lost partitions - how to save listed files with long names Topic is solved

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 Feb 2012, 09:49

lost partitions - how to save listed files with long names

#1 Post by newbie »

I have used an eSata 1,5TB HD (NTFS formatted with two primary partitions) with a Digitus eSata to USB Adapter when I have got an Blue Screen in Vista. After reboot the external drive was not correctly recognized via USB in the tasktray since it was missing the drive letter and was only seen as an USB Storage Device. In the Device Manager the Harddisk was recognized correctly as a Seagate with the appropriate model number, while in the Windows Disk Management snap-in it was shown uninitialised. Every test in Vista with testdisk-win with the harddisk connected as an external USB via the Digitus eSATA to USB Adapter or as an external IDE via the Digitus eSATA to USB in connection with an eSata to IDE connector which I had laying around, or the hardisk connected directly via an external eSATA Drive Bay when built in an external eSATA drive did not find any of the lost partitions. I tried also to boot with the eSATA as a second internal drive but the Bios couldn't initialize the damaged drive at all and the boot process stopped. Therefore I tried testdisk under Linux with the gparted boot cd, but even here the partitions weren't found with the search function after it was asked to search for NTFS partitions. I made the same tests with my Thinkpad Notebook under WinXP with the same results. Then I remembered that I had an old Promise SATA TX2 adapter which I built in an old Pentium 4 PC which I still had. The damaged Hardisk I connected as an internal second HD with the Promise adapter and I booted from a Hirens Boot CD, luckily the Bios of the Promise recognized the Hardisk correctly and I could start testdisk dos which recognized the hardisk now via the BIOS with INT 81 correctly, even both partitions were found, which couldn't be found with all the tests before when it was done via the drivers in win or linux. Now I can list all the files in testdisk but I have the problem how to save the 1,5TB with copying in testdisk, because the old PC has only a USB 2.0 addon card build in, every test to install USB Storage drivers with the universal bootdisk USB storage drivers ended with a division overflow error when the needed ti1000dd.sys driver is installed! Therefore I connected the external usb drive (Fat32 formatted) which I wanted to use as the recovery drive to my Vista PC and shared it, so I can use the universal bootdisk TCP/IP dos service to map this drive with the net use command from the Pentium 4 PC. When I change on the network share before I start testdisk I can copy to the recovery drive but only with short filenames, all my long ntfs filenames got truncated! Even a test with the recovery drive formatted as NTFS and then in the universal bootdisk TCP/IP services with the NTFS feature enabled ended in truncated filenames when copying the correctly listed long filenames from testdisk to the recovery drive! Therefore I need to know how I can save the correctly listed long filenames within testdisk dos by copying them with the testdisk copy feature to my recovery drive via TCP/IP network share. I knew I can also write the found partition information back on harddisk to get the chance that Vista will recognize the harddrive in the correct way, but the damaged drive is my backup drive containing all the important files so I will be on the safer side when I can backup my files before testing this with copying them to my recovery drive, especially as testdisk found everything which I tested when I changed through the directories and all the files were there down to the 'deepest' directories. I would really appreciate any help regarding the problem of saving the files with long filenames. Thx in advance.

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

Re: lost partitions - how to save listed files with long nam

#2 Post by Fiona »

Especially to support cases like you have, I created a FreeDOS-ISO containing TestDisk as a BootCD.
This ISO supports long file names.

I didn't test this ISO in a network environment but a normal USB-Disk.

There is also something to watch;
External USB-Disks must be attached before booting and TestDisk must recognize them.
There was no USB-Driver neccessary.
To copy Data in TestDisk, TestDisk must support file copying from this filesystem (doesn't a matter if source drive is NTFS, FAT, ext 2-3-4).
On FreeDOS, only FAT is supported.
That's why it's only possible to copy data to FAT-drives.
Drive letters are changed.
It means, if you have one (1) FAT drive, it might be C: and so on.
Please be careful where you copy your data.
Also, filesize limit on FAT32 is 4 GB.

If you want to obtain this ISO for testing purposes, please drop me a personal message (pm) with your email address.
So I will send it to you.

//Only one Thread might be neccessary!
The other one will be removed.

newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 Feb 2012, 09:49

Re: lost partitions - how to save listed files with long nam

#3 Post by newbie »

Unfortunately my external USB recovery drive which is a Western Digital 2,5" 1TB Elements was only recognised from testdisk-win and testdisk Linux (gparted boot cd) via the drivers, which was useless for me because the partitions weren't found from testdisk. When I connected the recovery drive directly to my old Pentium 4 PC which has only USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 only through two addon cards, testdisk-dos did not recognise the USB drive when connected with USB 2.0 no matter which addon card I use. When I try to use it with the internal USB 1.1 motherboard connector the boot process got stuck. This behaviour lead me to the tests with the universal bootdisk USB 2.0 drivers and then to the TCP/IP network share (see first post). Your FreeDOS-ISO which supports long file names might then be the only choice ...
Or is there any workaround to get testdisk recognize my Elements USB drive via the USB 2.0 addon cards ?
Regarding the FreeDOS-ISO I suppose also FAT32 is supported ?

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

Re: lost partitions - how to save listed files with long nam

#4 Post by Fiona »

Addon cards can be critical to get recognized!

The ISO supports FAT32.
Can you send me your email address via PM?
So I can send it to you.

Fiona

newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 22 Feb 2012, 09:49

Re: lost partitions - how to save listed files with long nam

#5 Post by newbie »

wanted to give a short success information: after I painfully had saved all of the 1.5TB with copying (only to be on the save side) I was ready to let Testdisk-DOS write the found partition information back onto disk.
What should I say ... when I reconnected my 1.5TB SATA Drive via the Promise SATA to USB Adapter to my Vista PC both Logical Drives were found with all of my files as it was before my bluescreen crash.

Next time I knew that I don't have to go again through the time consuming procedure of copying all of the files listed in testdisk, when I can get the disk working in seconds by writing back the correctly found partition information back onto disk.

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

Re: lost partitions - how to save listed files with long nam

#6 Post by Fiona »

Thanks for your reply! :)
After dataloss, users are careful.
If they get a possibility to backup data, they want do that first.
Even if it takes much time.

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