• Registered: 2009-07-27
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Topic: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Now this isn't exactly an issue with crunchbang, but anyways.
I actually started using linux in general since a month ago
Now i was trying out archlinux and while manually installing grub,  i installed it to one of my ntfs partitions instead of to the MBR. Later i fixed GRUB, but now when i log into windows, it treats that partition as an unformatted partition without any filesystem. I havent tried anything on it yet, because most of the windows recovery tools would want me to first format it to NTFS or FAT and then recovery.
Any way i  could recover the data on that partition? It ddoesnt contain anything critical, just some of my homemade videos of which i have no backup sad sad

Last edited by iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO (2009-08-16 18:33:48)

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  • Toolz
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Try Parted Magic. It's a live Linux CD with a few utilities, one of them being Test Disk. New version just out, it's not a large download and is easy to get in a USB flash drive with Unetbootin.

  • Registered: 2008-12-13
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

can you mount the partition from in #! ? if so you can recover the data that way then fix the install. I would try that first so you don't risk losing anything.

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.
  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Sorry to hear about your NTFS problems (Been there a few times) smile  There's a great little app in the repos called "testdisk" and it's made for this kind of thing. For recovering data, it's superb and i've used it on Hard Drives, CF cards, USB sticks etc and it's never let me down yet. Has plenty of options.... may be worth a try? Oh, it's not GUi based at all, runs in a terminal.... but it's pretty straightforward to use nonetheless.

  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Thanks to all for ur help.I am not home yet so i'll try it once im home.
I havent checked if its readable from #! coz i still have archlinux installed.
I'll try the tool Djinn suggested and hopefully, it will work.
Now there are a lot of data recovery tools for windows which make lots of tall claims, but i've never had success with them, thats the reason im hesitant to try anything in windows.
I'll post what happens next.

Last edited by iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO (2009-08-13 17:39:22)

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  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO wrote:

Now there are a lot of data recovery tools for windows which make lots of tall claims, but i've never had success with them.

testdisk far surpasses ALL windisk tools etc.... by a long shot! (IMHO of course) smile  It's simple, fast and very effective. It's never let me down yet, and i've had a few severe problems over the years (Especially when i was just getting into Linux)

I'll post what happens next.

Nice one.... here's hoping for a positive outcome. smile

Last edited by DJiNN (2009-08-13 17:41:54)

  • Toolz
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

TestDisk runs in Windows. If you just want to quickly grab the videos you can run the Photorec, which is very similar.

  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Toolz wrote:

TestDisk runs in Windows. If you just want to quickly grab the videos you can run the Photorec, which is very similar.

Indeed it does (although for some reason, i prefer to use it from within Linux) - and it's saved my bacon quite a few times. Photorec.... that's the name i couldn't remember (Thanks)... great little app and really good for CF/SD/MM cards and the like.

  • Toolz
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

When recovering files it's considered best practice never to boot up that partition again. Especially so in Windows as by default it has no idea about /home and /swap and the like and the mere act of booting up will write loads of stuff all over where your deleted files were. I've used Windows data recovery apps from a certain very popular CD in the distant past and I was a happy camper. One or more of those I used probably listed here:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?sc=188

  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Great stuff!! Thanks for the link Toolz, never seen that site before. Just off to have a browse. big_smile

Last edited by DJiNN (2009-08-13 20:57:52)

  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Hi, i just ran testdisk and it is indeed very promising, its just that im stck!
Now after the analysis it does detect my lost partition and shows it as 18GB/17GB which i assume is the disk usage.
The help page mentions i should select write next.But i feel unsure because the analysis was real quick . Should i write after analysis? Or are there some other steps after this?

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  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

I can't remember the exact process. It's one of those apps that (thankfully) i don't use often, so i always forget what i did the last time i used it... LOL!

But i know that i've followed what it recommended and all was fine. That's one of the reasons that i use it, it's very straightforward.  Of course it's totally your choice, and i would say that if you're not sure, do a little searching & reading first and see what you can find on the subject? smile

Last edited by DJiNN (2009-08-13 21:09:25)

  • Awebb
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Toolz wrote:

TestDisk runs in Windows. If you just want to quickly grab the videos you can run the Photorec, which is very similar.

