Partition "not formatted" - help with recovery

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Vetinari
Posts: 2
Joined: 03 Mar 2012, 18:07

Partition "not formatted" - help with recovery

#1 Post by Vetinari »

Hello,

I'm rather unsure of which steps to take to recover my partition. Any help is appreciated.

I have an ASUS Notebook, running Win XP with 2 partitions on my internal hard disk: C- bootable (working and I can see all files) and D - suddenly with a "The disk in drive D is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" error.

TestDisk Analysis and DeepSearch reveals (in green):

*FAT32 LBA 0 1 1 4863 254 63 78140097 [NO NAME]
>L FAT32 LBA 4864 1 1 14592 254 63 156296322 [DISK1_VOL2]


When I choose P for the second drive (L) I can see the files that were on my partition.

I press Enter to continue and see (in white):

Disk /dev/sda - 120GB / 111GiB - CHS 14593 255 63

Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * FAT32 LBA 0 1 1 4863 254 63 78140097 [NO NAME]
2 E extended LBA 4864 0 1 14592 254 63 156296385
5 L FAT32 LBA 4864 0 1 14592 254 63 156296385 [DISK1_VOL2]

I'm not able to interpret the results and see if there are any errors.
What should I do next? Write?


edit: I have attached the Log
Attachments
testdisk.rar
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User avatar
Fiona
Posts: 2835
Joined: 18 Feb 2012, 17:19
Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: Partition "not formatted" - help with recovery

#2 Post by Fiona »

I have not all information.

But let's have try;

This one looks ok;
*FAT32 LBA 0 1 1 4863 254 63 78140097 [NO NAME]
>L FAT32 LBA 4864 1 1 14592 254 63 156296322 [DISK1_VOL2]

The first partition is primary active and bootable.
The second one it's a logical partition.
That's why L for logical.

1 * FAT32 LBA 0 1 1 4863 254 63 78140097 [NO NAME]
2 E extended LBA 4864 0 1 14592 254 63 156296385
5 L FAT32 LBA 4864 0 1 14592 254 63 156296385 [DISK1_VOL2]

Now your other partition it's not a logical partition but a primary.
A logical partition is located in an extended partition, that's why you see the extended LBA as E.
But a primary partition located in an extended partition is wrong!
It easily means, your extended LBA partition shouldn't be there.
You can see the difference here;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Partitio ... nd_logical

Please have a try to provide the following infos;

After Analyse, I need the Infos about your current partition structur.
Please copy the full screen.
Also the result (Results) after Quick Search.
Please check that your data are listed correctly (mark your partition and press p to list your data, press q for Quit to go back to the previous screen).

If a partition is not found, then press Enter to proceed.
Highlight Deeper Search and let it run.
I'll need the infos about the results after deeper search.
When more partitions are found, mark them after another and press p to check your data.

Please let me know, which partitions containing your data.

Vetinari
Posts: 2
Joined: 03 Mar 2012, 18:07

Re: Partition "not formatted" - help with recovery

#3 Post by Vetinari »

Hello Fiona, many thanks for your reply.
I will include step by step screenshots.

I go Create Log > Intel> n for Vista > Analyse


Only one drive is found. I select it and do a quick search.
Image

After quick search I get this:
Image

I choose the logical partition and p to check the file list - it seems like the right partition with the right folders (the ones I want to recover).
Image

I do a deep search (although I think all partitions have been found, as there should be 2?) and receive this screen:
Image

I choose the logical partition and hit enter:
Image

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

Re: Partition "not formatted" - help with recovery

#4 Post by Fiona »

Thank you for your information!

I've checked everything. but it looks like that your partition table and boot sector are Ok.
So there is nothing to fix!
If testdisk doesn't find something indicates that your file system is damaged.
When you list your data, you can see a folder named found000.
It means that chkdsk already tried to repair your file system.
Chkdsk is a utility for trying to repair a file system but not to recover data.
It's strongly recommended to copy/backup your files using testdisk first.
If you list your data in testdisk, you see the available commands to copy data at the bottom of the screen.
Standard destination is the testdisk folder.
If you'd like to use another destination, mark that two point and press enter.
You'll get one directory higher until you see your drive selection.

So you would be able to select another drive or destination where you can copy your data.

Please backup your data first!

Afterwards, execute chkdsk driveletter: /r to have a try to repair your file system!
Click Start, and then click Run.
In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
type;
chkdsk driveletter: /r
It makes an exhaustive check.
Takes some time but it tries to recover data and replaces bad sectors through spare sectors.

When chkdsk hangs or gets interrupted, please let me know.

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