I Deleted My Partition Table

[Linuxuser3]

Ok so i bought a new tb disk and i have them both in my computer right now. I also installed windows 7 to the new drive, and I tried recuva. It doesnt recognize the fs, which makes sense. I ran photorec, and realized that it just dumps the data. No file names or directories. I researched more, and it seems like it wouldnt be necessary to just dump all the files in a huge pile.
I am currently thinking about making a "new" partition on my old drive that covers approximately the same sectors as Windows did, then using ntfsfix to make it readable. Then i can use Recuva.
If this were to work, i need to know absolutely what sector the partition starts at. Is there aaaaany way to know for sure?
Thanks, im excited!

[oldfred]

I think testdisk searchs for the starts & ends of partitions. It does the scan for you.
So if it is having issues then it may be difficult.
I include in my normal backup a copy of bootinfoscript which includes a copy of current partition table.

Ntfsfix does very little, it mostly turns on the chkdsk flag so Windows will run chkdsk on the NTFS partition when booted.
Better to use Windows tools and chkdsk directly, but you have to know partitions.

Does drive say it is ok in smartdata?
You can use Disks and click on upper right corner.
Smartdata can also run lots of tests on drive, but all I know is good or bad.

[Linuxuser3]

Testdisk only shows CHS (Cylinder, Head, Sector) format which is usesless. Testdisk also has never shown an NTFS partition.
Are you sure it isnt an option to manually make the partition? It cant be *that* hard, right?
I used Hexedit last night and found the sectors of where i think got formatted.

Drive is OK

[Linuxuser3]

UPDATE: I ran testdisk with the partition table type set to "None". Now i get tons of partitions, and lots that are NTFS. I found some that have a folder called "System Volume Information" which is a good sign. All i need to do now is pick the right ones...

UPDATE 2: I FOUND THE PARTITION AND I CAN READ THE FILES AND IM SO HAAAAAAPPY
Now to add it to my partition table eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

How can i ever repay you?!!
oh man im am just shaking with excitement

UPDATE 3: it would appear that testdisk cannot add partitions that it finds with the table type set to "None". I am unsure what to do about that, as i dont think Intel would show the NTFS.

[oldfred]

Normally partition table should be either MBR(msdos) or gpt(GUID).
If Windows was installed in BIOS mode, you had to have MBR.
If Windows was installed in UEFI boot mode, you have to have gpt.

[Linuxuser3]

I am following this guide from this thread:

1. Make sure that testdisk is creating a log file as it goes.
2. Use the "Analyse" feature on your "None" partitioned disk.
3. After it finds the partitions, open up your log file.

In my case, the reason the NTFS partitions were not reading in the "PC" partition section was that the wrong Head and Sector #s were being used. The proper #s are listed in the log file. It looked something like

D 35 heads/cyl(NTFS) 24 sectors/track : hdd 255 heads/cyl 64 sectors/track
So, in my case the partitions were use 35 heads and 24 sectors instead of the default 255/64.

4. After you've figured out the proper number of heads and sectors for your partition(s), fire up testdisk again, but this time select "PC" for partition type.
5. Go into "Options" and then "Geometry".
6. Now change the cylinders and heads to the proper #s.
7. Run "Analyse" and the partitions should show up and be writable to the partition table.

I am currently running a "None" scan in the hopes that i will be able to get the proper geometry, then i can run an Intel scan and be able to write the partition to the table.

[Linuxuser3]

Heres an issue with this plan: When i run a "None" scan, it pulls up maybe 40 partitions. The first one is correct, but cannot be added because it is a None scan.
I tried some other geometries and it didnt show the partition.
So i tried parted rescue, which returned nothing
Then i tried Gpart, which ran for a bit, then returned:

Possible partition(Windows NT/W2K FS), size(953859mb), offset(3229mb)

*** Fatal error: dev(/dev/sdb): seek failure.

I screenshotted the partition as it appeared in the none scan: YES.png (the one highlighted)
I think what i need now is a new command that will allow me to use all of this new information and just create the darn partition, regardless of corruption
Then i can just run chkdsk and fix everything
Then i may have to replace the boot sector using Testdisk

UPDATE: ran gpart with a sector size of 4096, it ran much longer. But it seems like gpart takes 12 hours to run.. So now im downloading knoppix

[oldfred]

If you were able to see files with a deeper search you should immediately copy those to another drive.

[Linuxuser3]

Most folders appear to be empty, probably because of the partial format.
I can't see anything in: users, Windows, program files, and some user made folders.
But I can see some files (of little value) that appear correctly.
I need to chkdsk it, which means I need to have a proper filesystem, which means I need the partition back the way it was.