I second that. TestDisk runs on both!

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

oh well, grub error 17. im guessing i did something wrong. i followed the screenshots on their help page
looks like what testdisk did was redistribute the space among other partitions and renumber them
when i bootup from the live cd, the partitions which received the space are flagged as unknown. i hope im not screwed

Last edited by iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO (2009-08-13 22:15:49)

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  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

it seems that i'll be able to recover the two partitions that i messed up while trying to recover the previous one.
but testdisk outputs "the partition is damaged" for the one i originally intended to recover.

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  • Kyte
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

DJiNN wrote:

Sorry to hear about your NTFS problems (Been there a few times) smile  There's a great little app in the repos called "testdisk" and it's made for this kind of thing. For recovering data, it's superb and i've used it on Hard Drives, CF cards, USB sticks etc and it's never let me down yet. Has plenty of options.... may be worth a try? Oh, it's not GUi based at all, runs in a terminal.... but it's pretty straightforward to use nonetheless.

thanks very much for that, i'll use it
Kyte

Kyte: Always flittin' around with his head in the clouds!
  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Photorec seems to be working where testdisk couldnt but i dont have enough free disk space atm to completely confirm this. Thanks to all of u for suggesting these tools smile Finally i can have an easy mind. big_smile

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  • Toolz
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Note for others that might pass by here: Photorec is included in Parted Magic, suggested in the first reply.

  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Toolz wrote:

Note for others that might pass by here: Photorec is included in Parted Magic, suggested in the first reply.

To add to that, photorec is bundled with testdisk by default if u use synaptic.

Just an issue with photorec, the wiki does mention that recovered files could be possibly larger in size than the original ones. I started off by looking some .amr and .avi files. The original .amr were less than 1Mb in size and the recoverd ones are all around 200-300 MB. Such a difference ?
And i couldnt find .avi in option filetypes, so i tried out if mpg would detect avis. Turns out, it doesnt. Anyway i could specifically look for avis using its filtering options.

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  • DJiNN
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Sorry to hear about the Grub issue.  FYi, here is a great site for "Grub Stuff" that may be of use.  It's just a guess, but most of the time that i have Grub issues, is when i've changed the Partitions in some way (ie: Installing a new Distro on say, sda4 and using a different file  system).

It seems to be something to do with the new UUID's that are used in fstab and Grub. This site has some info regarding this.   It should be recoverable as long as your partitions are in good order, which they probably are, otherwise testdisk/photorec would have mentioned it and possibly tried to put it right.

smile

  • Toolz
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

I used Photorec today. I was using Thunar and clicked delete instead of copy. Got all my pics back! smile

I came across TestDisk for the first time a few weeks back when I booted up Parted Magic and erased my HDD instead of my flash drive. It got all my partitions back with no fuss.

  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Toolz wrote:

I used Photorec today. I was using Thunar and clicked delete instead of copy. Got all my pics back! smile

I came across TestDisk for the first time a few weeks back when I booted up Parted Magic and erased my HDD instead of my flash drive. It got all my partitions back with no fuss.

Good and encouraging to hear smile I got a backup harddisk from a friend. Gonna start photorec now. Im sure ill have good things to say about photorec just like almost everyone who uses it big_smile

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  • Awebb
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Toolz wrote:

I was using Thunar and clicked delete instead of copy.

How did you make thunar NOT throw it into the wastebin?

I'm so meta, even this acronym
  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Awebb wrote:
Toolz wrote:

I was using Thunar and clicked delete instead of copy.

How did you make thunar NOT throw it into the wastebin?

i think the delete option deletes it bypassing the wastebin

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  • Registered: 2009-07-27
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Re: NTFS recovery [Solved]

Photorec did it. Almost all of my data is back, enough to make me feel releived. Thanks to all for ur help. I hereby mark this as solved

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