I've been trying unsuccessfully to restore a FAT32 partition in a Samsung STORY Station using TestDisk 7.0 on Debian GNU/Linux, but I only get the message "The following partitions can't be recovered", and "This partition ends after the disk limits." in the log file.
In first place I wanted to change the file system from FAT32 to NTFS, so I backed up up some directories with no problem to make room to create a NTFS partition. Everything was fine until I backed up the Pictures folder (93 GB), which required the use of rsync, many times. Because I noticed a 5 GB gap between the size of the source folder (FAT32) and the destiny folder (NTFS) I decided to run TestDisk to undelete the missing files. There the things went down: I restored a very old FAT32 partition with just a few video files and now the partition Audio (773 GB) and Video (853 GB) seems to be wiped out.
To make things worst I decided to follow the instructions of How to clean an MBR and recover drive partitions so I deleted the Boot Sector with GParted to write a new one... and decided to deleted both partitions: FAT32 and NTFS and somehow restore the old FAT32 partition with the Audio and Video folder... but now TestDisk cannot restore anything because a wrong geometry issue.
Code: Select all
Thu Oct 11 09:13:44 2018
Command line: TestDisk
TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Linux, kernel 4.18.0-0.bpo.1-686-pae (#1 SMP Debian 4.18.6-1~bpo9+1 (2018-09-13)) i686
Compiler: GCC 6.3
ext2fs lib: 1.44.2, ntfs lib: libntfs-3g, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: none, curses lib: ncurses 6.0
/dev/sda: LBA, HPA, LBA48, DCO support
/dev/sda: size 976773168 sectors
/dev/sda: user_max 976773168 sectors
/dev/sda: native_max 976773168 sectors
/dev/sda: dco 976773168 sectors
Warning: can't get size for Disk /dev/mapper/control - 0 B - 0 sectors, sector size=512
Hard disk list
Disk /dev/sda - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60801 255 63, sector size=512 - WDC WD5000BPVT-55HXZT4, S/N:WD-WXU1EB1MMHDW, FW:01.01A01
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512 - Samsung STORY Station
Partition table type default to Intel
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - Samsung STORY Station
Partition table type: Intel
New options :
Dump : Yes
Align partition: Yes
Expert mode : Yes
Interface Advanced
Analyse Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
Current partition structure:
No partition is bootable
search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
BAD_RS LBA=1311815976 5532187
check_FAT: can't read FAT boot sector
check_part_i386 failed for partition type 0C
FAT32 LBA 349006 29 56 522761 215 38 2791385776
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=5606783272, size=2791385776, end=8398169047, disk end=3907029168)
BAD_RS LBA=3719113507 9528184
check_part_i386 failed for partition type 01
FAT12 231504 27 47 467773 232 55 3795674409
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=3719113507, size=3795674409, end=7514787915, disk end=3907029168)
NTFS at 225353/239/39
filesystem size 286717952
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 4
mftmirr_lcn 17919871
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 146 GB / 136 GiB
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...
The harddisk (2000 GB / 1863 GiB) seems too small! (< 4299 GB / 4004 GiB)
The following partitions can't be recovered:
FAT12 231504 27 47 467773 232 55 3795674409
FAT32 LBA 349006 29 56 522761 215 38 2791385776
Results
* HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 146 GB / 136 GiB
Hint for advanced users. dmsetup may be used if you prefer to avoid to rewrite the partition table for the moment:
echo "0 286717952 linear /dev/sdb 3620311040" | dmsetup create test0
interface_write()
1 * HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
search_part()
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
BAD_RS LBA=1311815976 5532187
check_FAT: can't read FAT boot sector
check_part_i386 failed for partition type 0C
FAT32 LBA 349006 29 56 522761 215 38 2791385776
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=5606783272, size=2791385776, end=8398169047, disk end=3907029168)
BAD_RS LBA=3719113507 9528184
check_part_i386 failed for partition type 01
FAT12 231504 27 47 467773 232 55 3795674409
This partition ends after the disk limits. (start=3719113507, size=3795674409, end=7514787915, disk end=3907029168)
NTFS at 225353/239/39
filesystem size 286717952
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 4
mftmirr_lcn 17919871
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 146 GB / 136 GiB
NTFS at 243201/78/13
filesystem size 286717952
sectors_per_cluster 8
mft_lcn 4
mftmirr_lcn 17919871
clusters_per_mft_record -10
clusters_per_index_record 1
HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 146 GB / 136 GiB
Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...
The harddisk (2000 GB / 1863 GiB) seems too small! (< 4299 GB / 4004 GiB)
The following partitions can't be recovered:
FAT12 231504 27 47 467773 232 55 3795674409
FAT32 LBA 349006 29 56 522761 215 38 2791385776
Results
* HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
NTFS, blocksize=4096, 146 GB / 136 GiB
Hint for advanced users. dmsetup may be used if you prefer to avoid to rewrite the partition table for the moment:
echo "0 286717952 linear /dev/sdb 3620311040" | dmsetup create test0
interface_write()
1 * HPFS - NTFS 225353 239 39 243201 78 13 286717952
simulate write!
write_mbr_i386: starting...
write_all_log_i386: starting...
No extended partition
TestDisk exited normally.
So, there's a solution to this monumental mess I've made?
changing the disk geometry could restore the FAT32 partition with the Video and Audio folders...? (I don't care about the NTFS with the Pictures folder).