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Accidentaly "cleaned" my external hard drive, now it's RAW...

Posted: 27 Nov 2017, 17:20
by nilolium
Hey guys, testdisk was always a big help for me. But right now, I become a bit desperate...
Here is what I did:

1. Started DiskPart, accidentaly "cleaned" my external USB-drive. (Seagate Portable 500GB with around 300GB data on one NTFS partition)
2. Then (I guess this was the second mistake) I assigned it a drive letter via Windows and let it create a new MBR. Now, according to Windows, it's a primary partition (RAW-format)

In testdisk I could find my partition. It was listed two times as a FAT16 >32M.

Here is what I tried so far:

First I read the step by step page.

1a. TestDisk > Create Log > Selected My Drive > Intel > Analyze
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
Invalid FAT boot sector
1 P FAT16 >32M 0 32 33 60801 15 14 976766976
1 P FAT16 >32M 0 32 33 60801 15 14 976766976
No partition is bootable
1b. > Quick Search and afterwards > Deeper Search
Both without positive result. Sorry, I didn't save the output for this.

1c. > MBR Code / system reboot.
Still no success.

2a. TestDisk > Create Log > Selected My Drive > Intel. Advanced > Type, force the type to HPFS - NTFS (07).
Suddenly there is the option to "List".
But:
Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.
2b. > Boot
Boot Sector Status: Bad
Backup Boot Sector Status: Bad
Sectors are identical.
A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.
2c. > RebuildBS
It created an unbelievalbly huge logfile (around 70GB) which apparently was too much for my system. Anyways, the process went on with 0MB of free disk space. Without success. I don't have a screenshot of the error message but I believe it was "A valid NTFS Boot sector must be present in order to access any data; even if the partition is not bootable."

3. I checked out the EaseUS data recovery wizard. Strangely, it found the whole file system pretty quick. Everything looked like on my hard disk....But after the scan, the program was not able to recover the data like I saved and named it. And since my folder structure was really detailled, it wouldn't make any sense for me to recover that kind of data.

4a. TestDisk > Don't Create Log > Selected My Drive > Partition Table Tye none. Advanced > Type, force the type to NTFS (07)
"List" shows up again. But:
Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.

4b > Boot > RebuildBS.
Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged.
Result: Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
P NTFS 0 0 1 60801 80 63 976773168

Boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector.
Status: Bad

Backup boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read backup boot sector.
Status: Bad
Sectors are identical.

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

Now I don't know what to do. Apparently the file system and all the data is still there, but how can I get it back? How can I set up a valid NTFS Boot sector?

What comes to my mind so far:

I Didn't try CHKDSK so far. Should I?
Or should I first erase the volume via windows and run testdisk again?

I appreciate any help and will deliver screenshots and log files if needed.

Re: Accidentaly "cleaned" my external hard drive, now it's RAW...

Posted: 28 Nov 2017, 07:08
by cgrenier
There is no way that a hige log file has been generated unless all read operation have failed.
This problem matches the "ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector." message.
It looks like a physically damaged disk. The same symptom may be produced if you do not have administrator rights for your computer.

Re: Accidentaly "cleaned" my external hard drive, now it's RAW...

Posted: 28 Nov 2017, 13:49
by nilolium
Thanks for your answer. Indeed I struggle with my adminstrator rights lately. Windows always asks me, if I want to open a program, copy a file, etc. But it seems that it's impossible to give me adminstrative rights...