cgsecurity.org

Hi, there! This is my first post here, and I have many doubts about my situation...

I lost the USB Controller of a Seagate 4TB Expansion HDD (the cause was a bad USB connection, I think). Almost all of my entire life is there.

I've bought another controller, but I've noticed the HD did not run as before. I couldn't see any files or either partitions. So a friend of mine told me about losing the partition file... He has recomended me the Testdisk.

I've been reading a lot about Testdisk, but I didn't find some answers. I tried to follow this step by step:
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step

My disk was divided in 4 partitions of 1TB each one. I ran a Quick Search, but had no success finding the partitions. So I ran a Deeper Search, and this screenshot 01 was the result. I've identified the 4 partitions: lines 3, 5, 7 and 8 (considering the selected white line as the first one). Typing "P" I was able to see the file list, and I recognized all the files.

My question number 1 is: does it seem OK? My 1st partition don't start at 0/1/1 (cylinder 1, head 0) and the other partitions don't start at x/0/x, or either at x/1/x... I've selected them all as Primary because if selected partitions 2 to 4 as logical it returned "Structure:bad".

So I did the Write, restart, but partitions did not show their files on Windows.

I think it's because the loss of the Boot sector, that need's to be fixed. But the status of my Backup boot sector is bad. I'm ready to do the rebuild now.

My second doubt is: do I have to Rebuild BS on the four partitions? Or just the first one? And is it relevant if this first one was not selected as * (bootable), but P (primary) on the "write" of searching phase?

The third question is: there is a warning: number of bytes per sector mismatches 4096 (NTFS) != 512 (HD). Is it evident?

Fouth one: there is an unalocated space before the 1st partition. Is it right?

I don't remember, but I guess I've used one seagate aplication to make the partitions, and I'm afraid to lose the data. Is there a risk?

Thank's, thanks...

For each partition found, use 'p' to list the files.
If you see your files, set the partition as P(rimary).
Once you have your 4 partitions, on next screen, choose Write, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.

Thank's for your quick reply...

So, I did it. But... The 4th partition is over the 3rd after rebooting. I've restarted the computer, opened the Advanced Menu, and it was not as shown at the screenshot. Very weird... It begins before 4th partition's end and ends quite before the sector we can see on Deeper Search results...

Even so, the files are not visible in windows. I've tried to Rebuild BS, but not success. After I try it, the 1st partition returns with no files. Any idea?

My happines is that at least I can copy the files. The program is amazing, thank you very much, cgrenier!