TestDisk stop after showing 86% Invalid FAT boot sector!

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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csgalbert
Posts: 1
Joined: 26 Nov 2022, 09:52

TestDisk stop after showing 86% Invalid FAT boot sector!

#1 Post by csgalbert »

I'll tell the story from the beginning. I have a removable hdd disk, 4T size, I think there are some bad sectors in the hdd disk. One day when I access some folder in this removable hdd disk, windows10 tells me it's bad (I can't really remember the exact words). Because I have some important files in this folder, so I naively use checkdsk to fix the problem. Then boom, windows10 can't access the whole hdd disk, only list the driver letter in explore panel. Each time I click this driver letter, windows10 ask me to format this driver. :(
I assume it's because the lost of the hdd partition table. So I use TestDisk Analyze --> Quick Search menu to find the lost partition table. But when TestDisk proceed to 86% TestDisk cannot move forward anymore, and the hdd yells and moans all the time. I'll show you my screens. TestDisk version is the newest 7.2.
What should I do now, it now stopped moving on at 86%? Should I still use Analyze --> Quick Search to repair the partition table? And the cause of my hdd access failure is lost of partition table? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. (I'm really devasted, I'm waiting for any help!)
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recuperation
Posts: 3028
Joined: 04 Jan 2019, 09:48
Location: Hannover, Deutschland (Germany, Allemagne)

Re: TestDisk stop after showing 86% Invalid FAT boot sector!

#2 Post by recuperation »

A yelling and moaning HDD suggests contacting a professional recovery service considering that you have "important files in this folder".
If you can afford loosing them trying to recover on your own you can start with posting a smartmontools logfile as explained here:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10910

Depending on the result duplicating the drive using ddrescue as described in the manual might be necessary. When using a ddrescue logfile you can always interrupt the duplication process using CTRL C. Especially when your HDD starts screaming I would certainly stop the duplication process.

If there are only few files to rescue on the drive trying to access the files using Testdisk could be less stressful for the drive. Otherwise you would try to duplicate the drive.
If Testdisk is not able to open your partition(s) try out the commercial solutions.
If that fails you can use Photorec as last line of defense, especially when your drive had been used as a data grave (writing one file after another, suggesting a near linear positioning of your files.

What do you mean exactly stating "removable hdd disk"?

Please upload your picture directly to this site using the "attachments" tab. That is not difficult.
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