From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Author
ruga
Posts: 4
Joined: 04 Aug 2018, 20:24

From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#1 Post by ruga »

Hello,

On a MacBook with a 1TB disk mounted via USB 2.0, I plugged in an SD card and the smart MacOS asked "do you want to initialize it?". It then opened Disk Utility and pre-selected ... the 1TB disk of course. I had the neighbour's caraoke playing aloud across the street and you know what came next. I did not realize the mistake, however, because the SD card was still unrecognized. The smart MacOS asked again, and again. In summary, never work late, ever. Now the messy part. The 1TB disk had a single HFS+ partition. The SD card I was expecting to work on was initialized, three times, as exFAT. Yesterday I plugged in TestDisk, and it returned "Intel" as partition table type. Wrong, of course. I then selected "Mac", but TestDisk did not find any partition. I then selected for analysis, and it has been running ever since. This is what I see, after 24h...

TestDisk 7.1-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2018
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/rdisk2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors
Analyse sector 97484800/1953525167: 04%


Unknown 6219808 1959739743 1953519936
Unknown 6219920 1959739855 1953519936
Unknown 9537056 1963056991 1953519936
Unknown 9537168 1963057103 1953519936
Unknown 9951712 1963471647 1953519936
Unknown 9951824 1963471759 1953519936
Unknown 10366368 1963886303 1953519936
Unknown 10366480 1963886415 1953519936
Unknown 10781024 1964300959 1953519936
Unknown 10781136 1964301071 1953519936
Unknown 11195680 1964715615 1953519936
Unknown 11195792 1964715727 1953519936
Unknown 11610336 1965130271 1953519936
Unknown 11610448 1965130383 1953519936
Unknown 12024992 1965544927 1953519936
Unknown 12025104 1965545039 1953519936
Unknown 12439648 1965959583 1953519936
Unknown 12439760 1965959695 1953519936
Unknown 12854304 1966374239 1953519936
Unknown 12854416 1966374351 1953519936
Unknown 13268960 1966788895 1953519936
Unknown 13269072 1966789007 1953519936

It is not looking good. I may have to leave it running until Christmas, and still say a little prayer.

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cgrenier
Site Admin
Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
Location: Le Perreux Sur Marne, France
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Re: From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#2 Post by cgrenier »

Use EFI GPT instead of Mac.

ruga
Posts: 4
Joined: 04 Aug 2018, 20:24

Re: From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#3 Post by ruga »

Yes, last night I used EFI GPT on /dev/rdisk2.

> analyse

TestDisk 7.1-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2018
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/rdisk2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors (RO)
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.
Trying alternate GPT
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.

> Quick search

After about 24h, it returns a list similar to the previous one. It is now at 6%.

ruga
Posts: 4
Joined: 04 Aug 2018, 20:24

Re: From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#4 Post by ruga »

TestDisk 7.1-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2018
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/rdisk2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors (RO)
Analyse sector 8388608/1953525167: 00%


Solaris /home 3317216 1956837151 1953519936
Solaris /home 3317328 1956837263 1953519936
Solaris /home 3731872 1957251807 1953519936
Solaris /home 3731984 1957251919 1953519936
Solaris /home 4146528 1957666463 1953519936
Solaris /home 4146640 1957666575 1953519936
Solaris /home 4561184 1958081119 1953519936
Solaris /home 4561296 1958081231 1953519936
Solaris /home 4975840 1958495775 1953519936
Solaris /home 4975952 1958495887 1953519936
Solaris /home 5390496 1958910431 1953519936
Solaris /home 5390608 1958910543 1953519936
Solaris /home 5805152 1959325087 1953519936
Solaris /home 5805264 1959325199 1953519936
Solaris /home 6219808 1959739743 1953519936
Solaris /home 6219920 1959739855 1953519936
...

ruga
Posts: 4
Joined: 04 Aug 2018, 20:24

Re: From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#5 Post by ruga »

TestDisk 7.1-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, June 2018
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/rdisk2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - 1953525168 sectors (RO)
Analyse sector 120782848/1953525167: 06%


Solaris /home 10781024 1964300959 1953519936
Solaris /home 10781136 1964301071 1953519936
Solaris /home 11195680 1964715615 1953519936
Solaris /home 11195792 1964715727 1953519936
Solaris /home 11610336 1965130271 1953519936
Solaris /home 11610448 1965130383 1953519936
Solaris /home 12024992 1965544927 1953519936
Solaris /home 12025104 1965545039 1953519936
Solaris /home 12439648 1965959583 1953519936
Solaris /home 12439760 1965959695 1953519936
Solaris /home 12854304 1966374239 1953519936
Solaris /home 12854416 1966374351 1953519936
Solaris /home 13268960 1966788895 1953519936
Solaris /home 13269072 1966789007 1953519936
Unknown 19470896 19984723365927471 19984723346456576 [~^~Y??~Zo^ESK^S?~T? ~R^[~Ld?~^??^?ס?~\????]
Solaris /home 71735456 2025255391 1953519936
Solaris /home 71735568 2025255503 1953519936

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cgrenier
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Posts: 5432
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 15:08
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Re: From Disk Utility to Test Disk...

#6 Post by cgrenier »

It wasn't the case on the first screen but now the disk is opened as read-only. A partition of this disk is mounted, so TestDisk will not be able to modify the partition table.

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