Storage Drive Wiped after Fresh Install

Hi @waqasr

Before Starting TestDisk, plugin your external drive where you may want to copy files.

TestDisk:
Go to the topic "Repair Partition Table and boot sector" in UPDATED How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became RAW – Unknown Kadath which gives a step by step process.

Once TestDisk analyses your faulty 3TB drive and shows your partitions, select the second partition ( which is RAW)

Highlight/select [Boot] and press enter.

1.. If boot sector is bad, but backup bootsector OK then [backup BS] to restore the NTFS bootsector from its backup.

2.. If both Boot sector and Backup boot sector is bad, then [Rebuild BS] to write a new boot sector.

The above two should restore your disk, and after the repair you should be able to access the partition.

( Rebuild BS would fail if MFT is corrupt. If it fails Go to [MFT Repair]. If MFT is repaired go to [Rebuild BS] again)

3. If it says both boot sector OK and Backup Boot sector OK, go to [MFT Repair] and press Enter

If it says both MFT and MFT mirror OK , then ...... go to
[List] and press enter.

If your files are shown copy the files to the external drive.

Once you have copied all your files - as a safety measure - , close TestDisk and run check disk

Open Command prompt.

Type
CHKDSK K: /f /v /r /x Press enter. Note: Replace K: with the actual drive letter. May be D in your case. Also note there is a space before every option / . Once check disk starts its run, keep your hands off the PC and allow check disk to complete even if it takes a day. Do not interrupt it for any reason. ( If you interrupt or it aborts on its own, your data will get corrupted - that is why copy all data before running Checkdisk) Your drive should become accessible when checkdisk completes successfully. ( You can keep the data backed up to the external drive earlier with TestDisk as backup)

4.If TestDisk says it cannot repair MFT , then you have to necessarily use [email protected] File Recovery Find & Restore Lost Files: Undelete deleted files and recover damaged disks (USD30) or Getdataback Data Recovery Software Products and Downloads - Runtime Software Products (USD80) , to recover the data. These two can recover the data even if MFT is bad.( Recommended, proven and used by members of these forums successfully. Buy only after making sure of the integrity of files shown using the free trial .)

"If both MFT and MFTMirr are damaged and thus cannot be repaired using TestDisk, you might want to try commercial software like Zero Assumption Recovery, GetDataBack for NTFS." - Christophe Grenier, author of TestDisk

Reason why I wanted you to try Getdataback first. We do not recommend any other software, and go by known devils and past experience with them .

For further reading:

You can see my posts here External hard drive visible in Partition Magic but not explorer Solved - Page 2 - Windows 7 Help Forums

Also see Advanced NTFS Boot and MFT Repair - CGSecurity