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Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 25 Sep 2017, 05:39
by WillHK
Hello everybody,

I started using TestDisk after I broke the dual boot of my laptop (Windows 10 Creators update + Linux Mint 18.2).
After having started TestDisk, I got this:
Test Disk Intel 2.png
Test Disk Intel 2.png (67.6 KiB) Viewed 3935 times
And then after I chose HPFS - NTFS and pressed Enter, I got that (Deep Search 30% completed but still running):
Deep Search 30.png
Deep Search 30.png (53.04 KiB) Viewed 3935 times
I noticed that all partitions are deleted and duplicated as well.

Would you suggest to delete the duplicates?

Thank you all,

William

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 25 Sep 2017, 05:57
by cgrenier
You are currently looking for lost/deleted partitions. Assuming it's your problem, you will have to use the arrow keys to switch the partitions to keep/recover from D(eleted) to P(rimary), L(ogical) or *(bootable). If the generated partition table is ok, choose Write, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.
Read https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf for common problems and solutions.

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 25 Sep 2017, 07:07
by WillHK
Thanks, Christophe !!

Excellent tool you created

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 26 Sep 2017, 06:10
by WillHK
Hello Christophe,

I did this operation
you will have to use the arrow keys to switch the partitions to keep/recover from D(eleted) to P(rimary), L(ogical) or *(bootable). If the generated partition table is ok, choose Write, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.
But nothing happens after that, I still have a system failure (I selected HPFS - NTFS as primary bootable).

Since this laptop had Windows 8 preinstalled, then I installed Linux Mint alongside then upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10. everything fell apart as soon as I upgraded to Windows 10 Creators update I wonder if this is not a bit more complicated (partitions overlapping)
So first, in order to retrieve Windows 10, I chose Intel instead of EFI GPT.
Testdisk 2.png
Testdisk 2.png (54.27 KiB) Viewed 3917 times
Then I get this screen with all partitions deleted:
Test disk 3.png
Test disk 3.png (60.39 KiB) Viewed 3917 times
Then I chose the first partition and start a deeper search.
I selected the biggest deleted partition which corresponds to the Windows partition and set it as boot:
Set HPFS - NTFS as boot.png
Set HPFS - NTFS as boot.png (35.44 KiB) Viewed 3916 times
Let's see how it goes.

Thanks for your support !!

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 26 Sep 2017, 06:27
by WillHK
By the way after I entered the command

Code: Select all

sudo gdisk /dev/sda
, I got these errors:
gdisk GPT 3 errors.png
gdisk GPT 3 errors.png (85.3 KiB) Viewed 3913 times
Really not sure what I am doing...

Cheers

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 26 Sep 2017, 18:01
by cgrenier
As your partitions overlaps, copy the files you want to keep/recover on another disk and once it's done, set the partition you want to keep as *(bootable) or P(rimary).
When finished, choose the partition table, and reinstall an OS (Windows or Linux Mint) in the unallocated space.

Re: Partitions broken and duplicated

Posted: 27 Sep 2017, 03:51
by WillHK
Hi Christophe,

I gave up with the current broken dual boot, I simply reinstalled Linux Mint in the whole disk and use PhotoRec to recover as many files as I can.

Thank you so much for your help and tools !!

William