[SOLVED] I deleted my partition by mistake while installing windows 7

[therealnps]

Hi,

So I've stumbled upon this thread which has a very similar issue to mine:

I deleted my partition by mistake while installing windows 10

I just bought a SSD drive for my laptop, so I put my old hdd in the DVD-RW place with a caddy. The old HDD had 2 partition, one of 100 GB for operating system and one of 200 GB for stuff. When reinstalling windows on the SSD, I wanted to delete the partion C from my old HDD with ex operating...

forums.tomshardware.com

I have 2 drives: SSD (with the OS) and HDD (with just data). Today I reinstalled my Windows 7 (yes, I'm still using 7) a few times (sadly I had some problems so had to do it multiple times). I always do it by physically unplugging my HDD before installation so I don't accidentally format my HDD. Unfortunately, while installing the system for the 3rd time I forgot to unplug the HDD. I arrived at this screen (just an example from the internet, my layout was different):

https://imgur.com/7VjFwUZ

View: https://i.imgur.com/7VjFwUZ.png


So here's what my setup looked like. Note that it looked like that in the windows explorer (it looked differently in the partitioning screen above): 1 SSD with 1 partition on it (the OS was installed on it) and 1 HDD with also just 1 partition on it. However, in the partitioning screen in windows installer it showed me 2 partitions (or at least 2 elements) for each of the drives, so 4 partitions (elements) in total. Sorry for being vague about this but I don't remember exactly what it said. Anyway, from the "user point of view" (or the windows explorer point of view) it looked like I had just 1 partition on each.

So anyway when I arrived at that screen I deleted all the partitions and then I realized that my HDD was actually plugged in to the computer and that I just deleted the partition(s) from it! So I didn't move forward, canceled the whole installation, shut down the PC and unplugged the HDD. Unfortunately, this ridiculous installer deletes partitions immediately, before pressing the "Next" button or anything else. So when I plugged my HDD back in (after having installed the OS) the OS didn't see the HDD at all. The "Computer Management" application in windows showed the HDD but it had the entire space as "Unallocated".

So I used the TestDisk, followed this: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step (all the steps BEFORE the Deeper Search - it found the (only) partition, listed the files on it correctly so I didn't need to perform the Deeper Search). I used the "Write" option, closed the TestDisk and rebooted my PC.

Now the windows explorer sees the HDD but not the partition/files on it (the HDD is the Disk E):

https://imgur.com/QmYBXQV

View: https://i.imgur.com/QmYBXQV.png


When I try to open it:

https://imgur.com/i6WupHr

View: https://i.imgur.com/i6WupHr.png


(I press "Cancel" of course). When I check in the "Computer Management" application:

https://imgur.com/qfAeOQq

View: https://i.imgur.com/qfAeOQq.png


That's the state of things right now. I can see all the files on the HDD via TestDisk (and even copied some of them to the SSD) so I think its partition should be salvageable but I don't know how to proceed. I'm running the Deeper Search right now but it's at 9% and so far only found the same partition (and only that partition) as the Quick Search:

https://imgur.com/cFz2YIf

View: https://i.imgur.com/cFz2YIf.png


Can you please tell me what I can do to restore/fix my partition?

 

[USAFRet]

Today I reinstalled my Windows 7 (yes, I'm still using 7) a few times

Unfortunately, while installing the system for the 3rd time I forgot to unplug the HDD.

You deleted the partition on the 4TB?

We NEED to see a screencap of YOUR Disk Management window.

 

[therealnps]

Ok, let me clarify: my SSD is 500 GB and my HDD is 4 TB (sorry for not saying that previously). Also - the very first screen in my post is random from internet (just to show you which screen in the Windows installation wizard I was talking about) but all the other screens are from MY computer.

You deleted the partition on the 4TB?

Yes.

We NEED to see a screencap of YOUR Disk Management window.

Are you talking about the screen in the Windows installation wizard? Or about the Computer Management/Disk Management application in the (installed) Windows system? If the latter then it's the one I posted:

https://imgur.com/qfAeOQq

View: https://i.imgur.com/qfAeOQq.png

If the former then obviously I cannot show you what it had contained at the start (before I started deleting partitions in it). I could only show you what it contained at the end but it was pretty straightforward (something like this):
Drive 0 Unallocated Space 500 GB 500 GB // the SSD
Drive 1 Unallocated Space 4000 GB 4000 GB // the HDD

(If you really need me to then I could run the installation wizard again up to that point, take a photo of the partitions (as they are now anyway), then cancel the installation and post the photo here. But if i don't have to then I don't want to run that installation wizard with my HDD plugged in again as I don't want to screw anything up even more. 😛

 

[USAFRet]

Still unsure of what end result you're trying to get to.

