Deleted whole hard disk, how to recover data

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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trakyaarnavut
Posts: 2
Joined: 23 Dec 2018, 01:55

Deleted whole hard disk, how to recover data

#1 Post by trakyaarnavut »

Hello,

I have 3 hard disks. 1st one is 250gb Samsung SSD, has win10 in it. 2nd one is 250gb Toshiba portable that works slow and has connection problems, 3rd one is 500gb Seagate, which is from my brother's work computer that he gave it to me few days ago. All is/was NTFS.

500gb Seagate came with windows has in it and it was in two parts. I installed new hard disk to my computer as a second disk, deleted all work files+windows and deleted volumes, made it one part 500gb. Copied my files from external to new HD. After everything copied to new one, i wanted to clear external too. Shift+Deleted everything, as a last step, i wanted to format it, in the hope that it will work faster.

And i made a huge mistake ... while i was trying to delete external, I have selected delete volume for 500gb at win10 Disk Management tool. Immediately i have realized what i did. I did not formatted it, just deleted new hard disk volume. So, I think data is still there ?

After some research i have decided to try testdisk program. Used it at win10. It showed 500gb as two parts, marked them as a Logical. I have completed progress, did not do deeper search. Restarted computer and new HD showed as a two part as a RAW, not NTFS or any data visible. TestDisk, somehow, returned HD to one previous state. That was not the result i need. Data i want is in an one part configuration. So, i deleted volume again and now giving it an another try with flash ubuntu.

Now i am trying testdisk again. This time program finished deeper search, showing 4 results and i don't know what to do in this step. I don't want to select wrong option.
http://i66.tinypic.com/23rvoms.jpg i hope one of these options is one part 500gb option but which one..

So, what can i do to save my files.
Btw, if i can restore data from external toshiba, that would be fine too. Please help.

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cgrenier
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Re: Deleted whole hard disk, how to recover data

#2 Post by cgrenier »

Use 'p to list the files from the 500 GB partitions. If there is no error, set the partition as P(rimary).
On next screen, chose Write, confirm, Quit
After a reboot, try TestDisk, Advanced, Undelete.
If it doesn't work, use PhotoRec. Be careful to store the recovered files on another disk.

trakyaarnavut
Posts: 2
Joined: 23 Dec 2018, 01:55

Re: Deleted whole hard disk, how to recover data

#3 Post by trakyaarnavut »

Today, i have tried it again with TestDisk with following your advice.
Changed second partition (it was showing highest amount of data relative to other partitions) to "p" then rebooted computer. And it worked :) Not a single data was lost.

Thank you very much!

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