Running TestDisk
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TestDisk Startup
When TestDisk is executed, you may see the phrase Please wait...
on your screen until it has gathered enough data from the BIOS or OS to get the hard disk list.
TestDisk 6.10-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008 Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org> https://www.cgsecurity.org TestDisk is a free data recovery software designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses, or human error. It can also be used to repair some filesystem errors. Information gathered during TestDisk use can be recorded for later review. If you choose to create the text file, testdisk.log, it will contain TestDisk options, technical information and various outputs, including any folder/file names TestDisk used to find and list onscreen. Use arrow keys to select, then press Enter key: [ Create ] Create a new log file [ Append ] Append information to log file [ No Log ] Don't record anything
TestDisk 6.10-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008 Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org> https://www.cgsecurity.org TestDisk is free software, and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. Select a media (use Arrow keys, then press Enter): Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - ATA ST3120026AS Disk /dev/sdb - 120 GB / 111 GiB - ATA ST3120026AS [Proceed ] [ Quit ] Note: Disk capacity must be correctly detected for a successful recovery. If a disk listed above has incorrect size, check HD jumper settings, BIOS detection, and install the latest OS patches and disk drivers.
If the reported size doesn't match the hard disk size - i.e. a 120 GB hard disk is recognized as only a 32 GB hard disk - check your BIOS hard disk settings and the jumpers on the disk. On most large hard disks, there are jumpers to limit the size to only 32 or 8 GB. If your HD is detected as only 130 GB, LBA48 support may not be available in your OS - read OS notes for more information.
Next step is to select the partition table type.
TestDisk 6.10-WIP, Data Recovery Utility, February 2008 Christophe GRENIER <grenier@cgsecurity.org> https://www.cgsecurity.org Disk /dev/sda - 120 GB / 111 GiB - ATA ST3120026AS Please select the partition table type, press Enter when done. [Intel ] Intel/PC partition [EFI GPT] EFI GPT partition map (Mac i386, some x86_64...) [Mac ] Apple partition map [None ] Non partitioned media [Sun ] Sun Solaris partition [XBox ] XBox partition [Return ] Return to disk selection Note: Do NOT select 'None' for media with only a single partition. It's very rare for a drive to be 'Non-partitioned'.
TestDisk Menu Items
- Analyse Analyse current partition structure and search for lost partitions to restore them
- Advanced Filesystem Utils
- Geometry Change disk geometry
- Options Modify options
- MBR Code Write TestDisk MBR code to first sector
- Delete Delete all data in the partition table
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