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I really messed up my HDD, Accidentally reformatted my HDD from NTFS to Ext4 (unwanted partitions)

Posted: 15 Feb 2020, 17:43
by Dentrax
Hey,

During the Arch installation, somehow my default Linux SSD partition (which is `/dev/sdc`) is changed to my internal 1T HDD's. I always check it with `fdisk -l` all the time before i do a any operation. But I forgot to check it out dev id in the setup process somehow. After I typed the format commands and press the Enter, it was too late. I had to watch formatting process.

What I did:
1. Forgot the check `fdisk -l`
2. Ran the format commands: `mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdc1` and `mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc2` (Why the F that command did not warn me like `hey, this is your internal HDD and 95% full, would you like to continue the format process? ...)
3. In Disk Management, HDD shows as `unallocated`, i can't see HDD in the `Devices and drivers` section either.

I just want to remove FAT32 and Swap partitions and recover as many files as I can. Whole HDD partition must be in NTFS format as used to be.

Disk Error:

Image

Disk Management:

Image

Quick Search Resut:

Image

[undelete] says: No file found, filesystem may be damaged

[boot] says:

Code: Select all

Disk /dev/sdb - 1000 GB / 931 GiB - CHS 121601 255 63                                                                        
	Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors                                                      
1 * 	FAT12                97468   1  1 97468 254 63      16002  
	                                                                                                                                                                                
Boot sector                                                                                                             
Bad                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
	
A valid FAT Boot sector must be present in order to access                                                              
any data; even if the partition is not bootable.
[rebuild bs] says: Can't find cluster size

Log file: https://paste.ee/p/QPsgo

What should i do? :(

Thanks in advance...

Re: I really messed up my HDD, Accidentally reformatted my HDD from NTFS to Ext4 (unwanted partitions)

Posted: 16 Feb 2020, 09:08
by cgrenier
Run TestDisk, Analyse, Quick Search, Stop, Deeper Search, set the NTFS partition to P(rimary).
On next screen, if the NTFS partition is listed as expected, choose Write, confirm, BckupBS, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.

Re: I really messed up my HDD, Accidentally reformatted my HDD from NTFS to Ext4 (unwanted partitions)

Posted: 16 Feb 2020, 12:42
by Dentrax
cgrenier wrote: 16 Feb 2020, 09:08 Run TestDisk, Analyse, Quick Search, Stop, Deeper Search, set the NTFS partition to P(rimary).
On next screen, if the NTFS partition is listed as expected, choose Write, confirm, BckupBS, confirm, Quit and restart your computer.
Hey,

Thank you so much for promt reply. Now my HDD looks like this in Disk Management:

Image

After the restart, i tried to [undelete] my NTFS partition under [advanced] section. But it says: Can't open filesystem. Filesystem seems damaged. (list option didn't work either, throws same error)

Log file: https://paste.ee/p/KuJIC

My HDD is still unaccessible:

Image

I can't see the my primary HDD on the PhotoRec. It shows "Unknown" and "Fat32" partitions only.

I just want to recover as many files as I can before the full format. What should i do as a next step? Thanks...

Re: I really messed up my HDD, Accidentally reformatted my HDD from NTFS to Ext4 (unwanted partitions)

Posted: 16 Feb 2020, 13:21
by recuperation
Use Photorec.