I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

Using TestDisk to repair the filesystem
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jrbrooks
Posts: 6
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 20:36

I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#1 Post by jrbrooks »

I thought I already posted about this 2 days ago but apparently not.
I have a 1TB disk which was partitioned into two 500 GB NTFS partitions. The partitions were called "Extra" and "More".
I accidentally formatted the partition called "More" to FAT. Now I want my files back! I booted from "Ultimate Boot CCD Rom" and using GParted I could see the "Extra" 500GB NTFS partition. The other half of the disk seemed to be in about 4 or 5 blocks. One large (circa 400 GB) NTFS and a 50 GB Unix partion plus some smaller blocks.
Below I have transcribed the part of results of the Testdisk Analysis. There will be errors as I did not know how to save or make a screenshot.

Disk /dev/sdc = 1000 GB/931 GiB CHS 121601 255 63
Partition Start End Size
D HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 60833 144 47 977289216 {Extra}
D HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 121601 25 24 1953519616 {Extra}
D FAT16 - LBA 111330 210 17 34726 2 34 375875784
D HPFS - NTFS 16648 68 61 17921 78 13 20451328
D Linux 60833 144 48 67207 171 36 102400000
D Linux 60845 173 1 67219 199 52 102400000
D HPFS - NTFS 60850 165 52 70579 178 63 156297216

There is about 25 rows altogether of the above. If I click on either of the "Extra" rows and press "P" then I see all the files and folders that are available under normal operation onthe "Extra" partition. However there is no trace in any of the other rows of the files and folders that were located on the partition "More". I presume this means that there is no way to recover the previous structure on the re-formatted partition. I understand very little of the above. e.g. why is "Extra", in fact everything, marked as Deleted. Why is Extra both the whole disk and just the partition?
So is there a chance to recover the file structure on the formatted partition or is my best option to try to recover the files with PhotoRec? The most important files that I have lost are photos.
My desktop is dual-boot Windows/Ubuntu. I tried 3 different Disc Recovery tools on Windows but none of them found anything except that "Extra" is fine.

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cgrenier
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Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#2 Post by cgrenier »

Can you post the information listed in TestDisk Advanced menu ?

jrbrooks
Posts: 6
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 20:36

Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#3 Post by jrbrooks »

I ran the Testdisk Windows version under Windows 7 rather from the Boot disc into Unix. So I have screen shots and the log file.
I have attached the log file. After quitting from the Advanced option I selected Analyse but then stopped it as it takes some hours to run. It does not look promising.

jrbrooks
Posts: 6
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 20:36

Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#4 Post by jrbrooks »

Not sure if the log file attached - here is the screen print of selecting Undelete in Advanced menu option
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Testdisk.jpg
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cgrenier
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Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#5 Post by cgrenier »

In Advanced, try RepairMFT. If it doesn't work, try other recovery utility. You can always use PhotoRec to recover your data but recovered files won't have their original filenames.

jrbrooks
Posts: 6
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 20:36

Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#6 Post by jrbrooks »

Thanks for your reply.
I ran Testdisk again and selected the Advanced option. Unfortunately I do not get the option RepairMFT. Is this the end of my options for recovery of the formatted partition? I already tried three different Recovery tools (Windows-based) and they were no use.

I have tried PhotoRec (it is easy to use) and it it is finding many jpeg files but a lot of them are only a few KB and they seem to form complete pictures but of greatly reduced number of pixels. Those files which are of a large size (close to the original) appear to be complete and retain the original date, although no other information. Having the original date of the photo would make sorting them easier.
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Testdisk Advanced 2.jpg
Testdisk Advanced 2.jpg (80.49 KiB) Viewed 4478 times

jrbrooks
Posts: 6
Joined: 07 Mar 2013, 20:36

Re: I stupidly formatted my NTFS partition to FAT

#7 Post by jrbrooks »

Hi, I would just like to thank you for the help I received.
Using PhotoRec I have recovered most, if not all, of the photos that I had lost.

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