Recovering ext4 drive

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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wiesel
Posts: 3
Joined: 17 Aug 2016, 18:23

Recovering ext4 drive

#1 Post by wiesel »

Hello!

I have an ext4 drive full of files I used on a Windows 10 machine. Unfortunately I opened Windows' disk management and created a new GPT partition table so the drive appears as raw on both Windows and Linux now.

I started TestDisk and it detects a GPT partition table:

Image

I assume this is the partition table Windows 10 created and not the original one. I can't remember whether I used MBR or GPT for this drive when I created it. So my question is which partition table should I choose and how to proceed from there on?

Any help is much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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cgrenier
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Re: Recovering ext4 drive

#2 Post by cgrenier »

As the disk is over 2 TB, EFI GPT was probably used. You can safely try it. Nothing will be written on the disk unless you choose Write, Delete or a similar command.

wiesel
Posts: 3
Joined: 17 Aug 2016, 18:23

Re: Recovering ext4 drive

#3 Post by wiesel »

Thanks a lot for the quick reply!

I have analysed the disk, it shows me only two Microsoft partitions. I have taken a look at the files found. It looks like the whole file and folder tree was found, but at least half of the files and folders are coloured in red.

I am running the deep analysis now which will probably take the whole evening or even the night. Should I watch out for an ext4 partition and try to restore it or is there anything else I should do?

wiesel
Posts: 3
Joined: 17 Aug 2016, 18:23

Re: Recovering ext4 drive

#4 Post by wiesel »

Update: After running the deep analysis for the whole night it found the ext4 partition I was looking for. It looks like I used MBR when creating the drive.

I marked the partition as primary and pressed enter. Then it prompted me to quit. Seconds later my PC mounts the drive and it looks like all files and folders are still there! TestDisk really does some magic. :mrgreen:

Is there an easy way to check the file integrity? For the films I had on the disk it's pretty simple, I can just cycle through them. But for other files likes .iso less so...

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