External Hard drive formatted / deleted while installing windows 10

dempa110 said:

Hi @simrick and @jumanji - I have completed the scan using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 9.1.
[snip]

Should I assume that all the lost data is in fact still recoverable in that section, and only accessible if I purchase the full version?

Thanks again in advance! Paddy

Hi.
It's my understanding that this older version has a fully-working partition recovery function and purchasing the software doesn't "unlock" anything additional. Additionally, the software I used to recover data on a drive with your exact problem was MiniTool's recovery software, not their partition manager software. Using the recovery software, I was able to identify the lost partition, and all the data showed as being available to recover. I guess this partition recovery software doesn't work in the same way. So, perhaps just sit back and wait for jumanji to get back to you with his testing instructions/results.

dempa110 said:

Ah OK so should I have used the 'recovery' software instead?

No...I thought perhaps the old version of partition recovery might work similarly to the recovery software - evidently it doesn't.

Hi @dempa110

If you had only one partition on the NTFS disk, Partition Recovery Wizard will not be able to recover the original partition, because the original NTFS Volume bootsector at 2048 has now been overwritten by the FAT32 Volume bootsector. PW will only find the FAT32 volume. If you had had more than one NTFS partition, then the NTFS Volume bootsectors lying beyond 32 GB FAT32 Volume will still be present in the unallocated space. Partition Recovery Wizard will find those and write the Partition tables pertaining to those partitions in Sector 0 making those accessible again. The 32 GB FAT 32 volume will be lost and the first NTFS volume will remain Unallocated. I have stated this in my post #36 as long back as 10 Feb 2017. aPocope recovered his second partition using Partition Recovery wizard - his post #37.

To recover the first partition, I was trying the strategy of finding the backup of the the NTFS Bootsector - which usually can be found in the last few sectors of that partition. (It is an exact replica of the NTFS volume bootsector at 2048). Overwrite and replace the FAT 32 volume bootsector at 2048 with the backup NTFS volume bootsector and then PW should recognise it and should be able to write the partition table in sector 0. It did happen in my first trial and the NTFS volume was restored.

In a second trial it failed. In the first trial I religiously typed all the 512 fields of the backup into sector 2048 by hand. In the second Trial , I took an easy method of copying all the sectors of the backup and pasting it into 2048 in one go. It was a copy and paste job. I also found the backup of the FAT32 partition at sector 2054 and killed it additionally, apart from killing the FAT32 MBR at sector 0. For some reason, it did not work. I was trying to go back to my first trial methodology of typing each and every sector field, when disaster struck.

I accidentaly zeroed the first sector of my system disk instead of the trial disk. Having realised it, I did not power down the system. I quickly downloaded the DOS version of TestDisk, created a bootable pen drive with it then powered off my system. Booted the PC with TestDisk and wrote the MBR with it and recovered the partitions also with it (Yes, partition tables of the partitions also are required in the first sector -Sector 0 for the OS to access those partitions by jumping to the volume bootsector in the first sector of the partition)). Booted the system with the installation media and in a second it repaired the bootmanager. My system now booted as usual. There were some minor problems like Drive D: not accessible access denied etc . So again ran the Windows Installation disk, and in the repair options chose System Restore and restored it as on 29 June - critical update ( I don't know how that critical update sneaked in without my knowledge ). All problems resolved or so I thought.

But greater disaster struck. When the system booted it wanted to run checkdisk on Drive H: but got stuck at 60%. Cancel it on startup, the system will boot into Windows but was so slow and unrespnosive, I couldn't do anything practically. Then I ran Paragon Recovery disk on USB and deleted the H: partition. The system booted fine and everything was normal except that I have lost my 300GB in H:. Making a surface test with Partition Wizard found that last 20% was all bad sectors contiguously. My system disk is failing. I could recover the partition with PW and could see it list all the files. Though I have a backup of all data partitions, some recent changes like my Tax returns were not yet backed up, So I decided to backup all data again to a new external HDD and my Trial disk has now become a backup. While I copied all other data partitions normally, I recovered all my Video in H: using TestDisk running on Windows. After recovering the data, I deleted H: again using Paragon Disk Manager running on Windows, to be able to boot normally.

My Desktop (self built about 6-10 years ago) appears to be normal now after disabling H: but I can't say when it will fail totally. It can be tomorrow, the day after , after a week or another year. Also don't have any spare HDD to continue the trial and so the trial is stayed indefinitely till I get another HDD for that. I propose to run my Desktop till its death and then scrap it to get another one but I dread Windows 10. I can't get busier than now. .

As already reported, there is an easy way finding the Backup of the NTFS boot sector with HxD which has a search function but all that when I complete the project and establish it unequivocally. I am hoping it will succeed.

Oh boy jumanji...I am so sorry....

dempa110 said:

Thanks @jumanji for looking into it - sounds like a bit of a mess!! Sorry for putting you through it!

OK I am going to take the plunge and try and give MiniTool Power Data Recovery 8.0 a go. The free recovery software scan I did did seem to be showing at least some of the lost files (still a little unclear why only some - but perhaps that will be clearer if I am willing to pay)... will keep you posted!

Good luck.

dempa110 said:

Hello again @simrick and @jumanji. So I gave MiniTool Power Data Recovery 8.0 a go last night.

Re-did the scan, then paid the fee and seem to have recovered most of the data on the drive!!... Hooray!!! Hard to know if it's all there or not as the files are no longer ordered or organized, but that's a very small price to pay for getting them back!

Just wanted to say thanks again for all your time with this and persisting with me. Amazing what you think is gone is often recoverable!

Glad to hear it. Strange though, that you say they're no longer ordered or organized; the recovery I completed was all laid out in folders just as it had been originally, with filenames and everything. Well, at least you've got your data back (or most of it). Cheers!