Restore inaccessible RAW Win8.1 Storage Space

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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elrao
Posts: 3
Joined: 07 Aug 2015, 14:32

Restore inaccessible RAW Win8.1 Storage Space

#1 Post by elrao »

Yesterday my win8.1 storage space stopped working, by that I mean I can see "Local Disk (D:) within windows explorer, but it isn't accessible.

Windows "Manage Storage Space" function shows the pool as "OK" and all the physical drives are listed underneath it, each drive showing OK. It is a simple pool (no resiliency), with 14.5TB capacity, made up from of 5 2TB drives and a 6TB drive.

Windows "Disk Management" shows a healthy (primary partition) with the correct size 14847.87 GB , but lists the file system as RAW.

The first piece of software I came across ReclaiMe has enabled me to access the drive and, it appears, all my files are still there - but offered no way to repair the pool. Some more googling led me to TestDisk, which has high praise from people who appeared to have the same issue as me and were able to resolve it, but unfortunately didn't say exactly how!

Here is where I am:
Run TestDisk as an administrator
Selected to create a new log
Select "Drive D: - 15 TB / 14 TiB" and Proceed
Detects a "None" partition table, click to Proceed
Advanced Menu -> Boot, this shows my Boot Sector as damaged, backup boot sector OK
Repair BS
List -> "Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged"

elrao
Posts: 3
Joined: 07 Aug 2015, 14:32

Re: Restore inaccessible RAW Win8.1 Storage Space

#2 Post by elrao »

In case anyone else comes across this with the same issue, the above steps did resolve the problem (thankfully!!); just needed to reboot the PC after the BS rebuild, so steps to fix
  • Run TestDisk as an administrator
    Selected to create a new log
    Select your storage pool (by drive letter, for me it was D:/) and Proceed
    For me it detects a "None" partition table, leave this as it is and click to Proceed
    Advanced Menu -> Boot
    If this shows Boot Sector as damaged, backup boot sector OK, then select "Repair BS"
    Reboot PC

elrao
Posts: 3
Joined: 07 Aug 2015, 14:32

Re: Restore inaccessible RAW Win8.1 Storage Space

#3 Post by elrao »

So I now have another problem with this SS. Access was very slow navigating the folders via Explorer so I thought I'd check the disk.

TestDisk is showing the boot sector as OK, but the backup as damaged. Tried the Org. BS option to copy the good boot sector over the backup, but got a write error. I then tried RepairBS and that have me a write failure too. Any ideas?

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