Trying to find a missing partition

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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bbsmitz
Posts: 1
Joined: 06 Mar 2026, 02:37

Trying to find a missing partition

#1 Post by bbsmitz »

Hi Folks,

I have a hard drive from an HP machine that randomly just stopped showing up in windows. I swapped it to another computer and it's the same issue. Disk management shows it as unpartitioned.

Image

I loaded and ran testdisk, and when I get to the step where I try to find the partition, it just shows "Partition: Read Error"

Image

I don't have the ability to do anything past that; hitting enter to try to do a quick search doesn't seem to function. I relaunched and tried to use a different format (used both Intel and EFI GPT) but no dice. The log is below.

Code: Select all



Thu Mar  5 21:28:35 2026
Command line: TestDisk

TestDisk 7.2, Data Recovery Utility, February 2024
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: available, reiserfs lib: none, ewf lib: 20140608, curses lib: ncurses 6.1
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive0)=10000831348736
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive1)=10000831348736
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive2)=1000204886016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive3)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\PhysicalDrive4)=2000398934016
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\C:)=1999721463808
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\D:)=2000397795328
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\E:)=504348672
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\F:)=10000812474368
disk_get_size_win32 IOCTL_DISK_GET_LENGTH_INFO(\\.\G:)=10000812474368
Hard disk list
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 - 10000 GB / 9314 GiB - CHS 1215865 255 63, sector size=512 - ST10000NM0086-2AA101, S/N:ZA2DK2XN, FW:SN05
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 10000 GB / 9314 GiB - CHS 1215865 255 63, sector size=512 - ST10000NM0086-2AA101, S/N:ZA2DLT1D, FW:SN05
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63, sector size=512 - ST1000DM014-2UB10D, S/N:ZFL6Y1TD, FW:VQ01
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive3 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512 - Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB, S/N:0025_3859_01AE_3ED6., FW:2B2QEXM7
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive4 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63, sector size=512 - Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB, S/N:0025_3859_01AE_3F0D., FW:2B2QEXM7
Drive E: - 504 MB / 480 MiB - CHS 120 64 32, sector size=2048 - ASUS DRW-24B3ST   j, FW:1.11

Partition table type defaults to Intel
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - ST1000DM014-2UB10D
Partition table type: Intel

Interface Advanced

Analyse Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive2 - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Current partition structure:

Partition: Read error
The crystal disk info is below as well.

Image

I'm sort of at a loss here.. any ideas on how to proceed?
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recuperation
Posts: 3150
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Trying to find a missing partition

#2 Post by recuperation »

TestDisk has not been designed to cope with broken devices containing unreadable sectors (see number of reallocated and pending sectors).
Clone your broken disk using ddrescue as described in a manual.
Clone your clone a second time, do not rely on being able to clone your defective device another time.

Run TestDisk again the second clone.
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jenghizkhan
Posts: 1
Joined: 05 May 2026, 14:24

Re: Trying to find a missing partition

#3 Post by jenghizkhan »

I just wanted to make sure this is normal operation. I am on day 4 of this:

DiRead error at 108A
Analyse sector 3452436480/7813969919: 44%
Read error at 3452436479/0/1 (lba=3452436479)
(lba=1147404287)
Last edited by jenghizkhan on 05 May 2026, 14:44, edited 5 times in total.
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recuperation
Posts: 3150
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: Trying to find a missing partition

#4 Post by recuperation »

You placed your posting in this thread for a reason, obviously. Read my posting above and follow the advice given.

The statement "I am on day 4" only provides information when you disclose the size of your disk as well. This way one can calculate the average speed so far and compare the average experienced speed with the sustained read speed of the disk.

Assuming a sector size of 512 byte your disk has a size of 4 TB.
Assuming 3,5 days elapsed since you started TestDisk, your disk exhibits a transfer speed of 5,8 MByte which is less than ten times slower than an assumed read spead of 130 MByte/sec for a disk with a size of 3,5'' and 5400 rpm.

It appears that your disk has lots of unreadable sectors. You should consult the SMART parameters and most likely clone the disk.
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