Recover files with testdisk

cuteboyucsc

Honorable
Jun 14, 2013
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10,510
Hi!
i have a broken WD disk which couldn't be mounted in linux neither on windows.
So i have booted with a linux live cd and trying to recover some files from the disk and if possible fix the broken hdd to make it bootabe. btw, i 'm a first time user of test disk.
I 'm in the middle of deep search and currently i 'm in the following stage,

TestDisk 6.14-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2012
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
http://www.cgsecurity.org

Disk /dev/sda - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30394 255 63
Analyse cylinder 2295/30393: 07%
Read error at 2294/254/63 (lba=36869174)

FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 10 254 63 176652 [DellUtility]
FAT32 LBA 11 0 1 4188 254 63 67119570 [ Unlabeled]
FAT32 LBA 11 0 1 4188 254 63 67119570 [ Unlabeled]
HPFS - NTFS 11 23 13 1466 173 51 23384064 [RECOVERY]
HPFS - NTFS 11 23 13 1466 173 51 23384064 [RECOVERY]


It took nearly 4 hours to get to this. Do you think i could recover files and fix the hdd to be bootable while considering "Read error at 2294/254/63 (lba=36869174)" ?

 
Yes you could but i would quickly copy the data and then try to fix the drive with no regret on what will happen to it. on the making the drive bootable i wouldn't try to use that drive anymore not until you ran a full diagnostic on it...
 

cuteboyucsc

Honorable
Jun 14, 2013
11
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10,510


Thanks for replying!
But when i add the hdd as secondary it doesn't allow to boot the pc. So i couldn't find a way to backup files.

Now i have the complete results of scan as follows,
Disk /dev/sda - 250 GB / 232 GiB - CHS 30394 255 63
Partition Start End Size in sectors
* FAT16 >32M 0 1 1 10 254 63 176652 [DellUtility]
D FAT32 LBA 11 0 1 4188 254 63 67119570 [ Unlabeled]
D HPFS - NTFS 11 23 13 1466 173 51 23384064 [RECOVERY]
D HPFS - NTFS 1466 173 51 2922 69 26 23384064
>* HPFS - NTFS 1466 173 52 30393 229 44 464715776 [OS]


Structure: Bad. Use Up/Down Arrow keys to select partition.
Use Left/Right Arrow keys to CHANGE partition characteristics:
*=Primary bootable P=Primary L=Logical E=Extended D=Deleted
Keys A: add partition, L: load backup, T: change type, P: list files,
Enter: to continue
NTFS found using backup sector, blocksize=4096, 237 GB / 221 GiB

If i change it to Primary it gives structure ok, but primary bootable structure bad. So if i change it to primary and add as secondary drive i should be able to recover the files, right ?
 

casper1973

Distinguished
Dec 30, 2012
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19,360
I would concentrate more on recovering the data. Even if you manage to repair the drive would you ever trust it again? I certainly wouldn't.

PhotoRec is a recovery program that comes as part of TestDisk and is great at recovering all types of files, not just photos. I would run this before messing around with drive settings. You can easily destroy data if you aren't confident in what you are doing in TestDisk.