4tb Drive only recovering 2tb

[Dragar]

Hello, I've got a 4tb drive that I accidentally deleted the partition table on. I'm able to recover it with test disk, but only the first 2048gb are showing as recovered.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Code: Select all

Tue Apr 30 13:40:03 2024
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, February 2023
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
https://www.cgsecurity.org
OS: Windows 8 (9200)
Compiler: GCC 11.2, Cygwin 3001.4
ext2fs lib: 1.45.3, ntfs lib: 10:0:0, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=1000204886016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=4096805658624
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=998837846016
Hard disk list
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63, sector size=512 - CT1000P1SSD8, S/N:0000_0000_0000_0001_00A0_7520_E4D4_8389., FW:P3CR013
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 4096 GB / 3815 GiB - CHS 498074 255 63, sector size=512 - Fanxiang S101 4TB, S/N:FX232920026, FW:VE0R6375

Partition table type (auto): EFI GPT
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 4096 GB / 3815 GiB - Fanxiang S101 4TB
Partition table type: EFI GPT

Analyse Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 4096 GB / 3815 GiB - CHS 498074 255 63
hdr_size=92
hdr_lba_self=1
hdr_lba_alt=8001573551 (expected 8001573551)
hdr_lba_start=34
hdr_lba_end=8001573518
hdr_lba_table=2
hdr_entries=128
hdr_entsz=128
Current partition structure:
 1 P MS Data                    32768 4295000062 4294967295 [Storage]

[Dragar]

Just to confirm, all my files are there and visible on teskdisk, but I don't have 4tb of storage to back it all up onto.
Windows shows the 2tb partition as NTFS and will even show my files if mounted, but I'm sure theres a good 1tb or so not showing up.

[recuperation]

Hello, I've got a 4tb drive that I accidentally deleted the partition table on. I'm able to recover it with test disk,

Are you referring to the "TestDisk" software package? I don't know what "test disk" is supposed to be.

but only the first 2048gb are showing as recovered.

Where do the "first 2048 GB" show up?
What operating system are you using, what is the model and manufacturer of your computer?
Have you run the deep search function already?
Have you tested your noname SSD disk with h2testw or f3 on linux before storing data on it?

[Dragar]

Yes I am using TestDisk
I'm on Windows 11, I can see the first 2048gb of the drive in windows disk management as a ntfs drive but the other 1600 or so gb are just listed as unallocated.
I had not tested the disk beforehand but had put over 2tb of data on it previously and it all passed verification.
I'm currently running deep search now and seeing a bunch of garbage partitions but it's only on 10% after 12hours. So I'll guess I'll wait until it's finished.
I have managed to recover some of my files through TestDisk and they were all fine.

[recuperation]

If this is not due to a dubious product I'd say that you did more than just accidentally deleting your partition table because that type of error would have been repaired already.

[Dragar]

So should I give up on the deep search and just start backing up my files?

When I chose Intel at the start i'm able to recover any files, but in GPT mode it fails to recover anything.
Could this suggest that I had an MBR partition table with a non standard sector size?

[Dragar]

This probably isn't that relevant but it shows that I've read and wrote the drive quite a lot with no data issues in the past. I don't believe there's any chance of the drive being fake, but I may have prematurely wrote the 2tb partition table the first time I ran TestDisk

[Dragar]

I was able to find the partition and it let me write it, but it wouldn't let me write the new boot sector.
Any suggestions?

testdisk - Copy.log

(22.65 KiB) Downloaded 17 times

[recuperation]

So should I give up on the deep search and just start backing up my files?

Yes, because TestDisk experiences a write error when trying to write the boot sector.

When I chose Intel at the start i'm able to recover any files, but in GPT mode it fails to recover anything.
Could this suggest that I had an MBR partition table with a non standard sector size?

I don't know! The typical error is the opposite, using a MBR partition table with a sector size of 512 bytes that can't address more than 2 TB.
Anyway you did not document anything leading to that conclusion.

I was able to find the partition and it let me write it, but it wouldn't let me write the new boot sector.

Trying to write the boot sector gives a "write error" message. Write refusal is a good reaction to exhausted flash storage.
I am lacking the experience to judge if - after not even 3 TB written - the SMART attribute for NAND shows already 145 TB in writes.
I did not find a datasheet for your disk on the Fanxiang web site.
Such sheet should contain the information "TBW" (terabytes written).
Maybe I am to dumb to find the sheet, maybe it even does not exist.

Backup your data as you already proposed and test your Fanxiang SSD using h2testw on Windows or f3 on linux.
Warning: Using this software will inevitably wear your disk by 4TB written.

[Dragar]

After scanning the unnallocated portion of the drive with EaseUs it reports about 11gb of lost data. none of it relevant to me at all.
would it be safe to assume that there was never data in that portion of the drive and to just extend over it continue the recovery process?