Using TestDisk to repair the master file table?

[mz2193]

My laptop crashed last week and it seems to have messed up the hard drive. Chkdsk says the master file table is corrupted and Windows couldn't recover it, so I wanted to try using TestDisk to repair it since I've read other people have had success with that. But when I go to Advanced File Utilities, the bottom menu only gives the options "type," "image creation." and "quit"; I don't see the "boot" option that's supposed to bring me to "Repair MFT." Can anyone help me figure out how to try and repair the MFT? I'm using the Windows 64-bit version of TestDisk that says some features are missing, is this why I don't see that option?

Thank you for any help you can provide!!

 

[GCOCommander]

When you open test disk you should see create. It sound like you are using Photorec possibly, which is part of the test disk programs but searches the drive for files. Once you see create just hit enter, then select your disk, hit enter, select the type of partition (should be intel), select analyze, quick search, it should scan the disk, run deeper search if it can't find the partitions you are looking for. After it is complete hit write, this will write the partition structure to the disk. Reboot and profit!

 

[mz2193]

When you open test disk you should see create. It sound like you are using Photorec possibly, which is part of the test disk programs but searches the drive for files. Once you see create just hit enter, then select your disk, hit enter, select the type of partition (should be intel), select analyze, quick search, it should scan the disk, run deeper search if it can't find the partitions you are looking for. After it is complete hit write, this will write the partition structure to the disk. Reboot and profit!

Thanks for the reply! This will repair the master file table? In the TestDisk wiki it says to go to advanced file utilities > boot > repair MFT and it would check the MFT mirror to see if it's corrupted and if it's not it'd use that to fix the MFT. Is that the same thing as what you're telling me to do? Forgive me, I'm not very well versed in computer stuff, and I'm scared to do the wrong thing and mess up my hard drive even more. Also when I did analyze and then quick search, it got stuck in one place for a while so I stopped it.

 

[GCOCommander]

This will restore the MFT, follow my directions the WIKI gives confusing advice. I have been using this program for over 10 years.

"Also when I did analyze and then quick search, it got stuck in one place "

This means that your hard drive is trashed usually. I don't think you can fix it using test disk. It seems like your laptop crashed because of your hard drive, mechanical drives are particularly unreliable compared to SSD's. I would replace it with an SSD. Don't try and use that drive again.

 

[mz2193]

Ah, I see. I'm going to follow your instructions and try TestDisk one more time, but if it gets stuck again I guess I'll just move onto trying to recover the data before I replace it with an SSD. Thank you again for the help!

 

[mz2193]

Also, how do I know the partition table type? TestDisk said an EFI GPT partition table was detected, so should I just go with that instead of Intel?