cgsecurity.org

Hi! I am trying to access my ext HD. There is no letter associated with it. It says unallocated.

I ran TestDisk and it shows The following:

Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
P Unknown 0 0 1 60797 59 62 976707584

The Ext HD is still flashing so it is communicating with the drive but nothing else is happening.

I have so much valuable data on this drive and hope I can retrieve it.

Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks!

Choose PC/Intel or GPT EFI partition table type.

Hi StarD3, you may have the same issue as me, see my post

cgrenier wrote:Choose PC/Intel or GPT EFI partition table type.

Thank you for your help!!

I chose GPT ETFI Partition Table Type and this is what came up:

Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS
Current partition structure:
Partition Start

Trying alternate GPT
Bad GPT partition, invalid signature.

I brought my drive to a PC repair shop the other day. He said just format it then run a recovery program. He tried to format it (no charge) and said he couldn't because "it has bad sectors" and it's a "hardware issue" and "there is no way to get anything off this drive."
Not sure if that's true.

What partition table type did TestDisk autodetect?
In TestDisk under disk selection, did you select your disk as Disk, PhysicalDrive or Drive?
Did you use TestDisk 32bit or TestDisk 34bit?

Fiona

Fiona wrote:What partition table type did TestDisk autodetect?
In TestDisk under disk selection, did you select your disk as Disk, PhysicalDrive or Drive?
Did you use TestDisk 32bit or TestDisk 34bit?

Fiona

I chose Choose >Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB
I tried both of these: PC/Intel and GPT EFI partition table type.

Here's what showed:

Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB
CHS 60797 255 63 - sector size=512

>[ Analyse ] Analyse current partition structure and search for lost partitions
[ Advanced ] Filesystem Utils
[ Geometry ] Change disk geometry
[ Options ] Modify options
[ MBR Code ] Write TestDisk MBR code to first sector
[ Delete ] Delete all data in the partition table
[ Quit ] Return to disk selection

I chose Analyse and this is what showed:

Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
Partition: Read error
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
>[Quick Search]
Try to locate partition

I hit enter and see the drive LED flashes but nothing happens

Okay... I was able to see the drive but when I went to look at the files I got this:

"Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged."

The only option on the bottom is to "quit"

Okay... I was able to see the drive but when I went to look at the files I got this:

"Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged." The only option on the bottom is to "quit" I hit quit and was able to get this far:
TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60797 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 60797 59 62 976705536

Boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector.
Status: Bad

Backup boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read backup boot sector.
Status: Bad

Sectors are identical.

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



[ Quit ] >[Rebuild BS] [ Dump ]
Rebuild boot sector

Okay... I was able to see the drive but when I went to look at the files I got this:

"Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged." The only option on the bottom is to "quit" I hit quit and was able to get this far:
TestDisk 7.0, Data Recovery Utility, April 2015
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 500 GB / 465 GiB - CHS 60797 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 60797 59 62 976705536

Boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector.
Status: Bad

Backup boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read backup boot sector.
Status: Bad

Sectors are identical.

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



[ Quit ] >[Rebuild BS] [ Dump ]
Rebuild boot sector

I hit Rebuild Boot sector and the drive is flashing so I hope I did the right thing. Not sure if it takes long or not.

Partition read error often indicate some problems with bad sectors.
Can you check your disk using CrystalDiskInfo?
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
Please use the portable version without ads.
Your current partition structure (partition table) displayed a read error.

Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors
Partition: Read error

If you have no partition in your partition table, I wonder how TestDisk lists one under Advanced?
Watch here:

1 * HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 60797 59 62 976705536

Looks like that's only an unformatted partition?
A partition only has no filesystem nor boot sector.
Only formatting creates a boot sector and file system , on NTFS would be a MFT.
That's why a message appears like:

Boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read boot sector.
Status: Bad

Backup boot sector
ntfs_boot_sector: Can't read backup boot sector.
Status: Bad

Sectors are identical.

This message means, that your boot sector is bad (not valid) or you have no boot sector.
Also, "can't read boot sector" can make aware of a bad sector?
Until yet, formatting should be avoided, because it'll override your lost file system.
Datarecovery software would be an idea.
PhotoRec could help.
Info will follow.
But bad sectors can cause that datarecovery software will hang, reading bad sectors.
If you have not as many bad sectors, cloning might help?
First of all, crystaldiskinfo would be important.
Don't remove your disk out of its enclosure.

Fiona