Recover deleted partitions with Testdisk, step by step instructions + Video Tutorial

Video Tutorial at the end of post

Example problem

We have a 36GB hard disk containing 3 partitions. Unfortunately;

the boot sector of the primary NTFS partition has been damaged, and
a logical NTFS partition has been accidentally deleted.

This recovery example guides you through TestDisk, step by step, to recover these 'lost' partitions by:

rewriting the corrupted NTFS boot sector, and
recovering the accidentally deleted logical NTFS partition.

Recovery of a FAT32 partition (instead of an NTFS partition) can be accomplished by following exactly the same steps. Other recovery examples are also available. For Information about FAT12, FAT16, ext2/ext3, HFS+, ReiserFS and other partition types, read Running the TestDisk Program.

One condition:

TestDisk must be executed with Administrator privileges.

Important points for using TestDisk:

To navigate in TestDisk, use the Arrow and PageUp/PageDown keys.
To proceed, confirm your choice(s) with the Enter key.
To return to a previous display or quit TestDisk, use the q (Quit) key.
To save modifications under TestDisk, you must confirm them with the y (Yes) and/or Enter keys, and
To actually write partition data to the MBR, you must choose the "Write" selection and press the Enter key.

Symptoms

If this hard disk's primary partition contained an operating system, it would most likely no longer boot up - due to its corrupted boot sector. If the hard disk was a secondary (data) drive or you can connect the drive to another computer in its secondary channel (usually where a CD/DVD drive is connected), the following symptoms would be observed:

Windows Explorer or Disk Manager displays the first primary partition as raw (unformatted) and Windows prompts: The drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?[You should never do so without knowing why!]
A logical partition is missing. In Windows Explorer, that logical drive is no longer available. The Windows Disk Management Console now displays only "unallocated space" where this logical partition had been located.

Running TestDisk executable

If TestDisk is not yet installed, it can be downloaded from TestDisk Download. Extract the files from the archive including the sub-directories.

To recover a lost partition or repair the filesystem from a hard disk, USB key, Smart Card, etc., you need enough rights to access a physical device.

Under DOS, run TestDisk.exe

Under Windows, start TestDisk (ie testdisk-6.9/win/testdisk_win.exe) from an account in the Administrator group. Under Vista, right-click testdisk_win.exe and then "Run as administrator" to launch TestDisk.

Under Unix/Linux/BSD, you need to be root to run TestDisk (ie. sudo testdisk-6.9/linux/testdisk_static)

Under MacOSX, if you are not root, TestDisk (ie testdisk-6.9/darwin/TestDisk) will restart itself using sudo after confirmation on your part.

Under OS/2, TestDisk doesn't handle a physical device, only a disk image. Sorry.

To recover partition from a media image or repair a filesystem image, run

testdisk image.dd to create a raw disk image
testdisk image.E01 to recover files from an Encase EWF image
testdisk 'image.???' if the Encase image is split into several files.

To repair a filesystem not listed by TestDisk, run testdisk device, i.e.

testdisk /dev/mapper/truecrypt0 or testdisk /dev/loop0 to repair the NTFS or FAT32 boot sector files from a TrueCrypt partition. The same method works with filesystem encrypted with cryptsetup/dm-crypt/LUKS.
testdisk /dev/md0 to repair a filesystem on top of a Linux RAID device.

Log creation

Choose Create to instruct Testdisk to create a log file containing technical information and messages, unless you have a reason to append data to the log or you execute TestDisk from read only media and must create the log elsewhere.
Choose None if you do not want messages and details of the process to be written into a log file (useful if for example Testdisk was started from a read-only location).
Press Enter to proceed.

Disk selection

All hard drives should be detected and listed with the correct size by TestDisk:

Use up/down arrow keys to select your hard drive with the lost partition/s.
Press Enter to Proceed.

If available, use raw device /dev/rdisk* instead of /dev/disk* for faster data transfer.

Partition table type selection

TestDisk displays the partition table types.

Select the partition table type - usually the default value is the correct one as TestDisk auto-detects the partition table type.
Press Enter to Proceed.

Current partition table status

TestDisk displays the menus (also see TestDisk Menu Items).

Use the default menu "Analyse" to check your current partition structure and search for lost partitions.
Confirm at Analyse with Enter to proceed.

Now, your current partition structure is listed. Examine your current partition structure for missing partitions and errors.

The first partition is listed twice which points to a corrupted partition or an invalid partition table entry.

Invalid NTFS boot points to a faulty NTFS boot sector, so it's a corrupted filesystem.

Only one logical partition (label Partition 2) is available in the extended partition. One logical partition is missing.

Confirm at Quick Search to proceed.

Quick Search for partitions

Confirm according to your OS and created partitions to proceed.

TestDisk displays the first results in real time.

During the Quick Search, TestDisk has found two partitions including the missing logical partition labeled Partition 3.

Highlight this partition and press p to list your files (to go back to the previous display, press q to Quit).

All directories and data are correctly listed.

Press Enter to proceed.

Save the partition table or search for more partitions?

When all partitions are available and data correctly listed, you should go to the menu Write to save the partition structure. The menu Extd Part gives you the opportunity to decide if the extended partition will use all available disk space or only the required (minimal) space.
Since a partition, the first one, is still missing, highlight the menu Deeper Search (if not done automatically already) and press Enter to proceed.

A partition is still missing: Deeper Search

Deeper Search will also search for FAT32 backup boot sector, NTFS backup boot superblock, ext2/ext3 backup superblock to detect more partitions,

it will scan each cylinder

After the Deeper Search, the results are displayed as follows:

The first partition "Partition 1" was found by using backup boot sector. In the last line of your display, you can read the message "NTFS found using backup sector!" and the size of your partition. The "partition 2" is displayed twice with different size.

Both partitions are listed with status D for deleted, because they overlap each other.

Highlight the first partition Partition 2 and press p to list its data.
The file system of the upper logical partition (label Partition 2) is damaged

Press q for Quit to go back to the previous display.
Let this partition Partition 2 with a damaged file system marked as D(deleted).
Highlight the second partition Partition 2 below
Press p to list its files.

It works, you have found the correct partition!

Use the left/right arrow to navigate into your folders and watch your files for more verification

Note: FAT directory listing is limited to 10 clusters - some files may not appear but it doesn't affect recovery.

Press q for Quit to go back to the previous display.
The available status are Primary, * bootable, Logical and Deleted.

Using the left/right arrow keys, change the status of the selected partition to L(ogical)

Hint: read How to recognize primary and logical partitions?

Note: If a partition is listed *(bootable) but if you don't boot from this partition, you can change it to Primary partition.

Press Enter to proceed.

Partition table recovery

It's now possible to write the new partition structure.

Note: The extended partition is automatically set. TestDisk recognizes this using the different partition structure.

If all partitions are listed and only in this case, confirm at Write with Enter, y and OK.

Now, the partitions are registered in the partition table.

NTFS Boot sector recovery

The boot sector of the first partition named Partition 1 is still damaged. It's time to fix it. The status of the NTFS boot sector is bad and the backup boot sector is valid. Boot sectors are not identical.