Harddisk too small?

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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widstje
Posts: 2
Joined: 19 Dec 2015, 20:50

Harddisk too small?

#1 Post by widstje »

I'm working on recovering an old 80GB Maxtor of mine that came out of a Windows XP machine. It stopped functioning properly after a power interruption. I ran TestDisk analyze twice (once quick, the other deeper) and got the same results. Here's the screenshot. Not sure what to do now.
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testdisk.jpg
testdisk.jpg (63.51 KiB) Viewed 3668 times

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

Re: Harddisk too small?

#2 Post by Fiona »

Your found partition displays a size of 163 GB.
Your disk size is 81 GB.
That's why, you can´t recover it, because your partition ends after disk limit.
Can you run "Deeper Search too?
It's a try to find your partition by the backup of the boot sector.

Fiona

widstje
Posts: 2
Joined: 19 Dec 2015, 20:50

Re: Harddisk too small?

#3 Post by widstje »

I think I figured out what's going on.

I haven't used this disk in awhile so I didn't remember it was last part of a RAID 0 setup that went bad. I guess the partition is set to run both disks of the array. When I attempted to recover the files off this disk I got a few smaller images and pieces of others. From what I've read there is no putting the array back together without the second disk (which I don't have because I formatted it long ago).

windy91
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Dec 2015, 13:16

Re: Harddisk too small?

#4 Post by windy91 »

widstje wrote:I think I figured out what's going on.

I haven't used this disk in awhile so I didn't remember it was last part of a RAID 0 setup that went bad. I guess the partition is set to run both disks of the array. When I attempted to recover the files off this disk I got a few smaller images and pieces of others. From what I've read there is no putting the array back together without the second disk (which I don't have because I formatted it long ago).
hello widstje, I encountered the same problem as you did with the screenshot. Only difference is I don't know a single thing about what's going on and I'm pretty sure I have not formatted the second disk or anything like that. Is there anyone who can help me with this problem?

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

Re: Harddisk too small?

#5 Post by Fiona »

On RAID0 data are written rotative in Blocks on both disks.
When only 1 disk is available you would only have file fragments on your disk.
For a successful recovery, you'd need both disks.

Fiona

windy91
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Dec 2015, 13:16

Re: Harddisk too small?

#6 Post by windy91 »

For cases like this, do I really have to approach professional disk recovery services?

Thanks a lot Fiona !

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

Re: Harddisk too small?

#7 Post by Fiona »

Datarecovery services can't help in your case.
You'll need both disks.
Might be possible that few files are recoverable?
In case you can try datarecovery software like PhotoRec.

Fiona

windy91
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Dec 2015, 13:16

Re: Harddisk too small?

#8 Post by windy91 »

Will give it a try, thanks again Fiona !

alesterw123
Posts: 2
Joined: 11 Jun 2015, 21:14

Re: Harddisk too small?

#9 Post by alesterw123 »

Data recovery tool can be handy for your situation, do not buy the product instead try demo version. If you are successful in recovery then it fine or else you will have to look for other suitable solution. Try this out http://www.recoverfilesfromharddrive.ne ... drive.html

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