Accidentally Formatted NTFS Partition... Looking to Recover Data

Adam A Flynn · 08-12-2006, 04:25 PM

Hi,

I was trying to resize my NTFS partition and accidentally ended up reformatting the partition. I am now looking to recover that data.

I used ntfsresize and successfully shrunk the partition. I hit fdisk to delete and split the old partition into 2 new ones, but, after some results that struck me as odd, I opted to go for the GUI approach and play it safe. So, I loaded GParted and redid the partition structure. Unfortunately, when it redid the partition table, it also assumed that it had to reformat the two new partitions I made. This produced the undesired result of loosing the file allocation table on my NTFS partition. (I'm not a guru, but I'm reasonably sure that the root issue is that the FAT for the partition is dead, am I right?)

Now, this is not hugely critical to me. I keep all my data on a FAT32 partition and I don't think I've booted to Windows in the last few months. Worst case scenario, I just pop the install CD back in and spend an afternoon reinstalling things the next time I feel compelled to use Windows. However, I wouldn't mind recovering the partition because, for one, it's a good learning experience, and, for another, I don't want to waste an afternoon reinstalling.

So, are there any Linux utilities out there that can be used to reconstruct the FAT of an NTFS partition? I tried Google, but only ended up seeing a bunch of Windows-based results and, when trying to recover a Windows partition, it's somewhat difficult to boot into Windows to run a recovery app.

Thanks in advance.

fakie_flip · 08-13-2006, 08:50 AM

try testdisk

Adam A Flynn · 08-13-2006, 08:59 AM

I looked at testdisk, but couldn't figure out how to make it do what I want it to do. Man pages and Google didn't help much.

How do I use testdisk?

syg00 · 08-13-2006, 08:59 AM

Testdisk is designed for a different problem.
I don't like your chances ...

fakie_flip · 08-13-2006, 11:58 AM

You formatted a partition, and you are trying to get it back right? Here is what the developer of testdisk and photorec said to me in an email.

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Chris wrote:

> Should I be using testdisk instead?

If you have delete a partition or reformated a partition to
another filesystem type, yes

fakie_flip · 08-13-2006, 11:59 AM

You formatted a partition, and you are trying to get it back right? Here is what the developer of testdisk and photorec said to me in an email.

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006, Chris wrote:

> Should I be using testdisk instead?

If you have delete a partition or reformated a partition to
another filesystem type, yes