Help with damaged disk Topic is solved

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Fiona
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Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#31 Post by Fiona »

Yes, obviously your disk is defect.
actually worse than before.
Your cause is a dropped netbook.
It doesn't matter if you say before or after.
In any case, it should be replaced.

If you have bad sectors on your HDDRECOVERY-partition, it might be possible that files are damaged too.
Even if you cloned it and bad sectors are skipped.
If you experience trouble, to restore your OS, it might be possible to contact Toshiba to get it on DVD.
Most notebook manufacturer offer it for a reasonable fee.

momefarley
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Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#32 Post by momefarley »

Thank you so much!!

Yes, Toshiba does offer offer recovery media.

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remy
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#33 Post by remy »

You told you've made a copy of the recovery partition, perhaps may you put a new harddisk in the computer an copy back this partition (and the original MBR) thus beeing able to reinstall without waiting for toshiba media ?

momefarley
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Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#34 Post by momefarley »

Yes, I'm hoping so. But I don't have the new drive yet to try it on.
Thank you!

I made an image copy (is that the right term? The file ends with .dd) of each of the smaller partitions. How could I use that? (I also cloned the HDDRecovery partition.)

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remy
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#35 Post by remy »

You also need an image of the MBR (first sector) to reconstruct easily your partition structure.

momefarley
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#36 Post by momefarley »

I saved an image (.dd) of the first partition and the HDDRecovery one. I have successfully copied the HDDRecovery partition onto the new (larger) hard drive via a partition copy.

But I have no idea if I got a copy of the MBR (and I reformatted the drive already...to check in another way it was defective).

How would I know? And how could I restore that image back to the new drive??

I'm apparently missing it because I can't boot into the HDDRecovery partition using 0 at the beginning...

momefarley
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Joined: 09 Apr 2012, 00:18

Re: Help with damaged disk

#37 Post by momefarley »

OK, I'm about to pull my hair out here... :x ;)

I used a Windows 7 DVD I had to install a good installation of Windows on the new drive. But it's a different Windows edition than came on the netbook (I have the key for the netbook installation, but have NOT tried any activation - haven't connected it online yet). It does the basic functions fine. I have the HDDRecovery partition on it as a primary (not hidden) partition, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to reboot it into the HDD Recovery mode. I'm guessing it's because I don't have the original MBR...

I have the Windows RE(store) partition saved (thanks to TestDisk) as an image.dd file, but I don't have a clue how to restore it and can't find anything online as to how to do so - at least that I can understand. And I'm not sure if it would be helpful or not...

I can pay $30 or $40 for recovery media, but it would take days to get here, and I'd rather not pay either... I feel so close and yet so far since I have the files right here - but can't get it to work.

The files on the HDDRecovery partition are just over 8GB, and I don't have a thumb drive over 8 GB, so I haven't tried putting it on one and trying to boot from that... I'm ordering one to arrive tomorrow or next day - in case it would help - and hopefully I can make it a bootable media for her to restore from in the future also...

Other angles on this that I haven't thought of yet??

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remy
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#38 Post by remy »

In this message :
http://forum.cgsecurity.org/phpBB3/help ... html#p1636

You have the partitions begins and ends. With testdisk, create manually this partition structure and write the MBR. Then dump the HDDRecovery in it's place on partition 3.

momefarley
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#39 Post by momefarley »

remy wrote:You have the partitions begins and ends. With testdisk, create manually this partition structure and write the MBR. Then dump the HDDRecovery in it's place on partition 3.
How would I do that? Can you give some steps? The logic of it makes sense, but I don't know the commands. I think I would need to wipe it clean again first? Which way is best?

Also, the new hard drive is twice as big (went from 250 GB to 500 GB). Oh, I guess once I use the HDDRecovery, it will make a new structure anyway - or after all is installed, I can make the recovery disks and do it yet again once I have them in hand. And then it can fit whatever size.

Thank you so much for your help!!!

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remy
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Re: Help with damaged disk

#40 Post by remy »

Quickly, because I'm late :

Quicksearch > Stop > "A" for adding partition. Juste create partitions with same position (Cylinder Hed Sector like in the link above), then WRITE.

In a first attemp, It will let the HDRECOVERY in the middle of the disk, but in the same place than before. After installing, You'll perhaps be able to supress it or put it in the end of the disk, but I don't know what append if it's not in the same place.

Then duplicate the partition image on the third partition created like above, and try to reinstall ;)

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