Getting Started

How to use TestDisk to recover lost partition
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teddystiles
Posts: 3
Joined: 12 Dec 2014, 21:40

Getting Started

#1 Post by teddystiles »

Just a newbie here. Been building and repairing computers for 20 years, but haven't taken the time to understand *exactly* how my HDDs worked all this time! But now I have a drive that my computer can't read, and I'm not sure how to diagnose it before I go using this testdisk tool!

In a nutshell: My mobo's SATA controller started to fail over the course of a few weeks, so I finally shut down my computer, disconnected the four drives, and fixed the SATA problem. Now I have a new mobo (new computer, really) and as it is a SFF PC, I bought a USB3 HDD dock to manage extra hard drives. Of the four original drives, 3 out of 4 are readable. Of course, the one that Windows is saying "needs to be formatted" is the one with my most important files on it.

I started up testdisk, and did the basics:

1) Selected the media
2) Selected "Intel"
3) Selected "Analyse"
4) It found two identical partitions right off the bat:
Image

5) Ran "Quick Search," and it found two partitions:
Image

6) Hit "Continue" and suddenly it couldn't find ANY partitions:
Image

7) Hit "enter" to continue, and it reinforced that it could no longer see the partitions it had just seen:
Image

I'm running a "Deeper Search" now. Am I on the right track?

I'll add more pics as I progress: http://imgur.com/a/t2Z1b
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teddystiles
Posts: 3
Joined: 12 Dec 2014, 21:40

Re: Getting Started

#2 Post by teddystiles »

8) Deeper scan completed, and it showed the same thing as after the Quick Search:
Image

9) Hit "Continue" and was treated to one single partition, now colored green. Boy I wish I knew what was going on:
Image

10) Finally, I've hit "P" to list files and was treated to this heart-sinking scenario:
Image

And that's it. I'm not sure how to diagnose this, and I don't want to "write" anything lest I damage my drive further. Can anyone help? I'd post a log, but it never asked me if I wanted to create one.

Thanks!!!
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teddystiles
Posts: 3
Joined: 12 Dec 2014, 21:40

Re: Getting Started

#3 Post by teddystiles »

I must have done something horribly wrong - the forum seems active, but I didn't receive any replies. I can't find a "how to post" post, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something incorrectly. Can anyone help either way?
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golimar
Posts: 7
Joined: 12 Jan 2015, 12:01

Re: Getting Started

#4 Post by golimar »

In step 8) you are choosing the first partition and selecting "Continue", but it seems you didn't do that with the second partition as well
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