cgsecurity.org

Hello everyone!
I'm new to this forum and I need some help.
My laptop didn't start anymore (it didn't find the operating system), so I took out the HD and put it on a usb adpter.
Using another pc, I searched for the problem, but this HD is working in a odd way.

The hard drive has 3 partitions:
1) recovery (hidden) - it seems fine, I've already done the image backup (who know, maybe it coulb be helpful in future).
2) operatin system (C:) - it doesn't work at all, windows file manager says that it's not formatted.
3) Data (my storage) (D:) - it works perfect, I've already done the backup with windows file manager. I've done windows scandisk with sector check and it's 100% ok.

So I used testdisk, I followed step by step guide (really well done). www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
Testdisk see all hd partitions and it works fine until deepscan.
At the end of deep scan, there is a red alert:
"Structure: bad"
And it's not possible to write the new partition structure.

Run TestDisk, Advanced, select the OS partition, Boot, RebuildBS, List. If you can see your files, choose Write, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.
Run "cmd" (right click Run as Administrator) and "chkdsk /f d:" (replace d: by the correct drive letter).

Many thanks for your help cgrenier!
I'm following your tips.
This is "boot" step: is it ok?

this is "rebuild bs" step

File list seems fine....

Unfortunately, in the end testdisk failed to write... what's wrong?

Sounds like testdisk does not have the administrative right to write on this disk (on sector level - below file system level).
Otherwise it could indicate a lack of available spare sectors to replace the unreadable physical sector that contains the boot sector information by a working one.
The spare sector issue is handled by the harddisk firmware.
If this is not a rights issue cloning might be necessary.

recuperation wrote: 06 Mar 2019, 22:21 Sounds like testdisk does not have the administrative right to write on this disk (on sector level - below file system level).
Otherwise it could indicate a lack of available spare sectors to replace the unreadable physical sector that contains the boot sector information by a working one.
The spare sector issue is handled by the harddisk firmware.
If this is not a rights issue cloning might be necessary.

Many thanks for help. I was thinking too to a rights problem. I'm working on another pc (my account is admin of this pc) with my old hard drive on USB.

How I can have the rights to write on sector level?

As an admin you should already have the rights.
Try to run testdisk from a bootable CD/DVD like Knoppix.
Check disk health.

On Windows an antivirus may also prevent TestDisk from rewriting the boot sector.