Recover whatever may have been on the 4TB HDD?

A small slice of the Disk Management window does not help.
What OS are you booted in when seeing that Disk 1 with the E partition?
Please show us the whole thing.

 

[therealnps]

Still unsure of what end result you're trying to get to.

Recover whatever may have been on the 4TB HDD?

Yes. I want the recover/fix the partition on the 4TB HDD so that I can access the files in the windows explorer.

A small slice of the Disk Management window does not help.
What OS are you booted in when seeing that Disk 1 with the E partition?
Please show us the whole thing.

Sorry, here's the whole screenshot:

https://imgur.com/aplP5eX

View: https://i.imgur.com/aplP5eX.png


All screenshots were taken under Windows 7 (the one I reinstalled on the SSD).

 

[therealnps]

Deeper Search has finished:

https://imgur.com/ami65Mv

View: https://i.imgur.com/ami65Mv.png


What do I do with this?

 

[fzabkar]

Can you show us the Partitions window in DMDE? There is no need for a full scan.

https://dmde.com/

Hopefully TestDisk hasn't made irreversible changes to your drive. DMDE would normally be able to restore your partitions with a few clicks.

 

[therealnps]

https://imgur.com/YgxKtql

View: https://i.imgur.com/YgxKtql.png


Note that in the meantime I played with TestDisk some more (trying to restore my partition in various ways) and may have messed it up a bit more. But all the files are still there (readable).

 

[fzabkar]

If you d-click the 4TB partition and expand the $Root, you should see your file/folder tree.

You need to r-click the MSData (07) partition and select "Remove the partition". Then r-click the NTFS partition and select "Insert the partition (undelete)". Then select Disk -> Apply Changes.

There may be some warning prompts, because TestDisk appears to have converted from GPT to MBR, but we can fix that, too.

You will need to reboot so that Windows can re-examine the drive.

 

[therealnps]

Thank you for your help fzabkar, I really appreciate it.

I've removed the MSData (07) partition but can't insert the NTFS partition:

https://imgur.com/zEmj9Ql

View: https://i.imgur.com/zEmj9Ql.png

https://imgur.com/vUXsaOK

View: https://i.imgur.com/vUXsaOK.png


So this is the current state (before clicking Apply or just closing the program without applying):

https://imgur.com/IOSwEyq

View: https://i.imgur.com/IOSwEyq.png

 

[fzabkar]

The problem appears to be that TestDisk has done an MBR conversion.

This is what my 8TB external drive looks like:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/DMDE/DMDE_Elements-8TB_Partitions.jpg

In my case the first line has "GPT" under "F.System" whereas yours has MBR.

R-click the first line "Disk 2 ..." and select "Reset GPT + MBR signatures". You may need to toggle GPT Off and then On again until you see "GPT' on the first line rather than MBR. Then you should be able to insert the NTFS partition.

Note that these edits won't touch your data. They only affect sectors 0, 1 and 2.

 

[therealnps]

Ok, so these are my steps:
1) "Remove the Partition" for "MSData (07)":

https://imgur.com/6CafVN1

View: https://i.imgur.com/6CafVN1.png


2) "Reset GPT + MBR signatures (GPT Off)" for "Disk 2* - 4.00 TB...":

https://imgur.com/IvQE4Dp

View: https://i.imgur.com/IvQE4Dp.png


3) "Insert the Partition (Undelete)" for "Local Disk" (NTFS):

https://imgur.com/iHYcNVs

View: https://i.imgur.com/iHYcNVs.png

https://imgur.com/dGnPW2T

View: https://i.imgur.com/dGnPW2T.png


Is this what you meant? Are these all the steps (for now)? Do I click "Apply" now?

 

[therealnps]

So I just went ahead and tried applying these changes (and rebooting the PC, of course). My partition works!

https://imgur.com/WU1Mr2J

View: https://i.imgur.com/WU1Mr2J.png


There's still a matter of that small unallocated space that I'd like to get rid of:

https://imgur.com/0JSBWfL

View: https://i.imgur.com/0JSBWfL.png


But that's a tiny detail, not a real issue. Thanks so much for your help!

 

[fzabkar]

The MSData (06) partition has no boot sector, so DMDE can't reinsert it into the GPT. Without seeing how much of this partition was damaged, I wouldn't be able to suggest any remedy.

Congratulations anyway.