External HDD partition tables lost, how to fix? (GPT, NTFS)

[Class]

Hello everyone.

 

I'm using a 3TB HDD in an external docking thingy. I formated it into 1 big partition, using GUID and not MBR. File system is NTFS. Suddenly the it sad the drive is in use and I couldn't access it anymore. I undocked and reconnected the drive and the partition table is gone. Complete family photos and stuff. :( I'm currently using Windows 8.1 Pro.

 

I do remember, I had a similar issue with one of my older drives, where I lost 1 windows extended partition. Then I could reconstruct the partition. Can I do it now?

 

 

Is it safe to re-initialize without loosing the actuall data on it?

 

Opened Event viewer for the drive and found 2 logs. 1 is empty and propably the second one, seen on the print screen should be the good one be:

 

Or is there any 3rd party application for these kind of scenarios?

 

Every suggestion is welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Class]

I'm googled this tool. Unfortunately, it's not really working out. Maybe because I didn't re-initialize?

 

***INFORMATION***

This tool is made by Rod Smith, called GPT fdisk. You can check it out here: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/

 

 

 

Now found an application, called "Partition Find and Mount", and will try to scan the USB HDD:

Edited August 12, 2014 by Class

[Eric Veteran]

I've used gdisk to fix GPT drives before. It needs to be run in an elevated command window.

It also might be easier to fix it by using a live Linux disc.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

Can't GParted do the same?

[Class]

  On 12/08/2014 at 16:58, Eric said:

I've used gdisk to fix GPT drives before. It needs to be run in an elevated command window.

It also might be easier to fix it by using a live Linux disc.

 

What do you mean by elevated command window? I did run inside command prompt.

 

Linux? How?

[sc302 Veteran]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

[Class]

  On 12/08/2014 at 17:25, Mindovermaster said:

Can't GParted do the same?

 

I don't know. Used maybe Gparted once of twice! Can u instruct me?

  On 12/08/2014 at 17:56, sc302 said:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

 

Yes, ofcouse I did run it with admin rights. :) Starting folder was system32. That's how I got that error message printed above.

[sc302 Veteran]

I have used test disk with mixed success.  It will find your backup partition table and copy that to the master table. 

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

 

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhWbSM-630E

[Class]

  On 12/08/2014 at 18:02, sc302 said:

I have used test disk with mixed success.  It will find your backup partition table and copy that to the master table. 

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

 

video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhWbSM-630E

 

Nice. Really Nice. It stated to analyze. It clearly saw it's a bad GPT. Invalid sig:

 

 

Did write it to the disk. Now reboot. Let's hope. Fingers crossed. :)

[Eric Veteran]

gdisk doesn't use drive IDs that way. try "gdisk64 9:"

[Class]

  On 12/08/2014 at 18:17, Eric said:

gdisk doesn't use drive IDs that way. try "gdisk64 9:"

 

Ok, I will give it a try. :)

 

But, happy news. TestDisk did restore my partition. Marking it as solved for sc302 and also Rob himself, the maker of GPT fdisk, he also pointed me to the app.

  Quote

 

 

Possibly; it depends on precisely what caused the data loss. In particular, GPT includes a backup set of data structures at the end of the disk, and gdisk can read and recover this backup data set. Thus, if your problem is caused by something that trashed the first few sectors of the disk, gdisk should quickly and reliably recover the data. For more on how to recover from such a problem, see the gdisk documentation:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/repairing.html

OTOH, if the problem was caused by user error or a bug in a partitioning tool, which would have wiped out both the main and backup data structures, gdisk won't be of much help -- at least, not by itself. To recover from this type of problem, you're best off using a tool such as the open source TestDisk:

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

This will search for your filesystem(s) and create a new partition table that houses them. There are other tools that will do the same thing; I'm just mentioning TestDisk because I know more about it than I do about most such tools.

 

 

Resolution, thought did make a strange 129MB unallocated space. What's that about? Is that a bad sector maybe? or was this the original space for the GPT header?

[neufuse Veteran]

Remember to make backups ;)

[Circaflex]

I hate to be that guy but for the love of god make an actual backup of your photos and anything important. The files being on an external is not a backup, store them in multiple places!!!!!!

[Class]

  On 12/08/2014 at 20:05, neufuse said:

Remember to make backups ;)

 

  On 12/08/2014 at 20:39, Circaflex said:

I hate to be that guy but for the love of god make an actual backup of your photos and anything important. The files being on an external is not a backup, store them in multiple places!!!!!!

 

Yes. Ofcourse I know that myself. But what can go wrong if that HDD is most of the time not running? They should be dust proof. ;) *but thanks for the advice*