SSD disk appear as RAW

niwa · 19 May 2021

Hi, I posted this in the windows 7 forum before realizing there's a separate forum for windows 10. I got a cloudflare error after posting, so not sure if it was successful. In that case, sorry for double posting, the one in Win7 forum can be removed.

While I sat at my computer today I suddenly realized some of my folders (on my Samsung SSD) were empty while others where inaccessible. Maybe some that appeared empty at first also became inaccessible when I tried to open again, but I'm not sure about that. I rebooted the computer, hoping that would resolve the issue. After rebooting the disk appears as a RAW partition. I'm not 100% sure which file system it had, but I suppose NTFS.

After reading another thread where a used had similar problems, I tried some of the applications suggested by
Jumanji.

Testdisk shows this, but doesn't find any partitions:

TestDisk 7.2-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, May 2021
Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org>
CGSecurity
Disk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 - 512 GB / 476 GiB - CHS 62260 255 63
Current partition structure:
Partition Start End Size in sectors

Invalid NTFS or exFAT boot
1 P HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 62260 88 36 1000210432
1 P HPFS - NTFS 0 32 33 62260 88 36 1000210432
No partition is bootable

EaseUS Partition Manager and MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1 didn't find any partition

I'm currently running GetDataBack Pro trial version which seems to find a lot of files, it's only 35% done yet.

Any suggestions to how to proceed with recovering the partition? Would be great if it could be recovered without having to restore all files to another drive, or in any case with a free tool.

Samuria · 19 May 2021

Welcome to the forum. Raw means its lost the partition so you need specific partition recovery software don't use file recovery all files will come back with the partition often you need to try several program before one works

Try3 · 19 May 2021

niwa said:

After reading another thread where a used had similar problems, I tried some of the applications suggested by
Jumanji.

@jumanji - Perhaps you can advice the OP.

Denis

niwa · 19 May 2021

A small update.
GetDataBack found 10k "starts", but didn't find any file system and gave me no files in the end.
Error message: "No file system found (RT#652). The program can not continue"

I've attached screenshots of sector 0 and MBR(2048) from bootice.
Bootice does recognize it as NTFS as seen in the last attachment.

jumanji · 19 May 2021

Hi @niwa

1. Please post a full screenshot of Windows Disk Management as per the guidelines here How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
2. Please download install and run MiniTools Partition Wizard v 9.1 from Download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9.1 for windows - Filepuma.com
Run Partition Wizard. Say "No" if it offers a new version. Post the screenshot of the first screen that appears as soon as you launch it showing all your drives.

Let us see where it leads us to.

niwa · 19 May 2021

Thank you for the reply!

Here are the screenshots

SSD disk appear as RAW-disk-management.png

jumanji · 19 May 2021

OK, Your drive has a drive letter D: So the volume exists. If the volume exists a corresponding Partition Table exists in Sector 0. Conclusion: You cannot recover a partition that has not been lost

.

This is your partition table in sector 0

PW shows your single partition as (Other) instead of NTFS. So it is a File system corruption.

Looking at the Bootice sector map of sector 2048 where the NTFS Volume Boot Record exists, I can say it is corrupted.

So our effort will be to try and repair the file system and that with TestDisk.

I shall take sometime ( may be an hour or two ) to compose the detailed steps. So hold on.

jumanji · 19 May 2021

Here we go.

TestDisk: You had already used TestDisk and that makes my job easier.
Note: You had downloaded the beta version 7.2 . It would have been better to download the stable version 7.1.

TestDisk must be executed with Administrator Privileges. Right click on the testdisk_win.exe and "Run as administrator"

At any point you can close TestDisk by repeatedly pressing key "Q" or clicking X in the top Title bar.

Screen 1: [No Log] Enter.
Screen 2: Select your faulty 500GB Samsung SSD - [Proceed] - Enter
Screen 3: [Intel] Intel/PC partition - Enter
Screen 4: [Advanced] - Filesystem utils - Enter.
Screen 5 : Post a screenshot.
Quit TestDisk

We shall decide upon further action after examining what screen 5 shows.

niwa · 19 May 2021

Okay, here's the screenshot from version 7.1

SSD disk appear as RAW-file-system-utils.png

jumanji · 19 May 2021

OK, your single partition is shown. [Boot] is highlighted. We can go ahead and check the boot records.

Run TestDisk again until you reach the fifth screen where [Boot] is highlighted.( Always make sure that you select the correct faulty 500GB Samsung disk)

[Boot] - Enter

The next screen will show the status of Boot sector and backup bootsector. Various possibilities exist. You have to reboot after executing the command.

1. Boot sector - Bad
Backup boot sector - OK
Execute the [Backup BS] command ( writes the backup to the start sector of the partitïon when you confirm "y" in the next screen)

2. Boot sector - Bad
Backup boot sector - Bad
Execute [Rebuild BS] command ( Rebuilds the Volume Boot Record and writes it into the Partition start sector and partition end sector)

3. Boot sector - OK
Backup boot sector - Bad
Execute [ORG. BS] command. ( this will copy the original boot record in the partition start sector to the partition end sector and make it OK.)

The above three operations should repair the boot sectors and make your drive accessible.

Let me know what happened. If in doubt anytime on how to proceed post the screenshot and I shall guide you. I shall be online for another hour before I go to sleep. ( Please do not try anything other than what has been mentioned above)