Lost Partitions and Hard Drive Volume - Need to Recover

TimCL

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
38
0
18,530
Hi

I had a storage HD on my desktop (Windows 7 64 Bit). It was used for storing files only and it had 2 partitions (1 TB Total, 950 GB and 50 GB).

I wanted to clean the smaller partition and merge it with the larger partition. I used diskpart and I probably messed up after cleaning the smaller partition.

Now I have left with this HD as disk 1 with no volume (disk 0 being C drive with OS). I have not performed any other steps on this HD.

How can I recover the partitions on this HD and assign it a volume (It shows 931 GB unallocated)?

I tried EaseUS partition recovery and MiniAide Magic Partition as well, but the HD lists no partition to recover.

Thanks :cry:
 

TimCL

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
38
0
18,530
fzabkar

I had used diskpart only 4-5 times in the past.

If I remember I used these commands

Select disk, List partition, selected partition, clean

Then selected first partition and extend (this is where I am not sure)

I don't know if the small partition was at the beginning or at the end of the drive.
It was shown after the larger partition in diskpart.

I see the partitions in a disk recovery software. It is just a matter of time that I will recover it. (It restored almost 90% of files to an external HD, then I started to delete some folders while it was recovering and I ended in hanging up my computer).

Now I will let the desktop do the recovery alone before using it.

Only if there are any commands that I can use to see the partitions again in diskpart, it will save me lots of time.

Thanks!
 
@TimCL, I haven't ever done what you are trying to do, but ISTM that the 'clear' subcommand (see below) deletes the entire partition table in sector 0, not just the in-focus partition. This explains why your drive space was showing as "unallocated". Moreover, this begs the question, if the partitioning information was deleted, then how did the 'extend' command manage to extend a non-existent partition?

That said, you should be able to use the information in the boot sector (sector 2048) to rebuild the partition table. I can help you do this. To this end, could you show us a hex dump of sector 2048? You could use one of the following disc editors:

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery):
http://softdm.com/download.html

Roadkil's Sector Editor:
http://www.roadkil.net/program.php/P24/Sector%20Editor

HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor:
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd


A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/300415

=============================================================================================

clean [all]

Use the clean command to remove partition or volume formatting from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors. By default, only the MBR or GPT partitioning information and any hidden sector information on MBR disks is overwritten. If you specify the 'all' parameter, each and every sector can be zeroed, and all data that is contained on the drive can be deleted.

=============================================================================================

extend [size=n][noerr]

Use the 'extend' command to cause the current in-focus volume to be extended into contiguous unallocated space. The unallocated space must follow (it must be of higher sector offset than) the in-focus partition.

If the partition had been previously formatted with the NTFS file system, the file system is automatically extended to occupy the larger partition, and data loss does not occur. If the partition had been previously formatted with any file system format other than NTFS, the command is unsuccessful and does not change the partition.

=============================================================================================
 
If your partitioning system was MBR, then sector 2048 would normally have been the boot sector of the first partition, and the next sector would have had an "NTLDR" text string. In your case sector 0 is empty.

I would use DMDE to Search For Special Sectors (Tools menu). Look for NTFS boot sectors. Each partition should have a boot sector at the beginning and a backup boot sector at the end.
 

TimCL

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
38
0
18,530
fzabkar

I hope I followed your directions correctly

The DMDE screen is pretty small to get a Print Screen shot, and all of the information is a foreign language to me.

I see

Total NTFS Sectors 1208516115580653323
MFT Start Cluster 6124990635755565538
MFT Mirror Cluster 4581415929857734
Clusters per File
Clusters per INDX
 
That information is bogus.

A Windows 7 NTFS boot sector should look something like this:
http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/W7VBR.htm#CHS

There should be a boot sector at the beginning of each partition and a backup boot sector at the end of each partition.

To see the actual data you will need to select Mode -> Hexadecimal.

To avoid thrashing your drive, you could start your search near the end of the drive. The last sector is 1953525167, so you might like to select Editor -> Goto Object Offset and type 1953520000 in the Sector field.
 

tomermmny58hn

Honorable
Dec 3, 2012
1
0
10,510
Based on your description, you can try this recovery program: Vimx Partition Recovery , which is designed to recover both of the inner data and deleted partition for you. Even though you need to pay for it, it can settle your problem completely. It is worth it, right?
Note for you:
1. Do not write anything new on this drive in case of rewriting the original data, which can erase your data forever.
2. Save your recovered files on a different storage device in case of recovery failure.
3. Always back up you data in the future.
 

TimCL

Distinguished
Dec 7, 2010
38
0
18,530
Thanks everyone for you help and sorry for delay in replying.

I was able to recover all my data via recovery software.

Sorry for delay in replying as I was doing some housekeeping (OS reinstall as well).

This is a great forum to get help and thanks to all!.