Partitions can't be found, data is there with photorec

[lechal]

Hi all,

Not sure how it happened, but my partition table was lost for one of my hard drives. I know the data is there as I've run photorec and it found my files. I've got them in a new hard drive, but they are all recovered with sequential file names. I still hope I can fix the partition table and not have to sort them out.

For jpg files I've used some scripts adapted from http://sid.rstack.org/static/articles/d ... situations so they are ordered by date.

My 1TB hard drive had some "system reserved" partitions and then 3 partitions I used: 1st one was for Windows, 2 others for data. I'm not sure about their sizes. I'd say they were FAT32 to share data between linux and windows, but I'm not completely sure right now.

Both search and deep search returned the following results:

Disk /dev/sdc - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
>* HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 12 223 19 204800 [Reservado para el sistema]
P HPFS - NTFS 12 223 20 2610 245 3 41738240
P FAT32 65652 1 1 121221 254 63 892731987

But when I tried P to list the files in the second partition, it crashed and exited testsdisk.

Full log is here: http://pastebin.com/3BHMj7AN (I can't attach .txt or .log)

Any idea on how to recover the files? Is it possible to treat full disk as FAT32 or the partition format would not allow it? I don't know the internals of the partition filesystem, I'm just guessing.

Thanks in advance,
Jorge

[lechal]

Hi again!

I found this image from the partition list when I was partitioning the disk some years ago. Not sure if it's the final partition list I wrote to disk but it's worth a try.

How can I use it to test it? I'd like to try that partition list and see if I can get the data as it was.

Thanks in advance!
Jorge

[cgrenier]

This screenshot doesn't match the partition table listed in testdisk.log
Do you see your files when you list the files from the 3rd partition ?
Can you try TestDisk 7.0-WIP on the 2nd partition and try to list the files ?

[lechal]

Hi,

I have downloaded testdisk 7.0-WIP and run it. Now I'm just running "Deeper search", but here are first results:

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Disk /dev/sdc - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63

     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 * HPFS - NTFS              0  32 33    12 223 19     204800
 2 P HPFS - NTFS             12 223 20  2610 245  3   41738240
 3 P FAT32                65652   1  1 121221 254 63  892731987

Full log uploaded at http://pastebin.com/utALZ1W3

I'll add more details when "Full search" ends, including if I can list the files or not.

Thanks!
Jorge

[lechal]

Deep search didn't find any other partition.

This is displayed when I try to list files in the FAT32 partition there:

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Disk /dev/sdc - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63
     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors
 3 P FAT32                65652   1  1 121221 254 63  892731987

Boot sector
check_FAT: Bad number of sectors per cluster
Bad

Backup boot sector
check_FAT: Bad number of sectors per cluster
Bad

Second sectors (cluster information) are not identical.

A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

And if I try Rebuild BS:

Code: Select all

Can't get cluster size

Files in NTFS partitions are listed from testdisk.

Full log at http://pastebin.com/KMggMKET

Thanks,
Jorge

[cgrenier]

I wonder if the 3rd partition location is correct.
Run TestDisk, Advanced, press 'a' and manually add a partition begining at 2610 245 4 (cylinder 2610, head 245, sector 4), set the partition type to FAT32 LBA, select this partition, choose Boot, RebuildBS, List and if it works, choose Write and confirm.
If it's ok, you have to recover this partition, Advanced, Quick Search, the new partition should be listed, choose Write, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.

[lechal]

Thanks again for the help. I've tried the suggested steps but they didn't work. After "Rebuild BS" it complains about invalid Boot sector.

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fat32_boot_sector
   P FAT32 LBA             2610 245  4 65652   0 63 1012754355
Boot sector
Bad

Backup boot sector
Bad

Second sectors (cluster information) are not identical.
Third sectors (Second part of boot code) are not identical.

A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.

I've tried it a couple of times in the same testdisk session. Full log available here: http://pastebin.com/EFzwZbJp

Thanks,
Jorge