Idk what I'm doing with Test Disk. 256GB to 400MB

jumanji said:

Just three questions for now :
1. Where and how is the 256GB SSD connected now?

2.Is all your data in drive D:? ( Most probably not since it is only 467MB. It may be a system partition.)

3. I usually get nervous dealing with laptop disks since I do not know what exactly the partition structure was in it. Do you have any screenshot of Windows Disk Management when it was working?

A real life event.. My Desktop conked off about ten days ago. One fine morning I switched on and it booted normally. As I was using it -a blue screen of death. Rebooted and the bios gets stuck at Verifying DMI pool data.Tried clearing CMOS - which once longtime back brought life back - but this time it did not work. Disconnected the two HDDs in Bios raid, got the message - no system disk. So HDD failure. These two WD HDDs were bought on 23 March 2008 and so not a surprise. I was expecting this to happen and let the machine run till its last breath. I formatted one WD HDD using Paragon Hard Disk Manager Recovery CD and installed Windows 7. It went fine and booted into Windows.With Windows alive, I checked the drive with WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and the Long Test failed after sometime, reporting too many bad sectors.
The other WD HDD passed all tests. Oops... I had installed Windows on a wrong disk..Anyway, I now know that the HDD indeed is faulty.Amazon delivered a 500GB Samsung SSD the next day and I installed Windows 7 on it. What about my data? I had all data backed up on a 300 GB Maxtor external HDD and restored all of it to the new Samsung HDD. Bought two more Samsung SSDa and my present configuration



The moral of the story is that if you have regular backups, there will be no panic situation.

For system Backups I use AOMEI Backupper Standard ( Freeware) ( most suited for a novice ) and Paragon HDD Manager 17 advanced ( Hmm... Paragon gave me a free license much to my surprise and I jettisoned HDD Manager 12 which I had been using since the time I first installed Windows 7)

For data backup I use SyncBack Free https://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html

To be continued after a short break

Firstly, my apologies for the lack of communications for the days prior.

"1. Where and how is the 256GB SSD connected now?"
The SSD is housed in an enclosure that I bought from Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Enclo...%2C324&sr=8-8)). The enclosure itself is connected via USB on my current PC's front IO.

"2.Is all your data in drive D:? ( Most probably not since it is only 467MB. It may be a system partition.)"
Yes, ALL of my data is on drive D:. Boot, programs, softwares, photos, etc.

3. I usually get nervous dealing with laptop disks since I do not know what exactly the partition structure was in it. Do you have any screenshot of Windows Disk Management when it was working?
Unfortunately, I do not. However, a friend of mine (who was helping me at the time by letting me plug my SSD into his PC) made a note that when he checked Disk Management, the drive showed up as "Healthy" but he's unsure whether it was "Healthy (Primary Partition)" like it is now or "Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition). We just know that it was never labeled as "Unallocated" like it is now.

Now referring to the moral of your story. I'm not sure what you mean by regular backups. Nor do I have any knowledge that I created one (I might have at the very beginning when I bought my laptop if that's a backup that you're referring to.). Also, I don't know what system or data backups are or what they do. I may be pressed to bother you about them in the future though so I can be better prepared for stuff like this from happening again.

- - - Updated - - -

jumanji said:

Continuing....
Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1 from https://www.filehorse.com/download-p.../old-versions/ ( Yes,install the old version 9.1. In later versions Partition Recovery is not free)

Run it and launch the application. The very first screen shows your disks. ( If PW offers to download a newer version say "no"). Take a screenshot 1 and save it.



Click on the Partition Recovery Wizard in the Left Pane > Next > Select your faulty drive > Next >Full Disk > Next > Quick Scan > Next > Allow the scan to complete ( Watch the Progress field). On completion you may get a Window showing the found Partitions. Take a screenshot 2 and save it.



( Never ever click on the Finish button unless I instruct you)

Now double click on each partition shown and check whether it shows your files. Take a screenshot 3 and save it.



Click on the Close button to close that Window, and then on the Cancel button to close the Partitions Found Window ( Never ever click on the Finish button unless I instruct you) and close PW.

Post the three screenshots.Let me examine it. Further instructions after examining the same.

If you have any doubts at any stage ask for clarification.

I shall be awake for another 90 minutes. If I am not online, I shall see your post my tomorrow morning by 0700AM that is another 8 hours from now. ( Time in Washington now should be 01:15 PM. But your local time is showing as 10:15 AM . Why?? Are you in west coast? Please select your location/time zone correctly so that we can coordinate)

Screenshot 1:


Screenshot 2:


Screenshots 3:



As for my timezone, it is Pacific Standard time.

More questions:
1. What is the model no of your DELL Laptop? Full details.
2. Year of purchase? Is it still under warranty?
3. Did it come with that SSD and Windows 10 installed on it ?
Now your friend. Can he hook it up again to his PC exactly as before, and post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management? Also does any of your friends have the same model laptop and provide a screenshot of Windows Disk Management? That will perhaps be more helpful rather than shooting in the dark.

Once I get the answers, I shall decide further on how to proceed. ( Let me tell you that I am always a pessimist when it comes to data recovery . That way I am better prepared to take on any failures)

( Partition Wizard shows that EFI/ESP partition has been lost but shows no other partition/s except the last 500MB partition now shown as D: I have deferred my decision on proceeding on it further for now.. )

jumanji said:

More questions:
1. What is the model no of your DELL Laptop? Full details.
2. Year of purchase? Is it still under warranty?
3. Did it come with that SSD and Windows 10 installed on it ?
Now your friend. Can he hook it up again to his PC exactly as before, and post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management? Also does any of your friends have the same model laptop and provide a screenshot of Windows Disk Management? That will perhaps be more helpful rather than shooting in the dark.

Once I get the answers, I shall decide further on how to proceed. ( Let me tell you that I am always a pessimist when it comes to data recovery . That way I am better prepared to take on any failures)

( Partition Wizard shows that EFI/ESP partition has been lost but shows no other partition/s except the last 500MB partition now shown as D: I have deferred my decision on proceeding on it further for now.. )

"1. What is the model no of your DELL Laptop? Full details."
Dell uses Service Tags instead of model numbers. Service Tag: 7CQVVJ2. The laptop itself is a Dell Inspiron 13 7370 with an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB SSD.

"2. Year of purchase? Is it still under warranty?"
I purchased this laptop as of in early March. The warranty has unfortunately ended in March...

"3. Did it come with that SSD and Windows 10 installed on it ?"
Yes, it came with an SSD and Windows 10 was already installed on it. I have never tampered with the O.S. in anyway.

"Now your friend. Can he hook it up again to his PC exactly as before, and post a screenshot of Windows Disk Management?"
We've tried that again a couple days ago but it's exactly the same as it's shown on my PC. We did not take a screenshot but if you really need to see it then I can look to do it sometime next week.

"Also does any of your friends have the same model laptop and provide a screenshot of Windows Disk Management?"
My friend does not have the same model laptop, no one I know does.

@secretlyblue

Never mind. Now Instead of a Quick Scan run a Full scan. This may take quite sometime to finish. So do it overnight.

Click on the Partition Recovery Wizard in the Left Pane > Next > Select your faulty drive > Next >Full Disk > Next > Full Scan > Next > Allow the scan to complete . On completion you may get a Window showing the found Partitions. Take a screenshot. After taking the screenshot click on the Cancel button and close PW.

Post the screenshot.