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Hello everyone,

Today I installed Linux Mint to my 2TB harddisk. My harddisk was partitioned to 1 Primary partition C drive, and an extended partition partitioned to 7 Logical drives.

I am a long time windows user, I have very little experience with Linux, and assume that Mint installation will only affect my primay partition C drive.

BUT after the Linux Mint installation, all my logical drives are gone !!!

Using windows disk management, I can see my harddisk now have a [512MB Healthy (EFI System Partition)] and a [1862.52 GB Healthy (Primary Partition)] only.

I try to use TestDisk, it shows :

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Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63

Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 36 1048576 [EFI System Partition]
>P Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368

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I can select the P Linux partition to perform a [Deeper Search].

After 7 long hours of scanning, TestDisk finally find my missing partitions correctly.
When I use the [P: list files] for these partitions, I can see my lost files.

The following screen is captured at the middle of my second scan, it can see that the lost partitions [Game (2T)] , [Audio (2T)] and [Graphic (2T)] are found.

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Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux 66298 152 31 79854 168 58 217778176
Linux 63301 5 9 79857 21 36 217778176
Linux 63301 37 41 79857 54 5 217778176
Linux 63305 25 25 79861 41 52 217778176
Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
Linux Swap 73305 133 45 73429 241 12 1998832
HPFS - NTFS 41559 107 21 73429 241 28 512000000 [Game ]
HPFS - NTFS 73430 18 61 98926 126 16 409600000 [Audio ]
HPFS - NTFS 73430 18 61 98926 126 16 409600000 [Audio ]
HPFS - NTFS 98926 158 49 137171 64 45 614400000 [Graphic ]

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When [Deeper Search] is finished, I successfully change all the HPPS – NTFS partition characteristics to Logical,

But the Linux partitions (Primary bootable) is corrupted and cannot set to any partition characteristic !

I use [Write] to write the new partition structure, but failed.
The program said the disk size do not match with my partitions (something like that ..)

At this stage, there is no further hints to show me how to proceed to recover my partition ! I can only exit TestDisk.

I just want to recover all my logical drive. I don't mind the linux partition. If the boot partition cannot recover, it’s ok.

Can anyone help me ? Thank you very much !

(continue)
when the second [Deeper search] is completed, it show these messages :

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Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63

The hard disk (2000 GB / 1863 GiB) seems too small! (< 2999 GB / 2793 GiB)
Check the hard disk size: HD jumper settings. BIOS detection...

The following partitions can't be recovered :
Partition Start End Size in sectors
> Linux 121485 185 45 364621 162 21 3905978368
Linux 121534 11 14 364669 242 53 3905978368
Linux 121535 81 19 364671 57 58 3905978368
Linux 121542 19 14 364677 250 53 3905978368
Linux 121542 246 49 364678 223 25 3905978368
Linux 121547 109 35 364683 86 11 3905978368

[ Continue ]
ext4 blocksize=4096 Large_file Sparse_SB Recover, 1999 GB / 1862 GiB
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The harddisk actually is 2TB, so the mistake seems to be : the Linux partition size (3905978368) is wrongly detected, (< 2999 GB / 2793 GiB)
The HD has no jumper settings, and my BIOS has no disk size setting.
How to solve this problem ? Thank you.

when I press [ Continue ], comes the final screen :

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Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
>D FAT32 0 32 33 65 101 36 1048576 [EFI System Partition]
D HPFS - NTFS 0 32 40 32635 139 16 524287993
D Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368
D Linux Swap 82 187 42 343 208 57 4194304
D HPFS - NTFS 32635 139 17 39009 166 5 102400000 [System 2 (2T)]
D HPFS - NTFS 41559 107 21 59748 242 14 292214784 [Game (2T)]
D HPFS - NTFS 41559 107 21 73429 241 28 512000000 [Game (2T)]
D Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
D Linux 66298 152 31 79854 168 58 217778176
D Linux 66301 5 9 79857 21 36 217778176
D Linux 66301 37 41 79857 54 5 217778176
D Linux 66305 25 25 79861 41 52 217778176
D Linux 73305 133 45 73429 241 28 1998848
Structure: OK. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
..
..
Enter : to continue
FAT32, blocksize=4096, 536 MB / 512 MiB
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In this final screen for this second [ Analyse ] scan, the [Audio (2T)] and [Graphic (2T)] detected in the middle of the scan disappeared !
Also, some partitions detected in my first [ Analyse ] scan disappears in this second [ Analyse ] scan !

It is clear that this search result is worng, and the size 3905978368 is wrong :
D Linux 65 101 37 243201 78 13 3905978368

and the sectors after
D HPFS - NTFS 41559 107 21 73429 241 28 512000000 [Game (2T)]
should be the remaining logical drive (the remaining logical drive are correctly detected in the first [ Analyse ] scan).

and, these serach result are wrong (they should logical drive).
D Linux 59748 242 15 73305 3 42 217778176
D Linux 66298 152 31 79854 168 58 217778176
D Linux 66301 5 9 79857 21 36 217778176
D Linux 66301 37 41 79857 54 5 217778176
D Linux 66305 25 25 79861 41 52 217778176
D Linux 73305 133 45 73429 241 28 1998848

How to solve it to get back my lost partitions ? Please help.

Please post a complete Testdisk log file.
Which windows operating system are you running?
Which windows operating system has been used when you initially created the primary partition and the logical ones?

The windows now running Testdisk is Windows 7.
The initially created the primary partition is a windows XP partition, but corrupted and not bootable.

Thank you recuperation. I asked a friend to help me and he recovered my lost partitions.

I also thanks cgsecurit.org for such a wonderful disk rescue software !