TestDisk for Reformatted HFS+ volume

[hoffsta]

Hi there, I'm in a bit of a pickle! I was using WD My Book Studio II external hard drive that has two 1Tb drives running in RAID 1 on a Mac HFS+ volume. Somehow, I accidentally reconfigured the RAID config with WD "Drive Manager" utility and the drives were reformatted to a clean state. There was no warning that my data would be lost!!! What a lousy utility. I only lost 20 of 960 gigs but I need them for work.

I first used Data Rescue III to try to recover the files (all Nikon Camera RAW files, .nef). It recovered many but some important ones were written in a fragmented manner because the drive was almost full and are now unusable.

I've come across TestDisk but am confused as to whether it will be able to recover the old partition table. I see it can recover "deleted partitions" but what about reformatted ones? Do you know if this is my best option or if there may be a better tool to recover these fragmented files?

Thank you so much!!!

Sean in Oregon

 

[treefrog07]

TestDisk worked for me on a RAID 1. It can recover the partition table, fix the MBR, and recover the folders and files - as long as nothing has overwritten them.

Follow the example on the wiki. TestDisk recovered and copied many of my folders and files to a backup drive. Then I used it to recover and restore the partition table and repair the MBR on the original HDD. It actually finds the NTFS backup MBR, compares that to the corrupted MBR and restores it to the original.

Since my corrupt RAID volume was the boot volume on my primary system, I took the HDDs out and put them in my gaming system to run TestDisk. When it was done, I put them back in the primary system, and everything worked.

 

[hoffsta]

TestDisk worked for me on a RAID 1. It can recover the partition table, fix the MBR, and recover the folders and files - as long as nothing has overwritten them.

Follow the example on the wiki. TestDisk recovered and copied many of my folders and files to a backup drive. Then I used it to recover and restore the partition table and repair the MBR on the original HDD. It actually finds the NTFS backup MBR, compares that to the corrupted MBR and restores it to the original.

Since my corrupt RAID volume was the boot volume on my primary system, I took the HDDs out and put them in my gaming system to run TestDisk. When it was done, I put them back in the primary system, and everything worked.

So when you say, "as long as nothing has overwritten them," would this include the files automatically written to the drive when it's reformatted? My drive had only a single partition so is it wrong to assume the reformat would have overwritten some important partition info critical to recovering the files?

I've been unsuccessful thus-far and am now considering a professional recovery service. Any recommendations for a service that won't cost more than my computer and won't charge for an unsuccessful attempt?

 

[objec]

So when you say, "as long as nothing has overwritten them," would this include the files automatically written to the drive when it's reformatted? My drive had only a single partition so is it wrong to assume the reformat would have overwritten some important partition info critical to recovering the files?

I've been unsuccessful thus-far and am now considering a professional recovery service. Any recommendations for a service that won't cost more than my computer and won't charge for an unsuccessful attempt?

Can you let us know what you ended up doing? I just did what you did and am in search of a solution.

 

[hoffsta]

Never found a solution. Sux.

 

[chrismm]

So when you say, "as long as nothing has overwritten them," would this include the files automatically written to the drive when it's reformatted? My drive had only a single partition so is it wrong to assume the reformat would have overwritten some important partition info critical to recovering the files?

I've been unsuccessful thus-far and am now considering a professional recovery service. Any recommendations for a service that won't cost more than my computer and won't charge for an unsuccessful attempt?

Hello,

I have the same problem. I used WD Drive Manager 2.25 on MAC OS X and without any warning, the RAID was configured new when I launched the WD Raid Manager. I did not format new, but the partitions (NTFS and HFS+) are lost. Yes, a very lousy utility.

Is there any solution to repair this?


Thanks

Chris

 

[TrudyRose3523]

You could try to use a specific partition recovery tool to get back your inaccessible data. As I know, there are many related partition recovery tools that could help user restore his data back easily from a deleted, formatted or even corrupted partition, as long as one has not overwritten his original data with anything new.
So, you should download a most proper one to get back your data after searching on the internet.
In the future, you should always remember to make data backups.