Accidental format of 2TB external drive Topic is solved

[remy]

Use 6.14. You work under gnu/linux, it's quite easy :

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wget http://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk-6.14-WIP.linux26.tar.bz2
tar -xjf testdisk-6.14-WIP.linux26.tar.bz2
mv testdisk-6.14-WIP/*_static ~/
sudo ~/testdisk_static /dev/sdb

I can't see in your log the result of deepersearch. Are you sure you've done it this time ?

If no, please try to find a similar partition with "D" status, and try to list.
If yes, as far as I can guess what happened, it seems that the filesystem has been reformatted, not a nerw partition created. That means corruption on MFT, because new MFT were created in the same place. You'll then probably have to use commercial DR software in that case, or ask help of a specialized Cie.

[Scooby]

Does anyone have any other ideas, as I am fresh out?
If not should I just proceed with my backup plan from the 1st post (skipping the image creation step)?

[Scooby]

Ok, I will try 6.14 and get back to you. I am sure I did a deepsearch but perhaps I sent the wrong log file.

PS
Just ignore the last message as I sent it before I saw the posting prior to that.

[Scooby]

I installed and ran testdisk 6.14 as instructed. Here is the log file:

testdisk.zip

testdisk 6.14 log with deepsearch

(1.92 KiB) Downloaded 1240 times

In case it helps here is what testdisk showed after the deepsearch:

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TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63

The harddisk (2000 GB / 1863 GiB) seems too small! (< 2634 GB / 2453 GiB)
Check the harddisk size: HD jumpers settings, BIOS detection...

The following partition can't be recovered:
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>  FAT16 <32M           209156  52 59 320310 188 19 1785697539

And after that it listed this partition. I see the status column you mentioned and it is set to * so I guess the drive must have been reformatted.

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TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sdb - 2000 GB / 1863 GiB - CHS 243201 255 63
     Partition               Start        End    Size in sectors
>* HPFS - NTFS              0   1  1 243200 254 63 3907024002 [NexStar3: ]

Structure: Ok.  Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable  P=Primary  L=Logical  E=Extended  D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
     Enter: to continue
NTFS, blocksize=512, 2000 GB / 1863 GiB

Looks like I will have to use a professional DR software. Do you have any recommendations?

Thanks for all your help remy!

[Fiona]

TestDisk didn't find another partition.
Datarecovery software might be a good idea.
PhotoRec would be able to recover data from a seriously damaged file system.
But it doesn't keep file names and directories.
If you'd like to test software where you'd be able to recover it, you can check scavenger and Restorer Ultimate.

Fiona

[Scooby]

Thanks Fiona, I'll give those a try.

[Scooby]

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you on my results but things have been crazy busy lately.

So far I have recovered a lot of my files by using a different app as suggested. Still working on it but looks like I won't be recovering some (somewhat) important backups. But these are not important enough to pay a lot of money for a professional service.

Thanks again for all your help everyone