Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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mRSlug
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Aug 2020, 00:23

Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

#1 Post by mRSlug »

I have a drive with one single partition. I deleted it, recreated it, and formatted it. All the same geometry, the whole disk.

Here is what i have done:
1 formatted the partition with "mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1"
2 mounted it
3 created one dir in it's root called "data/"
4 unmounted it, discovered my mistake!
5 run testdisk, found the partition with the empty "data/" dir
6 run deep analysis, A second entry for a partition was found

I initially pressed stop, hoping that since the old partition was found I could select it and then view it's contents. This left me with only one entry. So I ran the Deep analysis again letting it complete. But when I come back to the computer It just has one entry, the new partition with the empty "data/" dir.

Is this because they have the same geometry? How do I get to the second entry found during the deep analysis?

Is it not possible to get the data back?

I've been using this guide https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step . I expected to have a screen like that in the section titled "A partition is still missing: Deeper Search".

recuperation
Posts: 2721
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

#2 Post by recuperation »

mRSlug wrote: 28 Aug 2020, 00:43 I have a drive with one single partition. I deleted it, recreated it, and formatted it. All the same geometry, the whole disk.

Here is what i have done:
1 formatted the partition with "mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1"
2 mounted it
3 created one dir in it's root called "data/"
4 unmounted it, discovered my mistake!
5 run testdisk, found the partition with the empty "data/" dir
6 run deep analysis, A second entry for a partition was found

I initially pressed stop, hoping that since the old partition was found I could select it and then view it's contents. This left me with only one entry. So I ran the Deep analysis again letting it complete. But when I come back to the computer It just has one entry, the new partition with the empty "data/" dir.

Is this because they have the same geometry? How do I get to the second entry found during the deep analysis?

Is it not possible to get the data back?

I've been using this guide https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step . I expected to have a screen like that in the section titled "A partition is still missing: Deeper Search".
As I have no practical experience with ext4 I had to research a bit:

https://www.thomas-krenn.com/de/wiki/Ext4_Dateisystem
[...
Beim Erstellen eines Ext4-Filesystems müssen die vorhandenen Bereiche der Inode-Tabellen bereinigt werden (mit Nullen überschrieben - "zeroed")...]

Has your drive been formated with that particular command before?

Your mkfs command zeroed out the inode tables.
Therefore you lost your file and folder metadata. Only the data is left.
Photorec might recover parts.

mRSlug
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Aug 2020, 00:23

Re: Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

#3 Post by mRSlug »

>Has your drive been formated with that particular command before?
Thanks, Yes

>Your mkfs command zeroed out the inode tables.

Is there a backup somewhere on the drive? or some method to recreate it?

I guess I will have to give Photorec a try.

recuperation
Posts: 2721
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

#4 Post by recuperation »

mRSlug wrote: 28 Aug 2020, 16:16 Is there a backup somewhere on the drive? or some method to recreate it?
No.

mRSlug
Posts: 3
Joined: 28 Aug 2020, 00:23

Re: Deeper search, Found another partition, not getting entry to select

#5 Post by mRSlug »

thank you for the decisive responses. Not what i wanted to hear, but saved me wasting time on something fruitless.

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