Question unallocated disk space after replacing motherboard

[mrbusdriverr]

Hi all, my old computer blew up and ended up replacing motherboard, cpu, ram. Got a new Samsung M2 NVME and re-installed windows on this drive (Disk 3 in disk management). Plugged in my 3 old SDD/HDD however could only see old windows boot drive (Disk 1 Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB) which is still functional. Able to see two other older drives in BIOS and disk management but disk space is unallocated. Converted these MBR to GPT but drive space remains unallocated. Confirmed both problem disks are GPT now. Attempted to use various methods see in forums to add BCDBOOT, start with legacy bios vs UEFI, cloning, partition repair to no avail. The two older drives were purely storage, no windows installed.

Disk management

https://imgur.com/y69kIFR

View: https://imgur.com/y69kIFR
,

Tried to clone disk/image via Macrium reflect but cannot select unallocated space.

https://imgur.com/FsRXcan

View: https://imgur.com/FsRXcan

Tried to use Partition repair but cannot see any lost files within unallocated

https://imgur.com/bkulBlq

View: https://imgur.com/bkulBlq

confirmed with testdisk and DMDE

https://imgur.com/HESqUYN

View: https://imgur.com/HESqUYN
,

https://imgur.com/naUFPYh

View: https://imgur.com/naUFPYh




System specs:

https://imgur.com/UuQWT3S

View: https://imgur.com/UuQWT3S

Old motherboard: Gigabyte Z97mx gaming-5
New motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix 790-E Gaming Wifi
Processor: Intel i7-13700K
Disk 0: Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256GB - Unallocated space
Disk 2: WDC WD10EZEX HDD 1TB - Unallocated space

Disk 1: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 1TB - Old boot drive, functional
Disk 3: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVME - now upgraded to Windows 11

What can I do to recover the files on unallocated space? My old motherboard is dead and cannot plug back into it and do not have an accessible second PC to attempt see the drives.

Thanks in advance.

 

[rgd1101]

was the disk MBR before?

 

[USAFRet]

Were these drives part of a Storage Space or RAID array?

 

[fzabkar]

I don't understand what happened, but there should be a boot sector at the start of each partition. In the case of your 1TB HDD, there should be a boot sector at LBA 3123200.

You can view this sector in DMDE.

Select Windows -> Editor. There should now be a RH pane showing the hexadecimal/text data in LBA 0.

Select Editor -> Goto offset, Sector = 3123200, Sector Offset = 0, From Start/End, OK.

You should now see the contents of LBA 3123200.

You can use the Page_Down and Page_Up keys or vertical scrollbar to view the LBAs. Do you see any non-zero data?

A valid NTFS boot sector will normally have an "NTFS" text signature, like this ...

https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/W8VBR.htm#CHS

 

[mrbusdriverr]

was the disk MBR before?

Yes, converted to GPT using partition master on one drive, did the cmd mbr2gpt on other drive.

Were these drives part of a Storage Space or RAID array?

Storage space

I don't understand what happened, but there should be a boot sector at the start of each partition. In the case of your 1TB HDD, there should be a boot sector at LBA 3123200.

You can view this sector in DMDE.

Select Windows -> Editor. There should now be a RH pane showing the hexadecimal/text data in LBA 0.

Select Editor -> Goto offset, Sector = 3123200, Sector Offset = 0, From Start/End, OK.

You should now see the contents of LBA 3123200.

You can use the Page_Down and Page_Up keys or vertical scrollbar to view the LBAs. Do you see any non-zero data?

A valid NTFS boot sector will normally have an "NTFS" text signature, like this ...

https://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/mbr/W8VBR.htm#CHS

Unfortunately all 0's. Space has been unallocated since plugin to new mobo. I attempted to create EFI system partitions. "drive F" now functions as a 1.5 gb usable space and I still cannot access the data in the unallocated space in the rest of a drive. It is not listed as a partition space in any of the third-party recovery programs or chkdsk.

Is it still possible to recover these without wiping? Clone/image disk haven't been successful in locating the actual space.

 

[USAFRet]

Storage space

And that is the reason.

In the new system, if you look in Storage Spaces, are the relevant drives in there?

If not, you may well be completely out of luck.
(this is why a known good backup of ALL data is needed before starting a change like this)

 

[fzabkar]

If all you are seeing are zeros when you drag DMDE's vertical scrollbar through all the LBAs, then there is no data to be found. Perhaps Storage Spaces never got around to utlising this part of the drive???

 

[mrbusdriverr]

And that is the reason.

In the new system, if you look in Storage Spaces, are the relevant drives in there?

If not, you may well be completely out of luck.
(this is why a known good backup of ALL data is needed before starting a change like this)

My previous system never had these "storage pools", this is the first time I am aware of this.

https://imgur.com/m3NfUkB

View: https://imgur.com/m3NfUkB

 

[USAFRet]

My previous system never had these "storage pools", this is the first time I am aware of this.

https://imgur.com/m3NfUkB

View: https://imgur.com/m3NfUkB

Remove them from these Storage Pools.

 

[mrbusdriverr]

They are currently not in storage pools, I can only create a new pool. Unable to access files, lacking security permission.

 

[USAFRet]

They are currently not in storage pools, I can only create a new pool. Unable to access files, lacking security permission.

If it is just a Permission thing, TakeOwnership may be the key.
https://www.howtogeek.com/557/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3841-add-take-ownership-context-menu-windows-10-a.html

 

[mrbusdriverr]

Ok, I have the take ownership function now but what am I taking over if I cannot see the unallocated space? Should I create a storage pool(s)?

They were unallocated prior to transitioning MBR to GPT. Does this conversion always wipe data?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, I have the take ownership function now but what am I taking over if I cannot see the unallocated space? Should I create a storage pool(s)?

They were unallocated prior to transitioning MBR to GPT. Does this conversion always wipe data?

No, do NOT create any Pool.

If you do it incorrectly, MBR to GPT can indeed kill off all data.

 

[mrbusdriverr]

So what are my options in reclaiming my lost data or making the unallocated section readable?