Quickest data and partition recovery - advice needed

[orbsplateau]

I’m trying to find a collection of files which were previously stored on one of my 2 backup drives.

Each 1.5TB SATA drive had several partitions which I used for backing up different types of files. I recently deleted all the partitions, and created a single primary partition on each drive.

I usually use an Acronis Bootdisk for these tasks. Neither drive was “wiped” (or secure-erased) and no new data has been recorded on either drive.

The drives are in good health and have no bad sectors. But searching for a lost file... from a deleted partition... somewhere on one of these drives takes forever.

Question:
Should I recover/restore the deleted partitions on each drive? Is it possible to by-pass this step and directly scan/search for a deleted file without restoring the lost partition?

What strategy or data recovery tools would you guys recommend? It doesn’t have to be Windows based, I’m happy to work with a linux or DOS rescue CD. But I’d like to know what’s the most efficient way of doing this?

In the past I’ve used R-Studio 5, TestDisk Recovery, and Ontrack Easy Recovery Pro 6.

At this point, I just want the quickest and most painless option available. I'm already very frustrated with myself. I never should have lost these files in the first place. A copy of these files was stored on another HDD that unexpectedly failed on me.

[MindMergepk]

the fastest option would be;

1. backup current data from 1.5TB partition
2. delete this partition (do not create any partition, leave the drive un-allocated)
3. search for deleted partitions

If your previous data was not on the first partition, this could be fastest option.
searching deleted files should be 2nd option.

good luck.

[orbsplateau]

thank you for the quick response!

which tool would you use for this? what would you recommend?
I'm open to suggestions.

[loki]

Personally I like R-Studio.
You could try Partition Find & Mount http://findandmount.com/
What did you format the partitions as IE FAT32, EXFAT, NTFS? etc

Regarding having multiple partitions lets say as an example NTFS.
When you formatted the drive it would have created a new MBR & MFT. The first MFT from the first original partition would have been overwritten so you wont get folder names etc so you would have to do a raw recovery on that partition.
If you do a scan using R-studio or partition find & mount it should hopefully find the NTFS boot sector & MFT of the other partitions & will if your lucky list the file names & folder structure.

Do you have another driver to recover your data to?

DIY always has risk so its up to you if you decide to continue.

Basic procedure would be to clone the drive so if you have a backup if something goes wrong.
Scan the drive which can take a while to complete & see what you can recover to a different drive.


Loki

[MindMergepk]

There are many software available
you can use EaseUs Partition Master free version.

good luck

[fzabkar]

Another good tool is DMDE:

http://dmde.com/

Assuming that the new partitions have not been formatted, then you would r-click the new partition and select "Remove the Partition". Then r-click each of the old partitions and select "Insert the Partition (Undelete)". A reboot may be required to ensure that the OS re-examines the file systems.

Personally I prefer to rebuild the partition table by hand, but it's a little tedious.

[orbsplateau]

Another good tool is DMDE:

http://dmde.com/

Assuming that the new partitions have not been formatted, then you would r-click the new partition and select "Remove the Partition". Then r-click each of the old partitions and select "Insert the Partition (Undelete)". A reboot may be required to ensure that the OS re-examines the file systems.

Personally I prefer to rebuild the partition table by hand, but it's a little tedious.

Thank you. I stuck with R-Studio. I've been using it since the 5th version was released.
the drive was in good health and there wasn't much data there to begin with, so the scan was quicker than expected since

[hhddrec]

Hi orbsplateau,
I think with r-studio you may get data.


good look