Partition lost - can anyone help me with findpart/editpart?

[Stefan]

Hello all,

I lost a partition on a disk with important data.
I tried to use findpart/editpart but I'm not sure about the command
line syntax. Before I damage any data on the disk by "trying around" I
hope that anyone familiar with these programs can help me with this
problem.

Here's my findpart output (Maxtor 120GB USB drive):

==================================
Findpart, version 4.45 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 14946 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 117240

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 07 63240107427117239 0 1 1 14945 254 63 BU OK


------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
0 0 33 32 24120 32 OK
1 210 39 29333 10128 29301 32 OK

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1?6C --- ---831118 357 104 51 117 110 32 NB?
0 2?65 658798538988361263177 373 100 50 357 99 43 NB
41 2 8 33591 122 58 Actual?
0 3?53 --- ---680964 32 32 32 333 89 19 NB?
0 4?00 --- ---682794 513 83 0 334 87 9 NB?
==================================

Is there any possibility to restore this disk?

Thanks for your help,
Stefan

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Hello all,

I lost a partition on a disk with important data.
I tried to use findpart/editpart but I'm not sure about the command
line syntax. Before I damage any data on the disk by "trying around" I
hope that anyone familiar with these programs can help me with this
problem.

Here's my findpart output (Maxtor 120GB USB drive):

==================================
Findpart, version 4.45 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 14946 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 117240

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 07 63240107427117239 0 1 1 14945 254 63 BU OK


------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
0 0 33 32 24120 32 OK
1 210 39 29333 10128 29301 32 OK

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1?6C --- ---831118 357 104 51 117 110 32 NB?
0 2?65 658798538988361263177 373 100 50 357 99 43 NB
41 2 8 33591 122 58 Actual?
0 3?53 --- ---680964 32 32 32 333 89 19 NB?
0 4?00 --- ---682794 513 83 0 334 87 9 NB?
==================================

Is there any possibility to restore this disk?

Thanks for your help,
Stefan

You have to tell more about what happened, and if possible the type
(FAT32/NTFS) of the lost partition.

It seems as there is a FAT32 partition containing data beginning in
sector 0, the location where the MBR with partition table normally
would be located.

If you have room for all files in another partition it may be possible
to copy files by running this command in an empty directory (except
for findpart.exe):

findpart 2 0 0 1 copy

On the other hand I prefer to see the Findpart output for all disks,
before I suggest a solution.

The two FAT copies found have different "confidence" probably because
only a fixed number of sectors in the beginning of the disk were
examined using this method.

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Hello all,

I lost a partition on a disk with important data.
I tried to use findpart/editpart but I'm not sure about the command
line syntax. Before I damage any data on the disk by "trying around" I
hope that anyone familiar with these programs can help me with this
problem.

Here's my findpart output (Maxtor 120GB USB drive):

==================================
Findpart, version 4.45 - for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.
Copyright Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, 1999-2004.

OS: Windows 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1

Disk: 2 Cylinders: 14946 Heads: 255 Sectors: 63 MB: 117240

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 - 07 63240107427117239 0 1 1 14945 254 63 BU OK


------FAT CHS ------LBA Confidence Distance Type Sig
0 0 33 32 24120 32 OK
1 210 39 29333 10128 29301 32 OK

Partitions according to partition tables on second harddisk:

--PCyl N ID -----Rel -----Num ---MB --Start CHS- ---End CHS-- BS CHS
0 1?6C --- ---831118 357 104 51 117 110 32 NB?
0 2?65 658798538988361263177 373 100 50 357 99 43 NB
41 2 8 33591 122 58 Actual?
0 3?53 --- ---680964 32 32 32 333 89 19 NB?
0 4?00 --- ---682794 513 83 0 334 87 9 NB?
==================================

Is there any possibility to restore this disk?

Thanks for your help,
Stefan

You have to tell more about what happened, and if possible the type
(FAT32/NTFS) of the lost partition.

It seems as there is a FAT32 partition containing data beginning in
sector 0, the location where the MBR with partition table normally
would be located.

If you have room for all files in another partition it may be possible
to copy files by running this command in an empty directory (except
for findpart.exe):

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 copy

On the other hand I prefer to see the Findpart output for all disks,
before I suggest a solution.

The two FAT copies found have different "confidence" probably because
only a fixed number of sectors in the beginning of the disk were
examined using this method.

 

[Stefan]

[...]
I lost a partition on a disk with important data.
I tried to use findpart/editpart but I'm not sure about the command
[...]

You have to tell more about what happened, and if possible the type
(FAT32/NTFS) of the lost partition.

It seems as there is a FAT32 partition containing data beginning in
sector 0, the location where the MBR with partition table normally
would be located.

If you have room for all files in another partition it may be possible
to copy files by running this command in an empty directory (except
for findpart.exe):

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 copy

On the other hand I prefer to see the Findpart output for all disks,
before I suggest a solution.

The two FAT copies found have different "confidence" probably because
only a fixed number of sectors in the beginning of the disk were
examined using this method.

The disk is an external USB drive, attached to a normal PC. I would be
happy if I knew what happened exactly: the drive just wasn't there
anymore in the middle of reading data. There were no writing
operations (I know about) and there is no virus is on the system.
The disk was partitioned with one single large FAT32 partition. Before
that there was an NTFS partition on it - maybe there are some
fragments left over from this time? For partitioning I used Knoppix
(free Linux-on-CD) and QTPartEd.
At the time of the "crash" the disk was about 70% full, so I have not
enough space on the existing system to copy the data to.

Thanks for help,
Stefan

 

[Stefan]

[...]

You have to tell more about what happened, and if possible the type
(FAT32/NTFS) of the lost partition.

It seems as there is a FAT32 partition containing data beginning in
sector 0, the location where the MBR with partition table normally
would be located.

If you have room for all files in another partition it may be possible
to copy files by running this command in an empty directory (except
for findpart.exe):

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 copy

Unfortunately trying this findpart returns an error:

Chsdir, version FP 4.45 - for Windows.

Disk 2 CHS: 14946/255/63 Location: 0/1/1
Not recognized as a FAT16 or FAT32 partition.

Thanks for your help,
Stefan

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Unfortunately trying this findpart returns an error:

Chsdir, version FP 4.45 - for Windows.

Disk 2 CHS: 14946/255/63 Location: 0/1/1
Not recognized as a FAT16 or FAT32 partition.

Thanks for your help,
Stefan

You did not use the command I suggested (but 0/1/1).

You also can try (to just make a listing to the screen):

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 backupbootsector

 

[Stefan]

You did not use the command I suggested (but 0/1/1).

You also can try (to just make a listing to the screen):

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 backupbootsector

Ooops, sorry. Maybe I should take more care about the parameters I
enter when trying to recover my data... Especially when I come to the
point where I write something to this disk.

The findpart...copy command unfortunately retuned the same error as
with the wrong parameters before:
----------
C:\Temp>findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 copy
Chsdir, version FP 4.45 - for Windows.

Disk 2 CHS: 14946/255/63 Location: 0/0/1
Not recognized as a FAT16 or FAT32 partition.
----------

The "backupbootsector" command returned a list of files which seems to
be correct (my hope is growing!). Do you have any idea why the file
names can be listed but the files cannot be copied? Here is the last
part of the output of this command:
---------------
Total clusters: 3750512 Cluster KB: 32
Last used cluster: 3513128 Reserved: 32
FAT sectors: 29301 Root cluster: 2
FAT used clusters: 3082731 FAT entries: 4783
Used clusters: 3082730 Entries: 4782
Directories: 193 Directories MB: 6
Files: 4589 Files MB: 96256
Partition MB: 117232 Free MB: 20868

Used clusters do not match the FAT.
Backup boot sector used.

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

Ooops, sorry. Maybe I should take more care about the parameters I
enter when trying to recover my data... Especially when I come to the
point where I write something to this disk.

The findpart...copy command unfortunately retuned the same error as
with the wrong parameters before:
----------
C:\Temp>findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 copy
Chsdir, version FP 4.45 - for Windows.

Disk 2 CHS: 14946/255/63 Location: 0/0/1
Not recognized as a FAT16 or FAT32 partition.
----------

The "backupbootsector" command returned a list of files which seems to
be correct (my hope is growing!). Do you have any idea why the file
names can be listed but the files cannot be copied? Here is the last
part of the output of this command:
---------------
Total clusters: 3750512 Cluster KB: 32
Last used cluster: 3513128 Reserved: 32
FAT sectors: 29301 Root cluster: 2
FAT used clusters: 3082731 FAT entries: 4783
Used clusters: 3082730 Entries: 4782
Directories: 193 Directories MB: 6
Files: 4589 Files MB: 96256
Partition MB: 117232 Free MB: 20868

Used clusters do not match the FAT.
Backup boot sector used.

---------------
Again I would like to thank you very much for your quick and competent
help.
Best regards,
Stefan

If free space is available on another drive, this command will copy
all files to current directory and below:

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 backupbootsector copy

I do not know enough about operating system behavior for partitions
without partition tables or non standard partitions to suggest a
repair.

 

[Stefan]

On 30 Jul 2004 06:16:45 -0700, (e-mail address removed) (Stefan) wrote:


If free space is available on another drive, this command will copy
all files to current directory and below:

findpart chsdir 2 0 0 1 backupbootsector copy

I do not know enough about operating system behavior for partitions
without partition tables or non standard partitions to suggest a
repair.

This command worked very well! I got almost all important data copied
to another disk.
Thank you very much vor your help!
Stefan

 

[Svend Olaf Mikkelsen]

This command worked very well! I got almost all important data copied
to another disk.
Thank you very much vor your help!
Stefan

OK, nice.

I however see no reason that not all files (expect maybe 1) were
copied, unless you did not have room for all files.

 

[Stefan]

OK, nice.

I however see no reason that not all files (expect maybe 1) were
copied, unless you did not have room for all files.

There was plenty of free space on the target disk. The missing files
are no big thing, they were included inside a backup set which was
also on the disk and which could be restored completely. So this is no
problem at all.

Best regards
Stefan