**Data recovery, partition recovery and more** WORK IN PROCESS

As promised this thread will document recovery procedures. I find these methods to be FAR more successful than when using other apps. I will document usage in Windows and Linux, I rather use Linux LiveCDs as they seem to read more reliably when the drive or partition is damaged. I will update the thread as and when I can.

Recover specific files, directories or all data from a partition using Gparted LiveCD **Recommended Option**

Spoiler:

Tools Used:

Gparted LiveCD
USB stick or blank CD to load image onto
Unetbootin if writing ISO to USB stick (Windows, Linux, OSX)

Steps:

• If using a CD burn ISO to CD
• If using USB stick select Diskimage box, load ISO into Unetbootin, select your USB, click OK
• Boot to LiveCD/USB
• Do not alter keymap
• Type 02 for English
• Type 0 to launch Gparted

If saving to a network share:

Spoiler:

• Launch Network Config from desktop, select DHCP Broadcast and press Enter, when it succeeds press Enter to close
• Open terminal
• Use command: sudo mkdir /mnt/TargetShare
• Use command: sudo mount -o username=USER,password=PASS //ServerIP/Share /mnt/TargetShare Note: If share does not require a login then remove '-o username=USER,password=PASS'
• If you do not use login credentials and Terminal asks for a password just press enter
• Once share is mounted right click on the desktop, File Manager, navigate to /mnt/ and check TargetShare is there

If saving to a local drive (inc. USB):

Spoiler:

• Use command: sudo mkdir /mnt/TargetShare
• Insert the USB flash drive into an open USB port
• Use command: dmesg
  http://gparted.org/docs/gparted-live...lash-drive.png
• Visually search through the last few lines of dmesg output to find the device name. The device name should be in the form "sdX" where "X" is a lower case letter.
• In the above example, the device name is "sdc".
• If the device name is "sdc", enter: sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/TargetShare
• Now proceed to the Testdisk section
• When you are finished copying files and have finished the Testdisk section, unmount the USB flash drive by entering: sudo umount /mnt/TargetShare

• Launch Testdisk
• No Log
• Select source drive (where the data is to be recovered from)
• Select partition type, If recovering from a Windows drive select Intel partition
• Select advanced
• Highlight the partition which contains the data
• Use right and left arrows to select List at the bottom and press enter
• If you want to recover all files on that partition press 'a' then 'C' (note capital c)
• If you want to recover a particular directory navigate to it and once at it's root press 'a' then 'C' (note capital c)
• If you only want to recover a particular file navigate to it so it is highlighted then press 'c'
• Now you need to select a target for the files, use the left arrow to get to root, highlight mnt and press right arrow, highlight TargetShare and press right arrow, then press 'C' (note capital c)
• The files will then transfer and the text will change to green once completed.

Recover specific files, directories or all data from a partition in Windows

Spoiler:

Tools used:

Testdisk & Photorec (6.14 WIP, 6.13 Stable)


Steps:

• If recovering to an external drive (or internal) connect it before you start so that it is visible in My Computer, make a note of it's drive letter
• Launch Testdisk
• No Log
• Select source drive (where the data is to be recovered from)
• Select partition type, If recovering from a Windows drive select Intel partition
• Select advanced
• Highlight the partition which contains the data
• Use right and left arrows to select List at the bottom and press enter
• If you want to recover all files on that partition press 'a' then 'C' (note capital c)
• If you want to recover a particular directory navigate to it and once at it's root press 'a' then 'C' (note capital c)
• If you only want to recover a particular file navigate to it so it is highlighted then press 'c'
• Now you need to select a target for the files, you will start in the folder which contains the Testdisk exe, use the left arrow and you will end up at a page which lists all local drives, the drive letter will be at the end of each line.
• Find your desired drive letter, press the right arrow and get to the directory where you want the files to be saved, once at the root of the directory press 'C' (note capital c)
• The files will then transfer and the text will change to green once completed.

I'm just looking at this now and I am getting lost.

Following the gparted guide, I click to unhide the instructions and can see the linux gubbins but at the bottom of the guide theres instruction to :

Launch Testdisk
No Log


and so on, is this a typo?
The link for gparted doesn't work too, but that's no problem.

Assuming that the testdisk thing isn't supposed to be there and I am now going to try the gparted guide. I think I have used testdisk before when my wifes HDD popped and it worked, just in my panic over my lost data I had totally forgotten about it.

Testdisk is part of Gparted mate ;)

so as i follow your guide, i boot from USB flash, then if I am going to use a local drive to save the data off, I use the linux commands as instructed but I am not sure what they are doing, as it mentions using that to restore files. After using the linux commands, i unmount my usb drive, then run testdisk?

I havnt got that far yet as my system is refusing to boot from USB for some fucking reason.

If the drive you are recovering from is the drive in the system it should already be mounted to read from, if you are saving the recovered data to a different local drive you need to mount it as described in the guide. You unmount after using Testdisk so you can safely remove the drive, I will make this clearer in the guide.

If your system has a ODD then CD usually helps when the system won't do a USB boot. Some machines are a pain in the arse when it comes to USB boot.

Confused lol, can I not run a program from within Windows 7?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hilljd00

Confused lol, can I not run a program from within Windows 7?

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Not if you need exclusive rights to the Hard Drive.

Winblows is crap at recovery, hence the GParted (Linux) CD.

So much hassle... Argh! All I need is my emails :(

Sent from my Nexus 4

Plus I can never get the USB linux thing to work, never...

linux to recovery anything from a hard drive

but your have to be careful with any windows recovery software
this can also corrupt your data if the drive is faulty
only way is hardware recovery where the data is untouched.

Evil and others need to recover some important photos from a laptop that user account was deleted and new one setup, laptop is on VISTA !!
downloaded digital photo recovery pro and its finding them but was $40 anything free that you can recommend or working key ?

its only photos so best program for that would be ideal

TIA

I had a lot of good results with R-studio available from all good outlets or my ftp if you want it.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tim.Lad

I had a lot of good results with R-studio available from all good outlets or my ftp if you want it.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

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cheers bud, if you can pm me ftp deets once ya sorted :)

If the above doesn't work then try photorec from the same bootCD, another very good bit of kit!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tim.Lad

I had a lot of good results with R-studio available from all good outlets or my ftp if you want it.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk 4

---

got PM will try that

crack file not working tried puttin in install folder location and also download location and ran from both still doesnt work :(

looking for something windows based if poss

Photorec is windows based too but you don't want to be booting from the drive you are recovering from nor installing onto it as it could overwrite the data mate.

Would these work in a drive which isn't even picked up in bios? Yet when attached to an use to USB converter is picked up in disk management (no drive letter and wants to be initialised)?
Getdataback did not pick it up either.

iv'e managed to recover files from a drive plugged into usb with a program called arax disk doctor
the drive didn't show up in windows but showed up in disk management wanting to be initialised

can be found in the usual places

As long as the computer recognises the drive Testdisk and Photorec should work mate, that's as long as the partition can be read but I have never found a tool that was better at data recovery than Testdisk and Photorec, other tools are just more user friendly.