8 replies to this topic

[Uneitohr]

Hi,

I have a WD 500GB drive and was partitioned as follows:
sda1 10GB - PRIMARY NTFS
sda2 465GB - EXTENDED
sda5 90GB - LOGICAL NTFS
sda6 60GB - LOGICAL NTFS
sda7 90GB - LOGICAL EXT4
sda8 4GB - LOGICAL FAT16
sda9 6GB - LOGICAL LINUX SWAP
sda10 200 - LOGICAL NTFS

I deleted sda1 and created from the unpartitioned space two other ntfs primary partitions. Named (in gparted) sda1 and sda3. Now, the two primary partitions are readable but the extended one has an "unknown partition" problem in gparted and in unreadable.

The only backup I had was on sda10 and is unredable. Below I posted a log from testdisk. Please, review it and guide through this as I don't know what to do.

Thanks for all your help. It will be appreciated.

http://tinypaste.com/58917f

[skyide]

sorry, I deleted my post to eliminate confusion.

[Uneitohr]

Initially, the extended was sda2 but after the re-partitioning, it should've been sda3. I don't know how it happened.

[skyide]

I think your partition table must be stuffed up. If you are on Windows, try using Paragon Partition Manager Free edition. It might be able to fix it or at least see what it comes up with.

[Wonko the Sane]

It seems a lot like a big mess.
In Testdisk try to set:
Expert mode: Yes
Cylinder boundary : No
Allow partial last cylinder : Yes

and scan for partitions.

DO NOT EVEN THINK of using ANY partitioning/re-partitioning program on that disk!

Those programs are NOT made to recover/fix problems.

Your priorities are now:

• recover the DATA
• if possible restore the previous partitioning scheme

As an alternative to TESTDISK, you may want to try DMDE:
http://softdm.com/

You SHOULD make a RAW image of that disk (better if two) before making ANY change to it.
(I do know that having another two 500 Gb disks is not possible for the average Joe, but if you get NOW at least one slightly bigger disk, let's say a 640 Gb one, you are going to spend some 80 bucks, but you have to ask yourself: "do I really want ot save US $ 80,00 but risk losing ALL my DATA?)


Wonko

[skyide]

if possible restore the previous partitioning scheme

Correct, without a doubt his partition table is messed up. Now the question is how exactly is going to restore it? It would have to be done manually. I hope your suggestion solves the issue and I fully agree that he needs to make a raw backup copy of his whole disk before messing any further.

The best thing to do would be to somehow get the data of the broken partition and put it to another. The data isn't lost, it is still there.


If in case you attempt to use any tool my suggestion is not to make any changes if you don't know what it's asking you so you are better of posting the results here.

[Uneitohr]

Thank you skyide and Wonko for your help. Fortunatelly, I do have a 750 GB hard drive and I'll begin creating the raw image immediately. I will do what you said and post here the results. Thanks again

[Uneitohr]

It seems a lot like a big mess.
In Testdisk try to set:
Expert mode: Yes
Cylinder boundary : No
Allow partial last cylinder : Yes

and scan for partitions.

It worked! Everything is exactly the same. I'm so happy
It took me 2 hours to backup the whole disk using clonezilla.
Thank you so much.

[Wonko the Sane]

It worked! Everything is exactly the same. I'm so happy
It took me 2 hours to backup the whole disk using clonezilla.
Thank you so much.

Good.

Another happy bunny in the basket :
http://www.msfn.org/...ic=128727&st=10


Wonko