Re: External drive vanished

#13 Post by flash68 »

Also i can see my files with LIST even before REBUILD BS

flash68
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 May 2012, 12:06

Re: External drive vanished

#14 Post by flash68 »

Hi Fiona - I don't see the the option for NTFS on the list of TYPEs - what do I do?
Also, after I've changed to NTFS, shall I REBUILD BS even though I can already see my files when I LIST.
Thanks

flash68
Posts: 11
Joined: 10 May 2012, 12:06

Re: External drive vanished

#15 Post by flash68 »

Hi Fiona - am I missing something, I can't see NTFS as a type.
Thanks
Gordon

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

Re: External drive vanished

#16 Post by Fiona »

EFI System HPUX Data Solaris /home
MBR HPUX Service Solaris EFI Alt.
FreeBSD Mac HFS Solaris Reserved1
FreeBSD Swap Mac UFS Solaris Reserved2
FreeBSD UFS Mac Raid Solaris Reserved3
FreeBSD Vinum Mac Raid (Offline) Solaris Reserved4
FreeBSD ZFS Mac Boot Solaris Reserved5
MS Reserved Mac Label
>MS Data Mac TV Recovery
MS LDM MetaData Solaris /boot
MS LDM Data Solaris /
Linux Raid Solaris Swap
Linux Swap Solaris Backup
Linux LVM Solaris /usr
Linux Reserved Solaris /var
Before you can add NTFS you must choose the disk type.
Would it be possible to check MS Data Mac TV Recovery?
Please let me knoe, do you see tghe list now?

Fiona

RobinOC
Posts: 1
Joined: 21 Oct 2012, 20:41

Re: External drive vanished

#17 Post by RobinOC »

Fiona,

I'm having a similar problem except my partitions show as EFI and Mac HTFS+. Its a 2TB Hitachi drive in an external caddy.

I see this thread seems to have stopped back in May and wondered if the original poster solved their problem and recovered all their data?

Thanks,

Rob

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