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Dear Sirs,

Mistakes were made with TestDisk and photoRec did not help so im asking for help.
All originated with my own stupidity of course..

I accidentally deleted the partition table at some fresh linux install, left the disk alone without making any more changes.

1. used TestDisk first time-
It worked and I remember seeing all correct folders/ files on the drive (Home, Download etc.)
However I struggle to make the fix effective
(didnt know how to use the arrow key, and probably picked the wrong file type- I couldnt find ext4.

I ended also changing the geometry numbers- although i did not know the numbers so they were all default numbers.
THEN I also changed the file system type somehow and picked "Write"

2. At this stage I know i f'ed up. ("disk size too small!" all messed up messages etc.)
Now the drive only looked like a huge empty drive on the system. I didnt move any files or try to format of course.
when I use TestDisk again, it listed a bunch of identical "Linux " types but no longer show my folders.

3. I also used the Disk tool in Fedora, clicked on the gear icon and did "Repair File system"... thats probably why I saw an empty drive..

==== Of course I did not format the drive nor write anything to it, just left it alone.
now i have made an image with that dd tool,
ran PhotoRec and it only found like 3 files In the very beginning. (which is probably in the first FAT32 system partition)
and absolutely nothing after that.

I really didnt make any changes to that drive ever. (bought a new disk and installed a system there)
Is there still hope?

thank you for your time and kind heart.

smartas9000 wrote: 17 May 2025, 16:09 Dear Sirs,

Mistakes were made with TestDisk and photoRec did not help so im asking for help.
All originated with my own stupidity of course..

I accidentally deleted the partition table at some fresh linux install, left the disk alone without making any more changes.

1. used TestDisk first time-
It worked and I remember seeing all correct folders/ files on the drive (Home, Download etc.)
However I struggle to make the fix effective
(didnt know how to use the arrow key, and probably picked the wrong file type- I couldnt find ext4.

There is no file type labeled ext4. ext4 is a file system type. File types are zip, jpeg, doc etc.

I ended also changing the geometry numbers- although i did not know the numbers so they were all default numbers.
THEN I also changed the file system type somehow and picked "Write"

2. At this stage I know i f'ed up. ("disk size too small!" all messed up messages etc.)
Now the drive only looked like a huge empty drive on the system. I didnt move any files or try to format of course.
when I use TestDisk again, it listed a bunch of identical "Linux " types but no longer show my folders.

3. I also used the Disk tool in Fedora, clicked on the gear icon and did "Repair File system"... thats probably why I saw an empty drive..

You do not run a software that is doing extensive manipulations before backing everything up.

==== Of course I did not format the drive nor write anything to it, just left it alone.

The disk tool was writing on your disk.

now i have made an image with that dd tool,

ddrescue would have been the better tool as you don't know before if your disk has errors.

ran PhotoRec and it only found like 3 files In the very beginning. (which is probably in the first FAT32 system partition)
and absolutely nothing after that.

I can't judge about the finding of your 3 files with a secret length, as you did not state what you expected to see.

I really didnt make any changes to that drive ever.

Sorry, but you are lying straight into your own face.

(bought a new disk and installed a system there)
Is there still hope?

Normally one could try out every commercial recovery software. Usually they only recover and do not write on the recovery source.
If that fails you can consult with a profesional lab which you normally only need for physical dammage.

im just saying i didnt perform any "format" action or attempt to write files to the drive ever since.
with all the horrible things i did to the drive were all only with TestDisk,
I assume i can only ruin the partition tables, boot sectors etc. and the scanning through action should still have a chance?
i have even avoid accessing (simply opening/ mounting it) it by getting another HDD and installed a linux system there.

The photoRec did run for 40 minutes (512G SSD)
and the 3 files were found in the beginning right away.
1 txt and 2 exe's, 100bytes and like 100kbs only.

could it be that i changed the sector size to the wrong size say 512 when it was 4096 so it couldnt read any files anymore?

the DISK was a regular install of linux for a year, I had lots of documents and files in Home, Document, Download etc.

smartas9000 wrote: 18 May 2025, 07:03 could it be that i changed the sector size to the wrong size say 512 when it was 4096 so it couldnt read any files anymore?

Duplicate your disk using ddrescue as described in the manual and then you can try it out with the duplicate.