Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#1 Post by DavidM »

Hi all,
I have a few machines here with front-mounted SATA bays. I safely unmounted a hard disk (NTFS) with valuable contents, and then mounted it in another machine. When I did so, that machine showed it as having the volume label of the drive that had been in it before. When I checked the contents, the most important folders were missing.

After checking on another machine, I ran chkdsk and it ran off an entire list of errors and "fixed" them. The drive now appears as except for one folder.

TestDisk tells me the following:

Image

I've left it doing a Deep Scan overnight in the hope that I'm going to wake up to recoverable data tomorrow. Having said that, can any experts on here offer any more advice?

Many thanks, and fingers crossed.

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

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#2 Post by Fiona »

TestDisk 7.1WIP 32bit is generally recommended.
In TestDisk under disk selection, you shouldn't select a Drive but your Disk in stead.
It looks like:
Disk /dev/sd* (*=a,b,c,d, etc..)
Can you repeat your diagnose and selecting your disk instead of a drive?

Fiona

DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#3 Post by DavidM »

Hi Fiona
Thanks for your help! I'm 84% of the way through a deep scan doing just that. Here's what we have so far:

Image

So far, I've been able to recover all of the files using Recuva. However, the original directory structure is lost, and for this particular project, that's a big problem (there are many files that have the same filename, for example). Hopefully TestDisk can recover that...

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

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#4 Post by Fiona »

Please copy and paste the content of your testdisk.log into your next post.
At the result display, select each partition and press p to have a try to list your files.

Fiona

DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#5 Post by DavidM »

Hi Fiona, and thank you once again.

So, it lists 4 partitions.

The first reveals the same as I found in Windows Explorer.
The second reveals totally scrambled, random names and dates.
The other two just give me messages saying the filesystem is damaged.

http://pastebin.com/KSGi6n0W

DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#6 Post by DavidM »

Hi again,
I've tried using PhotoRec now also. This is giving a similar result to Recuva, it's restoring files. Unlike Recuva, it's not getting the original names.

It does appear that my running chkdsk on the drive essentially deleted the files. By being able to recover them with their original filenames, I should be able to find some way to put them back into their original folders to make them usable again. At least, what could have been an absolute horror story has been minimized into only being a gigantic annoyance.

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

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#7 Post by Fiona »

On you snapshot above.
Your NTFS-partition has one directory and can contain data.
Are you missing any directories?
I suppose, your FAT16<32M-partitions have no significance?
TestDisk searches for partitions and can find any remnants or info and display them.
FAT16-partitions are limited to 2 GB.

Fiona

DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#8 Post by DavidM »

Hi Fiona
Just a little follow up: I tested a bunch of recovery tools, and I was able to completely recover all of the files, and even the folder structure, by using Stellar Phoenix for Windows.
Thanks again for all your help.

Edit: spoke too soon. Stellar Phoenix shows the files/folder structure and sizes, but on recovery, the files are all 0kb.

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

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#9 Post by Fiona »

Looks like that chkdsk was modifying files and file system?
Might be possible that directories and files with 0 kb are empty.
That's why it's important to watch file size too.
Can you rescan your disk?
You should have a look for lost files (if stellar lists any folder with lost files?)
They're most arranged by file types like jpg. mov, doc etc..
Did you try PhotoRec?

Fiona

DavidM
Posts: 6
Joined: 01 Dec 2015, 02:45

Re: Bad relative sector, space conflict between partitions

#10 Post by DavidM »

Hi Fiona

OK, so there is a happy ending. It turns out that in the DPX spec, the original file name and folder name are written into the file header. I just need to write a script to extract this information and put the data back into its correct place.

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