EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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Voltage
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2012, 11:08

EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#1 Post by Voltage »

Hi all,

So I managed to cock up my two drives I took from my NAS. They were formatted as EXT3 which if I understand correctly, TestDisk can handle? (Correct me if I'm wrong).

Unfortunately, after placing them into my new PC, they are now showing as RAW in Windows 7 and of course Windows wants to format them!

In any case, I've tried having a go at this myself using TestDisk however my first query comes with selecting the correct partition type. What is the right option for an EXT3 filesystem?

I've tried a few of the options but haven't yeiled any results after much time spent waiting for it to scan these 1TB drives.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Aaron

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

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#2 Post by Fiona »

Did you use your disks in your NAS as a networkdrive?
In this case, your file system ext3 doesn't matter.
But if you connect your drives internally into your PC, they might be not accessible because Win7 doesn't support the ext3 file system.
Might bge possible that drivers for Windows are available supporting the ext3 file system partially?
Like this one here;
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2fsd/
But it's on your own risk, because I don't know them.

It's difficult to judge, do you have any problems about a damaged partition?
The right partition type for ext3 should be Linux in TestDisk.

Voltage
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2012, 11:08

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#3 Post by Voltage »

Hi Fiona. Thanks for your reply. I think I may have corrupted the file system at some point. I have tried using ext2fsd but had no luck accessing the drives - it seems to detect three partitions, two very small ones and then what would be the main partition however it is shown as RAW (one of the smaller partitions is shown as EXT3 and another as SWAP).

From the Select partition table type screen, I didn't see a Linux option? What should I choose here to proceed?

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

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#4 Post by Fiona »

Partition table type menu is intended to choose wether you have an intel or Apple PC.
Also for EFI-GPT, Xbox etc..
TestDisk discovers the partition table type automatically.
If not, you'll be able to change it manually.
But only if you know that exactly.

TestDisk searches your partitions and if they're found automatically list as a Linux-Partition.
So you can write them into your partition table using write.
If your partition table still contain your partition and your superblock is damaged, you can go to Advanced and Superblock to find a position of a backup of your superblock.
Information;
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Advanced ... SuperBlock

To repair a superblock, you'll probably need a live CD like Knoppix or Ubuntu?

Voltage
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2012, 11:08

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#5 Post by Voltage »

Thanks Fiona. I went through and after a deeper search it found the Linux partition however it said it wasn't recoverable? I checked under the Advanced menu but couldn't see the superblock option you mention.

Is the file system to far gone to recover?

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Fiona
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Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#6 Post by Fiona »

deeper search it found the Linux partition however it said it wasn't recoverable?
When a partition is out of the limit of your harddrive you'll get this message.
To judge, is your partition recoverable, I'd need the values of your partitions start and end.
Also from your disk.
If you see that message "the following partitions can't be recovered, you can copy the values.
If your partition is not in your partition table, you're not able to choose your partition using the menu Advanced, because your partition is not available.
What version of TestDisk did you use?

Voltage
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2012, 11:08

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#7 Post by Voltage »

Screenshot of values from deeper search attached

Latest version from the website (6.13)
Attachments
linux.PNG
linux.PNG (3.84 KiB) Viewed 9849 times

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Fiona
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Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#8 Post by Fiona »

Also from your disk.
How is your disk listed in TestDisk?
Is your disk a 3.5 inch disk?
Maybe, your geometry doesn't match?
So it might be possible to test another geometry to solve that problem.

Voltage
Posts: 5
Joined: 12 Mar 2012, 11:08

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#9 Post by Voltage »

I've just changed the geometry to the suggested 255 (was 240). Will see what I happens once its found the linux partition again. It's a standard 3.5 inch SATA 2 drive (1TB).

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Fiona
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Location: Ludwigsburg/Stuttgart - Germany

Re: EXT3 Drives now showing as RAW

#10 Post by Fiona »

Would it be possible to upload a complete screen or copy and paste the content from your testdisk.log?
I still have no info about your disk.
That's easily requested, to see, is it possible to recover your linux partition?

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