Partition Table Help, SATA HD, TestDisk, and Gparted
 

ey I have a MAJOR problem.
I was messing with Partitions in Windows and somehow my partition table got messed up, and now windows cant boot and when i pop in the CD, it only picks up Partition 1, (the small space windows puts on the side), Partition 3(my storage).. Partition 2 is missing which is the one that contains the windows files

On Ubuntu in Gparted my entire disk is shown as 400something unallocated space, but from the ubuntu file manager i can access each partition including the windows files and see all of my files..Their just

I am using testDisk right now, and its currently analyzing cylinders 31440/60801, 51%, at the rate its going, its gonna take 8 hours, i dont have that long to wait on this..unless i have to.

is their an easier fix??


more info:
when i goto places> computer i see
500GB Hard Disk, 106MB Filesystem, this is windows partition (when i hit properties 78.6gb used, 39.9 free)
next is 500GB Hard Disk: Storage (254.5GB Used, 92.6 Free)
next is 500GB Hard Disk: System Reserved

Here is why my analyze looks like from testDisk: http://i46.tinypic.com/28sm249.jpg

The sanest thing you can do is to take a deep breathe and arm yourself with a bit of patience.

In first place you shouldn't even be doing that on the real disk. You should rather copy the raw device using dd to an image file, and use testdisk over that instead. That way if you mess something up you still have a new chance.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Yes, you do have a problem.

As stated a backup would have been nice. But now that you have started to make changes you will need to show some patience. No easy fix but a lesson to be learned here. If you are going to be experimenting then do so on something that is backed up or have the means to restore.

:hattip: