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External disk went unallocated (bitlocker encrypted)

Posted: 07 Jan 2024, 10:51
by AndVal
Hello.

Recently I tried to check and if possible fix an old USB stick (it always gave me trouble accessing data) and I tried to use Disk Management for it.
When I started Disk Management, it gave me an error message and asked to convert a disk to MBR (if I remember correctly).
I mistakenly assumed it was about the USB stick and I pressed yes.
The result is that one of my external hard disk drives became unallocated, and it showed 2 times in the disk management list. (1 time after restart)
I closed the Disk Management and checked the file explorer, but the disk was not there.
I reentered Disk Management and without doing anything, I saw that the second external hard disk was split in two unallocated partitions!! (it has only 1 full of data), and the drive showed three times in the disk drive list.
Both drives encrypted with BitLocker, I have the password and the keys.
My PC is a Lenovo m93p with Windows 10 pro.

I saw this YouTube TestDisk tutorial https://youtu.be/3jbWfGePrqo?si=SMum0wAYwQfaa9lI&t=115 (starting at analyze results), but TestDisk went (as far as I understand) into deep scan after I selected 'quick scan'.
From the looks of it, it would require 2–3 days to finish scanning.

Can someone check the screenshots (from Google Drive) of theTestDisk steps and explains to me what kind of damage my hard disk has? (probably from the 4rth one)

1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-qZNW8 ... sp=sharing
I selected the Toshiba 3000GB

2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-lvIRR ... sp=sharing
TestDisk preselected EFI GPT

3. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-vzXJ ... sp=sharing
hit analyze

4. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-lLjJ4 ... sp=sharing
Quite difference results from the ones of the YouTube tutorial...

5. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-oks4N ... sp=sharing
It didn't give quick results but went into deep scan right away (I think)

Re: External disk went unallocated (bitlocker encrypted)

Posted: 07 Jan 2024, 13:30
by recuperation
Please upload your pictures to this site.

Re: External disk went unallocated (bitlocker encrypted)

Posted: 07 Jan 2024, 21:04
by AndVal
I tried to but I didn't see how to do it. The img tags didn't load the images.
However, I managed to save both hard drives by using the DiskGenious app.
TestDisk appears to be a capable free tool, but it's too technical for simple users.